Tag Archives: HOA Nightmare Stories

Daniel Solomon pleaded guilty to trying to swindle his neighbors at the Vistana Homeowners Association. He admitted he became a “straw purchaser” in the Vistana HOA so he could direct construction business to his co-consirators. He’s the 9th bad guy to admit to the judge that he’s guilty.

If I were living in an HOA whose value plummeted fifty to sixty to eighty percent because of scandals like this, I’d be mortified. If I knew my condo had ZERO resale value because a bunch of neighbors were skimming property values off the top to slip into their own greedy pockets, I’d be more than furious, I’d take to the streets.

Are you HOA members in Vegas such pastel patsies that you’ll put up with this garbage?  Across the country, the same kinds of scams are happening everywhere. Yet homeowners meekly sit by and whine, “I just don’t really want to get involved.”  Involved?!?!?!?  You’re being cheated. You’re being robbed. You ARE involved!!!  Your retirement savings are being wiped out because some crook down the street wasn’t honest enough to say, “No I don’t want to commit the kind of crime you’re offering me!” You ARE involved.  But where’s your anger?  Where’s your outrage?

My upcoming book, “Neighbors at War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association” addresses the Las Vegas Scandal, but it goes after some of the swindles going on in 300,000 other Homeowners Associations across the country. You will not believe the lives this movement has ruined. You won’t believe the families who’ve been broken apart because some HOA Nazi decides to confiscate a home under the most incredibly minor circumstances.  God Bless you if you live in one of the rare HOAs that haven’t had problems.  But don’t be naive.  You have absolutely no Constitutional rights when it comes to defending your beloved home if you live in an HOA.

I’m thinking of called my second book on the subject “Gutless in Las Vegas“.  It wouldn’t be too far off the mark.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Every time I read of a homeowner who’s lost his or her home to a bank foreclosure, it breaks my heart. HOWEVER, every time I read of a Homeowners Association which has done the same thing to a homeowner, it infuriates me.

Homeowners Associations can foreclose on a member of an association in a matter of hours for even the pettiest violation of the covenants. Yes, I agree that all homeowners should be required to pay their HOA dues ON TIME! No exceptions. HOAs need those funds to operate and to maintain the common areas. The problem is that many HOAs and management companies are abusing that power.

Take for example, the case of Stephanie Bonefont, a member of the South Pointe Homeowners Association in the Tampa area.

In 2008, this single mom’s house was foreclosed on because of unpaid HOA dues. Cut and dried case, right? She should be tarred and feathered and run out of town strapped to a rail, right?

Hmmm, let’s take a closer look at her case. It turns out Bonefont’s bills for her dues were apparently being sent by the HOA to the wrong address and she had no idea she was in default. But that didn’t matter. The HOA snatched her home and sold it to a bidder, Pasto Angula, for $7400, the amount of her missing dues and legal expenses. A judge saw through the property grab and ordered the home returned to Ms. Bonefont, after she reimbursed Angula for $7400.
But the South Pointe HOA claimed it had no evidence she had paid Angula, despite the fact that her attorney produced a copy of the check.

And now the HOA is moving forward with the lawsuit until the woman writes THEM a $7300 check. “Double dipping,” Ms. Bonefont calls it.

This is America, the model for the entire world, where people are supposed to be able to seek and find justice. But our litigiousness has made America the laughing stock of the world.

How is it that cases like this slip through the cracks? Why can’t a judge just lock all the parties in a room and say, “I love you guys, but I’m not going to let you mock the American justice system. You’re staying right here in this room until you figure out how to settle this case in a way that will make all parties believe that they were able to find justice in an American courtroom!”

Some of these cases have an obvious solution, but it requires forcing all parties to mull over their own mistakes, and emerge from the room when they have a solution. Before the PC movement, some moms used to do that with their kids! “No lunch until you solve your own problem.” These days, that kind of thing is called “child abuse.”

What’s the solution? How can you solve a case like this without trashing the Constitution? Ah, and no lawyers allowed! They just seem to gum up the system!

Here’s an incentive: “Hey folks, if you DON’T go to court, you’ll be saving about thirty thousand bucks worth of attorneys fees. So let’s throw that same amount of money into a common pot, and let the warring parties decide who gets to split the pot and how evenly.”

The lawyers would never let that happen, of course. Not in a million years, would they let that happen. Hmmm, maybe THAT’s the problem.

“I don’t think you can make a lawyer honest by an act of the Legislature. You’ve gotta work on his conscience. And his lack of conscience is what makes him a lawyer.”
-Will Rogers

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association