The good doctor and his wife really wanted to follow their HOA’s rules and regulations. They also wanted to keep harmful fertilizers out of the Intracoastal Waterway near Jacksonville.
They filed the necessary paperwork for a “Florida Friendly” yard. After getting no response during the customary 30 day waiting period, they started their landscaping project.
Whoa! The official “HOA Double Standard” raised its ugly head in the form of a nasty lawsuit!
Dr. and Mrs. Sidle had followed all the HOA rules, but the HOA didn’t bother to follow its own. So, off to see the judge they went. The court ordered mediation and the HOA board gave complete representation to the mediator to settle the case. Everyone agreed and the couple planted all the approved flowers. They were even presented with the first-ever Gold Certified Florida Friendly Landscape Award in Duval County.
The problem? The HOA president didn’t like the mediator’s decision and demanded a full-blown trial!
Ultimately, the judge ruled in favor of Dr. and Mrs. Sidle. Sadly, the Sidles weren’t awarded their legal fees. And all their neighbors will undoubtedly get slammed with a special assessment to pay for the board’s arrogance and ignorance of Florida law.
No mention of the current board’s status, but I hope this board president gets booted into the Intracoastal Waterway with all that soggy St. Augustine Grass draped around his neck. The Florida Friendly Landscape Award sounds like a winner but this board president has proven himself to be a real loser!
Hilton Head, South Carolina must be a rip-roaring place. A paramedic who gets occasional calls there posted the following on a professional real estate blog:
“One of the local nicknames for the _______ Homeowners Association was “Viagra Falls”. This is because human nature does not change, and when unoccupied by things like work and raising children, some people become very self-indulgent, even over the top. There were frequent calls for EMS and the sheriff’s department for not only Viagra reactions, but for domestic violence/ assault charges, often stemming from a wife coming home too early from her bridge or swimming tournament and discovering her husband up to his old tricks – or new ones. There was an entire group in the complex that had weekly Friday or Saturday night “key parties” where all of the men put their keys into a basket, and take the woman home with them who picks out their key. There was a lot of Sturm and Drang over these incidents and their aftermath. As EMS, we got to witness it up close and firsthand……If this is the kind of lifestyle that appeals or that you can either accept or overlook, then by all means, go for it…. But I don’t like that sort of lifestyle… we bought 60 acres and a 100 year old farmhouse and raise our own cows, chickens and veggies…. Different strokes for different folks.”
LOL! Well, I sure hope this paramedic gets her peace and quiet in retirement. Looks like she deserves it!
Sidewalk Chalk. It washes off in the first rainstorm. It can be hosed off in about twenty seconds. Why would a Homeowners Association care? Because when fascist leaning board members with an ‘agenda’ get elected they look for the tiniest of reasons to file suit and snatch the entire amount of your home equity. It’s not paranoia, it’s what happens it neighborhood after neighborhood across America. The Homeowners Association Movement is wildly out of control.
In Hays County, Texas, board members of the Elm Grove Homeowners Association found a victim to help bolster neighborhood finances; it was Melissa McCrary who bought her home just four years ago. She thought it was a kid-friendly environment.
Neighbors in her part of the ‘hood’ started getting letters from the HOA saying that sidewalk chalk drawings were a violation of the covenants. It was called ‘a friendly reminder.’
Sidewalk Chalk art of any kind could lead to a lien, a lawsuit, a quick auction of the house to a friend of the HOA attorney, and violators would find themselves penniless out on the street.
OK, Folks? How about buying a home in the Elm Grove Homeowners Association. How much do you think property values are worth now?
A patriotic member of the U.S. Marines tried to fly both the American Flag and the Marine Corps flag outside his home in Atlanta. But the Sun City Peach-Tree Homeowners Association says he’ll be fined, sued, liened and foreclosed if he does so. Seems that Sun City will only allow one flag at a time (Southern Homeowners Associations have been consistently losing their fight to ban all flags).
The Griffin Management company thinks it has total control over its homeowners and can micro-manage every aspect of their lives.
Former Marine Captain Jim Lowe still has the spit and fury of a U.S. Marine in his heart and says he’s going to fight. But his Homeowners Association is fining him 25 bucks a day each time they spot the reviled Marine flag on his flagpole.
Captain Lowe and his wife say they plan to move out of the community. Apparently they’re just now realizing that Amerikan Homeowner Associations are not really part of America. And he wants to move back into the country that he loves.
BTW, it’s not about this man’s right to fly which ever flag he chooses. It’s about the equity in his home. No HOA fines a guy unless it first checks public records to see how much equity there is. Follow the money, folks. Never follow the ideology or the reasoning behind stupid board decisions. Follow the money. It’s all about the equity and how much can be seized and transferred to the HOA’s operating budget.
Get caught drunk driving and you might get a year behind bars. Embezzle a million bucks, cost fifty people their homes and you get 30 days!
Massoud Aaron Yashouafar is known in three states for his enormously fishy real estate deals. And he’s the big cheese behind the Paradise Spa scandal in Las Vegas. Much of the Homeowners Association burned to the ground in 2010, but somehow a million dollars in insurance money found its way to Yashouafar’s pockets instead of the homeowners.
Originally, the burned condos could have been rebuilt. But it took so much time to deal with the ruins that the county finally demolished them. To rub salt in the wounds of the homeless HOA members the county filed liens on the ruined units and sent the owners bills to pay for the demolition job. Ah yes, all those displaced homeowners are still on the hook for monthly dues!
