Tag Archives: HOA Neighborhood

Blondie & The Bimbo Ride Again!!

And here comes the magnificent trio, Blondie, the Bimbo, and now the Wack Job! The newcomer is Sen. Gail Griffin. (Wiki definition of a griffin: “a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle’s talons as its front feet.” Actually, a griffin sounds like one screwed-up animal! But that’s beside the point.)

All this time I thought Republicans were smarter than this! Aren’t Republicans generally for smaller, less intrusive government? Preservation of Constitutional rights? Maybe there’s something in the water in Arizona to make Republicans stupider than the rest of the country. But this trio is something else, bringing back a fundamentally unconstitutional and illegal HOA bill, over, and over, and over.

Representative Michelle Ugenti (the cute young thing) is somehow getting her strings pulled by the powers-that-be in the HOA industry. Remember, politics is about nothing more than who gets how much of the pie. Looks like these three might be carving out a larger slice for themselves than anyone else in office. If Ugenti’s proposed law ever gets passed and signed by Governor Blondie it’ll be challenged in the courts. And once again it’ll be rejected.

Hopefully, Republican voters in Arizona will realize how off-the-wall this trio is and try to get more responsible legislators into office, people who will carefully consider the legality of the bills they try to get passed.

Just remember, the outrageous tyranny of the out-of-control Homeowners Association industry has nothing to do with political parties. You don’t have to be left, right, or center to be mightily offended at the trampling on the rights of all homeowners.

George Staropoli is the expert on HOA politics in Arizona, and his blog should be part of your must-read material tonight.

(link to Staropoli’s current blog)

 

Say It Ain’t So, Joe!

The biggest corruption investigation in the history of Nevada, and one of the largest criminal investigations in the history of the U.S. Attorney’s Office is in danger of collapsing, with four years and millions of dollars of investigative efforts going down the tubes. The ultimate result will be the U.S. Government totally turning its eyes away from one of the biggest and most vicious frauds in American history.

A massive number of homeowners in the Las Vegas Valley have discovered the assets they thought they’d accumulated in their retirement homes were stolen…by lawyers, politicians, public officials, corrupt Homeowner Association officials.

The feds have known about this scam for years. Nevada law enforcement officials have known about it for at least a decade. 29 HOA officials have already pleaded guilty in exchange for their testimony against the bigwigs who rigged HOA elections with phony board members and funneled millions of dollars into private pockets.

A dozen Nevada bigwigs have been indicted. But their defense attorneys are now claiming they need at least another year to prepare a defense for their clients. They claim they still have millions of pages of testimony to examine.

This is the way Organized Crime works, folks. Stall, stall, stall, let a witness die here and there, some by suicide, some by car accident. Let a few more come down with faulty memories, get a few more federal investigators transferred to cushy assignments in foreign embassies, get some different people elected… and your investigation goes right down the toilet.

Did the feds finally get Al Capone for murder, assault, robbery, kidnapping, smuggling, murder for hire? Naw, they got him for a few income tax violations.

Yep, folks. That’s the way it works. Pray this Nevada judge doesn’t grant defense attorneys a year-long stay.

(link to latest Las Vegas Review Journal story)

 

When it comes to collection of HOA liens, it’s all about the money!

guest blog by Deborah Goonan

The latest controversy in HOA Land: in Nevada – and by extension 21 other states with similar legal status – the HOA super priority lien can now extinguish an outstanding mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

It’s ironic, because when CAI was founded back in 1973, it was with cooperation from FHA. Their agreement to back mortgages in common interest developments was the glue that held disparate CAI interests together.

But after years of mortgage deregulation, followed by out-of-control real estate price increases, and the ensuing mortgage default crisis, things have certainly changed.

Now it’s very difficult to obtain mortgage financing for condos, and not that easy for detached single family homes either. In the 22 states that have enacted priority lien status for HOA assessment liens, mortgage financing just became a great deal more difficult to obtain.

In early December, CAI boasted about its Nevada Supreme Court victory, where the court ruled that the FHFA backed-mortgage lien is extinguished following the HOA’s non-judicial foreclosure to collect unpaid assessments.

But a few weeks later, FHFA has fired back, vowing to fight in court to invalidate HOA foreclosures that wipe out taxpayer-financed guaranteed mortgages.

CAI claims that FHFA is “bailing out mortgage servicers” and vows to fight for the rights of HOAs to maintain super priority lien status.  CAI’s statement presents the usual argument that the owners that can afford to pay assessments have to cover the costs for owners who cannot or will not pay.

But at issue for FHFA is the fact that HOA foreclosures can now wipe out entire mortgage interests, at dollar amounts that far exceed state super-priority lien allowances of 6, 9, or 12 months unpaid assessments.

The super-priority lien, CAI argues, is a means to motivate mortgage servicers to either speed up the foreclosure process or pay the HOA’s lien prior to or at its assessment foreclosure sale.

It is interesting to note that the Nevada Supreme Court was split 4-3 on whether a judicial foreclosure is necessary in an attempt to wipe out the mortgage lien, citing due process rights to redemption for owners and mortgage lien holders.

It seems clear that FHFA will not sit idly by, allowing HOAs to beat them to foreclosure and wipe out mortgage interests. FHFA has filed action in Nevada Federal court because, in its own words, it “has an obligation to protect Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s rights, and will aggressively do so by bringing actions to void foreclosures that purport to extinguish Enterprise property interests in a manner that contravenes federal law.”

Will FHFA challenges lead to statutory mandate of judicial (vs. non-judicial) foreclosure of HOA liens? Will increased legal costs and lending risks lead to higher costs for borrowers, including escrow of 6 – 12 months assessment fees?  Or will FHFA push for elimination of HOA super priority lien status? These are interesting times.

Given the history of more than a few HOA attorneys to abuse the foreclosure process in order to evict owners and acquire homes with high equity (little to no mortgage balance owed) at the HOA’s auction sale, the recent NV Supreme Court decision is unsettling, to say the least.  If first mortgages can be wiped out following HOA foreclosure, doesn’t that create additional moral hazards?

CAI-HOA corporate interests will duke it out in court with FHFA. And while HOA homeowners may “win” the relatively small battle for collecting a portion of unpaid assessments upon mortgage foreclosure, they will probably lose the war for preserving property values, if homes are allowed to sell at HOA auctions for pennies on the dollar, or if FHFA pulls the plug on favorable financing terms.

CAI press release – Win on Priority Lien Case in NV

“Somebody Is Fattening The Frog For The Snake” ~Martha Preston

by guest blogger Nila Ridings
 
Pine Village North HOA in Houston, Texas is not fooling former board members Martha Preston and Christopher Mitchell.  Over $550,000 in dues collected and the pool is dry, the security cameras are dangling from their brackets, and they have trash piling up.  Not to mention the burned out units!  Yet, the records show the money was spent on maintenance. And the financial report says they ended up with a negative $25,000.
 
Something is “fishy” with the money alright.  And the board members and their attorney have “no comment.” But they did vote to throw Preston and Mitchell off the board for questioning where the money went.
 
At least the developer got something right by naming the streets Wild Pine and Twisted Pine!  Because somehow in this wild and twisted mess they ended up with two boards of directors!  
 
As I see it, the best case scenario for these townhome owners is: Assessments for tens of thousands of dollars per owner for the rebuild and tens of thousands more for legal bills. Together, those will exceed the value of their property which at this point is worthless. I’m afraid I would be calling Two Men And A Truck and leaving the keys on the kitchen counter.
 
However, at the end of the day, I applaud Martha Preston and Christopher Mitchell for exposing yet another rotten stinking HOA. Theirs is a perfect example of why HOAs should be illegal!!!
 
The trial begins March 2014.
 
 

A Special Thought for Christmas

Some, but not all, will get the message in the short video linked below. But it warmed my heart. And it’s one I’d like to share.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Hz4P1m1bZFY