Tag Archives: HOA Hell

Don’t Trust The Management Company!

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HOA managers just don’t seem to get it. Handicapped people have a special privilege under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). It’s federal law. It can’t be monkeyed with.

Marcus Cook lived in the Jewell Lake Condominium Association west of Denver. He’s a disabled war veteran who needed a handicap parking spot so he could get his equipment out of his van.

Turns out management didn’t see it the same way and painted over his special parking area obliterating the part that contained the wider parking space. Management mocked him. Forrest Scruggs, of the property management company, Realty One, Inc, said “this crazy guy is asking for a parking space in the new fire lane.”

But the repainted parking lot was not in a fire lane. The Fire Department confirmed it.

War hero Marcus Cook, by the way, suffered a broken back while a paratrooper. He also has cancer and diabetes.

He did take his case up with Colorado’s Civil Rights Division.

Guess who won? The handicapped guy.

Guess who lost? Every family who lives at Jewell Lake Condominium Association in Lakewood.

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

The Short Sale Trap

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For those of you wanting to make a short sale on your house, you’d better keep an eagle eye on your good old Homeowners Association. They’re starting to get pretty crafty in keeping the neighborhood operating budget full.

For homeowners who are suffering through the housing mess and living with underwater mortgages, working out a short sale might help you save some of your retirement nest egg. The banks take a well-deserved loss, but you’re happy because you’ve found a buyer and you’ve escaped your nightmare of a mortgage.

But wait!  Your HOA has superior rights over your bank. If it moves quickly, it can snatch your home and foreclose on it before your short sale can go through. Just about any violation of HOA covenants can make your home a nice grab.  If you were a little behind on dues, if your grass became a little brown during those months you failed to water the lawn, if you got fined for leaving the trash can outside, once you add fines, collection fees, legal fees, late fees and all the other fees that can be conjured up, your HOA can actually claim you owe it tens of thousands of dollars.

Like a rat trap, the HOA springs shut on your pending short sale. You lose, the bank loses, your potential buyer loses.  Ah, but your HOA wins. It gets to put your house on the auction block. Sweet, huh?

Ward Lucas

Author of

Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Pool Inspections Way Behind in Nevada

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This one’s almost too funny to comment about.

Nevadans turned over their official pool inspections to the government. As a matter of fact, Homeowner Associations ARE de facto governments.

But now the tiny handful of workers in the Southern Nevada Health District just don’t have the time to inspect all those thousands of Nevada swimming pools. Some HOAs are being told by the inspector they’ve got the wrong drain system installed. They spent thousnads to create the supposedly “accepted” drain system, only to be told the old drain was correct, the new one is wrong, and now thousands more have to spent on digging up the new drain and installing the old.

It’s government, Baby. And because you’re now a big HOA, YOU ARE the government. In your new role, you are not aggrieved citizens who ought to be treated as if you have any special rights. You signed those rights away when you bought a dream home in “covenent-protected” America. Welcome to RealVille.

And by the way, that’s another of the many reasons your house values are plummeting. More and more people are getting gunshy about buying a new home in “Government Housing.”  They’d prefer the strength and power of being able to stand in front of a bureaucrat and say with confidence, “Hey, I’m a real citizen you’re dealing with here, Buddy!”

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

Sometimes the Good Guys Win!

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You might have heard me bloviating about the Andover Forest Homeownes Association in Kentucky. Seems they were going to start fining and/or suing the family of  a three year boy named Cooper.

Cooper has cerebral palsy, you see, and several family doctors have recommended that he be allowed to have a playhouse of his own to help with his therapy.

BAM! That ran into a brick wall of stiff necks at the HOA Board Meeting. “Nobody gets an exemption from the covenents, not even a sick kid!” you can just hear that kind of language being hurled about.

Both sides “lawyered up,” which means thousands of dollars have already been spent.

After tons of national and international publicity, the HOA lawyer, Nathan Billings said, “The Board of Directors would allow the playhouse to stay in the family’s yard for the time being.

“There has not been a denial of the requested accomodation for the playhouse. There is a continued temporary exemption of the playhouse pending the parties mediating the dispute or a court determining what information the association is entitled to.”

Don’t you just love the weasel words that come from most lawyers? What he really means is, “this case is good for some more money. Let’s just keep it moving along, slow down the process, collect our billable hours as long as we can get away with it.”

In the meantime, little Cooper is smiling at us from the window of his nice new playhouse.

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

Subject: Editorial in Raleigh News & Observer 2/3/12

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Gather a group of people who are members of different homeowners associations and you’ll hear tales across the spectrum of human behavior. Some HOAs are run by groups of well-intentioned, reasonable people who want to help their neighbors and see to it that their association quietly performs the duties of mowing grass, doing repairs on common areas, maintaining a certain level of neatness, watching safety. They try to do their duty without interfering much in neighbors’ day-to-day lives.

And then there’s the other end of that spectrum, where perhaps one or two association leaders mistake their roles for those of drill sergeants or monarchs. It’s their way or the highway, and if they have a grudge against a neighbor who, say, once dared to complain, they don’t mind using the association to intimidate that person.

There’s a reason why a legislative committee has been hearing various accounts about HOAs with an eye toward further regulation, and it looks as though further regulation is needed. There were too many accounts recently at a committee meeting about associations that went after neighbors, including to the point of trying to foreclose.

The General Assembly can start right there. No homeowners association should have the power of foreclosure, end of story, period. Taking someone’s home because they’re late with dues? No. Some association leaders who appeared before lawmakers actually tried to defend that right. And, there should be a line of appeal for alleged excesses on the part of associations besides an expensive trip to court.

Some HOA leaders resist the idea that anyone needs to tell them how to operate or put limits on their powers. But they need instruction, and they need regulation. Strict regulation, with consequences for associations that don’t comply.

Written by:  A.A. Friedrich — Raleigh, NC, USA

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/02/03/1826206/whoa-hoa.html#storylink=cpy

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