Tag Archives: HOA Hell

Texas Takes Aim Against Another Serviceman

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Bill Fry, an officer with the Army National guard, was returning from fighting in Iraq. All of a sudden he learned his HOA, The Spring Lake HOA of Mineoloa, Texas, had filed a lawsuit against him and his family because they put up the swingset to keep his kids company while he was gone.

It’s not an outrageous swingset. It’s not candy apple red and doesn’t flash with florescent colored lights. It’s just a nice wood and canvas politically correct swingset. But the officials at Spring Lake have gone apoplectic. They want it taken down, NOW!

Fry says the HOA approved the swingset before he left for Afghanistan. But the new board claims Fry’s wife didn’t get final approval and obtain final plans. It’s not that the swingset is wrong. It’s that someone on the board had a bruised ego because she wasn’t personally asked for her permission. There’s a chapter in my upcoming book, “Neighbors At War” which scientifically shows the changing chemistry in the brain when someone feels they’re not being awarded enough power over others.

In any event, whatever compromise Fry attempts to make, the HOA turns him down flat.
Spring Lake HOA, in Mineola, Texas. It might be nice to visit. But I sure as Hell wouldn’t want to live there.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

3am Raids on Private Homes? By HOA Officials? Stunning!

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Nine residents of a Sacramento condo were rousted from their beds by armed security guards in April. They were forced into the street in their underwear, and the condos were sacked. Their belongings were through after them. They never new such a thing could happen in the “land of the free.”

Welcome, suckers, to HOA America, the land of the modern day Gestapo.

The evicted families were tenants, who’d never been informed that their landlords had allowed the building to go into foreclosure. The guards accused them of being squatters, told them they were going to be arrested and charged with burglary. The condo raid was carried out by Paladin Protection Security and the Jasmine Homeowners Association.

After two hours, the security guards apologized and left. One of them said, “Between you and me and the lampost, your Homeowner Association isrealized the mistake and left. One of them said, “Between you and me and the lampost, your homeowners’ association is a little over the top.

No kidding.

The tenants have now found a lawyer and they plan to sue both the security service and the Jasmine Homeowner Association.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Outrage in Florida HOA

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There’s no question that Florida Homeowner Associations have suffered in the housing downturn. There’s no question it has impacted just about everyone. But some HOAs have found ways to take the most outrageous actions against a few homeowners to siphon off money and ownership rights of the few to help pay the expenses of the majority. Welcome to the kind of “democracy” practiced by the Bridgewater Community Association in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

Joanne McCarn says she missed an annual dues payment of $225 when her mother died. She was willing to make that up, but then she discovered the amount the HOA wanted was more than ten times the amount owed. She balked. She moved out, and put in a tenant to help make the mortgage payments.

The Bridgewater HOA told her she had to pay a $500 fee to the HOA before they would give her permission to rent. But the dispute escalated. The HOA didn’t foreclose on the home, but it evicted McCarn’s tenant and then moved in a tenant of their choice.

McCarn says it’s impossibly wrong. The HOA doesn’t own the house, McCarn does. But without going to court the HOA has essentially seized the home. They’ve appropriated the income stream from their replacement tenant. And they’ve done the same kind of thing to six other homeowners at Bridgewater.

Even lawyers who customarily support HOA actions against homeowners who get behind on their dues, says this kind of action is without precedent and is not something the law allows.

Perhaps so. But as growing numbers of these stories emerge, it builds the feeling among many people that the basic structure of the American HOA is fundamentally corrupt and totally outside the U.S. Constitution. They’re beyong the law.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/real-estate-news/2012/apr/29/namaino1-homeowners-association-rents-home-it-does-ar-397871/

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

HOAs Have Incredible Foreclosure Powers

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The power of an HOA to foreclose is greater than that of any bank or lending institution. Homeowners move into HOA neighborhoods never realizing how unforgiving Homeowners Associations can be.
Luisa Casas, an immigrant from Colombia, moved to Atlanta, Geogia and became a U.S. citizen. But she is now learning what tens of thousands of other Americans have discovered: an HOA has the power to arbitrarily take your house and sell it at auction, even if you’re just a few cents or a few dollars behind on your dues.

Luisa admits she’s late on her HOA dues. She went through a recent bankruptcy in the current economic collapse and is trying to recover. She admits she’s $2000 behind on her dues and wants to pay it. But it’s not the late dues that are jeopardizing her position as a homeowner. It’s the fact that HOA attorneys are tacking massive legal fees onto her overdue bill. Her $2000 past-due bill has ballooned to $13,000. The HOA has refused her attempts to pay the $2000 bill. It wants the entire $13,000 or it’ll take her house. And legal fees are increasing daily. The HOA lawyers are even tacking on expenses to pay for monitoring her bankruptcy case.

Her HOA is the Cosmopolitan On Lindbergh Condominiums. HOA officials have deactivated her entry card. They’ve also towed her car away on multiple occasions. Luisa says, “It just doesn’t seem fair to me.” Luisa, welcome to America, the land of the free.

HOA officials have refused to comment.

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/17520457/attorney-home-owners-associations-abuse-power?clienttype=printable

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

The Lawsuits Against Homeowners Associations Begin

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The daughter of a California woman who was stabbed to death has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Glenoaks Townhomes Association. Her mother was a member of the HOA. Her husband is the alleged suspect.

The lawsuit claims the HOA and its security company knew that she had a restraining order against her husband when she moved into the gated community, and her neighbors had an obligation to protect her.

California juries are known for awarding outrageous amounts in outrageous lawsuits. This one will bear watching. Lawsuits are going to spell the death of the HOA as we know it.

http://encino.patch.com/articles/man-shot-in-gang-related-attack-homicide-victim-s-family-sues-homeowner-s-association

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association