Tag Archives: HOA Nightmare Stories

Embezzle! Embezzle! Embezzle!

Oh yes, embezzling is endemic in American Homewers Associations. Just Google “homeowner association and embezzle.” Then stand back and watch the numbers.

The latest one is Dale Palmer, a Kansas City man who managed HOAs in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin. This creep thought he could get away with embezzling more than 750,000 dollars. He’s going to prison for 46 months, but that’s a laugh. He’ll get off about two years for good behavior.

And the $825,000 restitution?

Don’t count on it, folks.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2012/10/25/kansas-city-man-lands-in-big-house-for.html

LOL! Free Speech and Clint Eastwood’s Empty Chair

This is hilarious! A Homeowners Association in Debary, Florida, refuses to let homeowners post political signs in their front yards. As we all know by now, the right to free speech in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights is not recognized by the American Homeowners Association movement.

Now, homeowners throughout the neighborhood are placing empty chairs in their yards where they could have placed their political signs.  It’s an obvious reference to Clint Eastwood’s empty chair speech at the Republican National Convention.

Presumably, Republicans and Democrats in Debary ought to be concerned about their  lack of access to free speech rights.

http://www.wogx.com/story/19804347/residents-protest-hoa-with-empty-chairs?clienttype=printable

Dumb and Dumber on Marco Island, Florida

Homeowners in the South Seas Condominium on Marco Island, Florida, may soon have to pay a hefty special assessment because of a particularly boneheaded decision by their HOA.

The Feds have consistently said that service dogs are covered under the ADA. An HOA doesn’t get to claim they are pets, if the dog is actually performing services for a disabled person. But this particular HOA obviously doesn’t ‘get it.’  They will.

The South Seas Condominium has been harassing 56 year old resident Larry McKay over his 80-pound boxer. In 2008, McKay contracted MRSA, a mostly fatal staph infection that’s hit a number of people in the Southeast. McKay is confined to a wheelchair, and he says the service dog does a number of things for him, such as turning on the lights, and helping him get out of bed.

McKay’s dog helps him with other activities like getting on and off airplanes. The airlines recognize it’s a service dog. This HOA board is apparently too stupid to do the same.

In other parts of the country, such as California, Homeower Associations have been hit with huge fines by the ADA because they insist that all service dogs are merely ‘pets,’ prohibited by the HOA.

McKay has lots of supporters in his condominium. Doesn’t matter. When the FDA slams this condo with a massive fine, each and every condo owner is going to have to fork up some bucks to pay for the idiotic decisions by their HOA board.

A dumb waste  of other peoples’ money. But it’s typical. So typical.

By Ward Lucas, author of Neigbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/19728171/man-in-dispute-with-hoa-over-service-dog?clienttype=printable

Tiny Mice Gang Up On Big Rats in California

Homeowners usually get the raw end of the deal when they try to fight the “Bigs” in the HOA industry. Some Homeowners in California are trying to turn that trend around. An HOA in Riverside County has sued three former property managers for “fraud, conspiracy to defraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty.”  They had employed the management companies for eight years.

Canyon Lake Association then sued its own law firm, Fiore, Racobs & Powers, accusing them of “fraud and malpractice.” They say a lengthy investigation found “no cash management, no separation of accounting duties, credit card abuse by employees, employee salary increases that were not approved by the board.”

The lawsuit further claims that three HOA managers “created and concealed a secret, systemic pattern of conversion and theft of (HOA) assets and funds…and made representations to the board that were not true and were a cover up designed..to delay discovery of the cover-up.”

One final thought comes to mind here.  We haven’t heard much from the federal investigators in Las Vegas. We hope the widespread corruption they found in the Vegas HOA industry hasn’t depressed them to the point that they want to throw in the towel. Actually, we hope the opposite is true.  We hope they take a look around the country and discover that the legal scams in Las Vegas are as identical and numerous as the legal scams in Riverside County, and Modesto, and Weld County,  Colorado. and Dallas and Houston and Miami, and North Carolina.

If you don’t think it’s happening in your own community, you are either naive or dumber than a box of rocks. When we signed those CC&Rs, we stepped into an entirely new form of government with no checks and no balances. We essentially told law firms and property managers, “It’s OK to steal from us.” And then we whine when they steal from us. What gives?

Ward Lucas, author of Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association