Tag Archives: HOA Nightmare Stories

Doggie DNA! How Crazy Have We Gotten?

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It had to come sooner or later, swab your doggie’s cheeks and turn it over to the HOA. They’re going to trace each ‘doggie lawn ornament’ through the DNA lab and then fine the doggie’s owner for what wasn’t picked up.

Life gets so strange. We have on record an HOA president who ordered all homeowners to have their dogs take a dump on one specific homeowner’s yard. (Vengeance?)

But now, HOAs across the land are forcing dog owners to swab their doggies’ cheeks and send the Q-Tips off to the DNA lab. Then any dog who makes a ‘donation’ will have his ‘donation’ inspected for a DNA match. And the dog owner will then face a huge fine, attorney’s fees collection costs, interest, possible lien, foreclosure, and a sale of the home at auction.

“What hath God wrought?”  (Numbers 23:23)

http://tinyurl.com/l9wmd7x

 

Fair Housing Law Be Damned!

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One of the few ways that Homeowners Associations consistently lose is discrimination against the disabled or handicapped. Still, in HOA Amerika it’s all about intentionally violating the law because the disabled generally don’t have the money to fight. Occasionally HUD will move in and assess massive fines against an Association. But even that hasn’t made much difference.

The story linked below is about an elderly Florida woman, Claribel Ruiz, who has crippling anxiety and depression. Her doctor advised her to get a companion animal, a Chihuahua which has become a life saver for her.

“Not so fast!” said the Chancellor Hall Condo Association. “Dogs aren’t allowed. We don’t give a flying fig about the American Disabilities Act. Get rid of your dog or we’ll do it for you!”

Claribel’s dog is a registered therapy dog and she even gave her HOA the doctor’s prescription for a therapy dog. The HOA’s attorney then demanded that Claribel surrender all of her medical records to the Association. She refused and finally told the Association that she would give up her dog.

“Great!” said the Association. “That’ll work, but only as long as you pay all of our legal fees!”

As this blogger sits here reading this poor lady’s story, three things stand out: The woman is single, she’s elderly, and her last name is spelled ‘Ruiz’. That’s three strikes, right there!

Where’s HUD help when someone really needs it?

Shame on Chancellor Hall Condo Association.

http://tinyurl.com/n3be6on

 

Nasty, Nasty, Nasty

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I never gratuitously toss around the word ‘fascism’. My parents grew up in the era of German and Italian fascism and it was a devastating word to them. But I still remember how they regarded the fascist totalitarian governments that were wreaking havoc on the world.

So, as I monitor Homeowners Association stories around the country and see stories like the one I’ve linked below, I’m just stunned at the parallels.

South Natomas, California is the scene of an ongoing donnybrook between an elderly former U.S, Marine and the Sonora Springs Homeowners Association. Allen Campbell and his wife, Cynthia, moved into the neighborhood of 200 homes in 2009. He was elected to the board of directors but he became troubled with the lack of accountability in HOA finances. In fact, he was so troubled that he resigned. Cynthia was elected to the board a few months later and she, too was dismayed by the lack of transparency and the apparent hiding of financial records. She also resigned.

The remaining board soured on the Campbell couple and the harassment began. They were banned from neighborhood facilities, shouted down at HOA meetings. At one point, the board began hiring security guards to stand over and around Campbell whenever he showed up for a public meeting. Campbell is 75, in a wheelchair and on oxygen, yet this HOA board apparently felt threatened? In one meeting Campbell says when he stood up the security guard hit him on the chest where he had a fresh incision from heart bypass surgery.

It got worse. The HOA’s law firm began sending Campbell legal bills, including a $1340 bill for a so-called “enforcement assessment.” It’s blatantly obvious that the Sonora Springs Homeowners Association and its law firm are planning on liening, seizing and auctioning off the Campbells’ home. They’ve had practice doing that, seizing at least one other home in the neighborhood. In fact, that was the exact financial issue that so troubled the Campbells. There was apparently rent money coming in from the house that had been seized, but the HOA board wouldn’t account for where the money was going.

There’s so much more in the link below. But even after reading both sides of the story, I somehow think these security guards should be wearing knee-high black boots and HOA armbands of some sort.

http://tinyurl.com/mfatyfc 

 

CAI Organizes to Lobby Congress!

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One of the most articulate, knowledgeable Homeowners Rights advocates in America is Arizona’s George Staropoli. When he makes a prediction you can bet on it. In his current blog, linked below, he says the Community Associations Institute (CAI) is turning its massive lobbying arm into a lobbying effort specifically targeting the U.S. Congress.

CAI is an extremely deceptive organization that turns George Orwell’s Animal Farm on its head. Up is down and down is up, good is bad and bad is good, all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. CAI is drowning Congressmen and Senators in the blatant lie that it represents the ‘collective’ rights and interests of all homeowners.

CAI’s website has a more honest depiction of its own organization. It says it represents 44 billion dollars worth of American real estate. What CAI will NEVER tell you is:

     the billions of dollars in fines against homeowners it has encouraged or precipitated,

     the hundreds of thousands of American homeowners it has helped bankrupt,

     the massive numbers of embezzlements from Homeowners Associations by HOA insiders,

     the numbers of murders and suicides precipitated after raw harrassment of homeowners,

     the billions and billions of dollars in HOA dues and homeowners’ legal fees it helped divert to private pockets,

     the complete fabrication that HOAs protect and preserve property value.

During the years of prohibition, Al Capone and his cronies made a fortune in illegal activities surrounding the illegal importation of alcohol. His corruption and his ability to corrupt public figures led to the explosion of La Cosa Nostra. Our Thing. The Mafia. It would be outrageous to think of such an organized crime effort creating a legal lobbying arm to twist the arms and the minds of the dimwits in Congress.

But anyone who takes a closer look at the Community Associations Institute will see how it got its start as a public ‘education’ organization, and then twisted itself into a private lobbying group that made massive profits referring HOA matters to its own ‘preferred’ phalanx of lawyers and service providers. If you’re anywhere close to the CAI, you’re going to get rich. Money from the pockets of dismayed homeowners will pour directly into yours.

CAI won’t tell you that dozens of its members or affiliates were indicted, arrested, committed ‘suicide’, or are facing racketeering charges in the current federal investigation in Las Vegas.

CAI won’t tell you that.

But I will.

And our movement is growing.

http://tinyurl.com/lv3fxhh

Another ‘Best’ HOA Bill Of Rights

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Regular readers of this blog know that I never brag. And I’m never one to offer hyperbole. <smirk>

But I think MY proposed Homeowners Bill of Rights is the best one out there. It reads simply:

“All Homeowners Associations are governments, subject to all constraints in the U.S. Constitution.”

Enough said.