Nevada State laws are being twisted and used to allow illegal foreclosures by Homeowners associations. Women and Minorities are the main targets. Victims are tossed into the streets with 5 day notices. The victim is left to pay the mortgage payment. In the meantime, potential investors are able to walk inside the county recorder’s office and record his or her name as the true owners. The investor buys the property, sometimes for as little as 10% of its true value.
Last night’s post on Neighbors At War referred to a Chicago high rise condo building where many homeowners are about to lose their shirts. Once the developer has control of 75% of the units he can begin to put the remaining owners out of their homes.
I post links whenever I hear of an interesting story. This one is MUST-READ! It’s written by a Florida lawyer who talks about how corrupt lawyers in the HOA system are. You’d think that the average legislator would read such a post and demand that the laws be changed. But they never do. To me, it just points to the out-of-control corruption that infests the legal industry and the legislatures in every state.
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” -Shakespeare (King Henry VI)
I’ve only met her once during a brief luncheon in Denver, but Molly Dunn is one of a growing number of brave people trying to stand up for the rights of homeowners across America.
She testified before the Massachusetts Legislature to try to plead for more help for homeowners who run afoul of their HOAs. She worked with the staff of Massachusetts Senator Dan Wolf. Wolf has been trying to put some teeth into the law that supposedly requires HOA boards and management companies to let homeowners see the books. But many HOA boards and management companies are very reluctant to do so. A possible reason, Molly says, “is that homeowners might recognize inconsistencies or inaccuracies in the records.”
This one happened right under my nose here in the Denver area. The Denver vicinity, as some of you know, is home to one of the biggest HOA embezzling cases in the country. A management company stole homeowners blind in a largely minority community. But these homeowners were smart enough to catch this jerk. The bitterness, though, never really goes away.
Now there’s another incident, this one in the same part of town. David W. Martin, PMG Enterprises Inc., has had to surrender his state license to manage Homeowners Associations. He may be the first to do so under Colorado’s new licensing law. The law isn’t perfect. It has very few teeth and some appointed state officials who are really out of their league.
