Our buddy from Las Vegas sends us the latest news link (at bottom of this page). The Federal Prosecutor there will soon be indicting its last round of HOA scammers.
These are the guys, you may recall, who ran phony HOA board elections, got the fake board officers to start diverting millions of bucks worth of homeowners’ dues into the pockets of corrupt Nevada lawyers, police officials and building contractors. More than two dozen pleaded guilty; the feds say they may indict a dozen more before ending its racketeering investigation. It’s one of the most massive public corruption cases in the history of the FBI.
But the bottom line here is an awful one. It means the feds are wrapping up their investigation into HOA corruption. That is tragic news! They only looked into a couple dozen Las Vegas HOAs and found most or all of them to be fundamentally corrupt.
Folks, we have 300,000 HOAs in this country. If you think this same kind of Las Vegas corruption is NOT going on in every state in the country, then YOU are the fool.
Across this grand country of ours, countless numbers of HOA officials and managers have pleaded guilty to embezzling from gullible homeowners. And those thefts are never EVER investigated by the feds. It all falls on local cops who are untrained in complex organized crime investigation.
This squad of federal investigators in Las Vegas is now fully trained in how to flush out complex and sophisticated HOA corruption. When they disband their team to go back to chasing bank robbers and credit card thieves, we will all be the losers. The organized crime HOA network will go back to sapping the strength out of the American homeowner.
It’s not often that I post blogs from lawyers or law firms in the HOA industry. But when one of them truly ‘gets it’, they deserve praise. Jean Winters, an attorney who frequently blogs and answers questions in Florida’s Sun Central, occasionally shows a spark of brilliance. I’d be dishonest if I didn’t pass such material along.
Nine residents of a Sacramento condo were rousted from their beds by armed security guards in April. They were forced into the street in their underwear, and the condos were sacked. Their belongings were through after them. They never new such a thing could happen in the “land of the free.”
Welcome, suckers, to HOA America, the land of the modern day Gestapo.
The evicted families were tenants, who’d never been informed that their landlords had allowed the building to go into foreclosure. The guards accused them of being squatters, told them they were going to be arrested and charged with burglary. The condo raid was carried out by Paladin Protection Security and the Jasmine Homeowners Association.
After two hours, the security guards apologized and left. One of them said, “Between you and me and the lampost, your Homeowner Association isrealized the mistake and left. One of them said, “Between you and me and the lampost, your homeowners’ association is a little over the top.
No kidding.
The tenants have now found a lawyer and they plan to sue both the security service and the Jasmine Homeowner Association.
The power of an HOA to foreclose is greater than that of any bank or lending institution. Homeowners move into HOA neighborhoods never realizing how unforgiving Homeowners Associations can be.
Luisa Casas, an immigrant from Colombia, moved to Atlanta, Geogia and became a U.S. citizen. But she is now learning what tens of thousands of other Americans have discovered: an HOA has the power to arbitrarily take your house and sell it at auction, even if you’re just a few cents or a few dollars behind on your dues.
Luisa admits she’s late on her HOA dues. She went through a recent bankruptcy in the current economic collapse and is trying to recover. She admits she’s $2000 behind on her dues and wants to pay it. But it’s not the late dues that are jeopardizing her position as a homeowner. It’s the fact that HOA attorneys are tacking massive legal fees onto her overdue bill. Her $2000 past-due bill has ballooned to $13,000. The HOA has refused her attempts to pay the $2000 bill. It wants the entire $13,000 or it’ll take her house. And legal fees are increasing daily. The HOA lawyers are even tacking on expenses to pay for monitoring her bankruptcy case.
Her HOA is the Cosmopolitan On Lindbergh Condominiums. HOA officials have deactivated her entry card. They’ve also towed her car away on multiple occasions. Luisa says, “It just doesn’t seem fair to me.” Luisa, welcome to America, the land of the free.
Across the country each day, thousands of homeowners are discovering that their neighbors have almost complete power over how they live their private lives. And tens of thousands of homeowners are having second thoughts about their HOA “investments.”
One out of many disputes is typical and involves homeowners Chris and Lavina Marmo of the Glenmont Commons Homeowners Association in Parsippany, NJ. The HOA warned its residents about a series of smash and grab robberies in the neighborhoods townhomes. Chris and Lavina purchased some wrought iron doors to install on their back patio where all the breakins are occuring.
Wrong choice. Glenmont Commons said the security gates were illegal and the couple was going to face daily fines and possible lawsuit. The HOA won’t even compromise or try to find reasonable common ground.
Is it just a power trip by board members who held HOA offices for too long? Or do HOA officials really believe that their properties are better protected by stark sameness on street after street? Who knows?
But a pretty good reminder to Chris and Lavina is “Don’t fight. Just lie back and take it.” You cannot and will not win. Reasonableness is not at play in the HOA system.
