Tag Archives: HOA

$100,000-Love Scores Zero With Quivira Falls Homeowners

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Tennis anyone?  Well, not for the past several years because the courts have been bolted shut.  The surface is broken and the weeds are growing wild up through the cracks.  When the courts were open they were enjoyed once in a blue moon by non-residents with Missouri plates on their cars.

On October 22, 2007 six of the board members signed and mailed a letter to every homeowner to defend their position against the petitions that had been signed by over 240 homeowners to recall the board.  In that letter they state, “They say we are also frivolous to buy wind screens for the tennis courts.”  And, then they go on to say that due to the foreclosures that would impact their revenue they voted “for,” but decided “against,” buying the wind screens and new nets.

Warning

You bet there were homeowners opposing that ridiculous and unnecessary purchase because our townhouses were rotten to the point of having frame damage.  As a matter of fact, just four months after that letter was written the electric meters fell off my house because the siding and the structural frame was so rotten it just completely gave way.  This happened during a torrential rain storm and ripped two holes about the size of five gallon buckets in the back of my house.  Water was literally spraying out the electrical breakers on the wall downstairs and the water was gushing in under my new wood flooring, all over my new basement ceiling, down the walls, and running like a river across my brand new white berber carpeting and on across the basement to the drain in the utility room!  And there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it.  My work order had been in for over two years for wood rot repair and it was met with nothing but totally goofy childish excuses.  When I told a board member I was going to hire my own contractor to repair the exterior of my house and apply the stucco, she told me…get ready now readers… brace yourselves………………..“If you hire your own contractors we are going to sue you and make you take the stucco off and put the wood rot back on!”  To this day, that is one of the most stupid things anybody has ever said to me in my entire life!

Back to the tennis courts.  One of the homeowners got ticked at the HOA and decided to report the tennis courts as abandoned property to the City of Overland Park.  Of course, I was notified of this because any time people are upset…I hear about it.  

Nobody wants to raise hell with this HOA board because if you dare do it, there is hell to pay. Sheer hell.  Ugly hell. Hate-filled hell.  That treatment silences 99.999% of the homeowners.  They haven’t been blind to the treatment I’ve gotten by the board and their cronies so they are not marching down the “Nila Ridings Road.”  No sir, they value their quality of life and bank accounts far more than speaking out…thus, this HOA is a horrible nightmare!

Quite by accident I found the property manager on my driveway right after hearing of this report.  I decided since she was right here within two feet of me, I’d ask about the status of the tennis courts.  She told me it was CITY CODE that Quivira Falls had to have these tennis courts resurfaced or totally removed, including the asphalt.  The cost to remove the fencing and asphalt for both courts was going to be $100,000.00 and 1/3 that amount if they were resurfaced.  I was skeptical….my gut instinct and intuition was saying this “smells” rotten.  My call to the City revealed it is not City code for Quivira Falls to have tennis courts.  A plan can be submitted for something new in their place, OR they can be removed. BUT THE ASPHALT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE REMOVED!

I’m 99% sure I could find somebody that would take those fences down for free and haul them off and reuse them.  I know a few loads of dirt and some grass seed can be purchased for far less then $100,000.00.  And, in the end the HOA would save money by not having to maintain the courts, buy nets, or those wind screens that were voted on in 2007, the lights could be removed as well and probably sold, but certainly there would be no electricity burning and there would be no expense of changing the bulbs when they burn out.  

I sent emails to the property manager and the board demanding this project be stopped so further discussion could take place before another $35,000 is wasted.  For those of you who don’t know this, my HOA borrowed $1M and most definitely it makes more sense to pay down debt then it does to resurface unused tennis courts! Nope, this CAI property manager is going forward with this project no matter what!  

Did I fail to mention just a couple of years ago they built a fancy handrail down the steps to the tennis courts?  That’s right, it’s been the “staircase to nowhere” because once you walked down there you were “welcomed” with the padlock!

Homeowners are putting protest plans together.  It looks like ANOTHER war is about to begin in Quivira Falls!

Here’s the kicker…”Arizona Dave” just had the tennis courts at his condo complex resurfaced.  They are larger than the ones in Quivira Falls.  Dave’s association is managed by him, not a CAI property management company.  He emailed me the paid invoice….$12,000.  

Like I said, something “smells” rotten!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Million $$$ Embezzlement Hits A Homeowners Association

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Why hasn’t Hollywood jumped on the uncontrollable embezzling that happens in Homeowners Associations across America? Some astute member of the Writers’ Guild could come up with a great screenplay. The reason it hasn’t been done is that the plot would just be too unbelievable.

If you know a good writer, tell him to look at the current story in the Bear Reserve Homeowners Association in Eustis, Florida. The cops have just busted a couple of developers who became board members on this HOA. The pair are accused of embezzling 1.5 million dollars and moving it to shell corporations. How the heck didn’t homeowners discover many years ago that they were being ripped off?

Always remember that embezzled money is rarely returned, which means a special assessment against all HOA property owners. That’s part of what makes HOA embezzling such a horrific crime.

If your board refuses to give you an accounting of all HOA funds spent, if you get delayed, harassed or ignored for making such a request, then you, my dear friend, may rightly assume that your HOA money is being embezzled. Just assume it! It’s going on everywhere.

(link to WESH-TV story)

 

 

A Potpourri of HOA Meanness

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I just finished a three day seminar with an authors’ group in Denver. This is the group, in fact, which pushed me to take a manuscript in its rough form and turn it into a controversial book called, “Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association,” and actually get the thing into print. For your future reference the group is called AuthorU, run by taskmaster Judith Briles. The past few days we probably had about 170 authors being trained in the use of social media, editing, publishing, and honing their upcoming book projects.

In any event, I am running late in getting my blog posts done. Many in my authors’ group know about my passion in trying to join the movement to straighten out the national HOA scam which is impoverishing tens of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands of innocent American homeowners.

I can’t count the number of authors who approached me over the past few days and told me about their own HOA miseries. One fellow who’s actually a lawyer is being fined for trying to rebuild a fence that his HOA should have repaired more than a month ago. His HOA president told him he was in violation of the covenants because he didn’t get permission to repair the fence. And his HOA president has been soaking the neighborhood by charging them for his costly vacations and the board’s wild off-site parties.

Another person told me her mother was being fined and threatened with a lawsuit over some incredibly minor infraction. Ah yes, her mom asked to see the HOA balance sheet because she was afraid a massive amount of money had been embezzled. That’s what kicked off all the harassment. How dare these stupid homeowners demand fiscal responsibility from their boards and HOA managers?

Another guy said he moved into a neighborhood where there was no HOA. But while he was building his house a fellow came by and said he was the president of the HOA. And he handed my friend a letter supposedly from the HOA attorney demanding that the man halt construction on his house. He claimed the garage was a foot too wide and was insisting the entire garage be torn down. Believe me, you just can’t make these things up.

There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t learn of new horrors committed.

It’s all so tragic.

Drones Over Your Neighborhood

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For several years, now, I’ve been predicting that the goons who run many of the nation’s Homeowners Associations would begin using drones to spy on neighbors to spot violations of the neighborhood covenants. If these people are capable of embezzling millions of dollars, would they not be capable of incredible invasions of privacy?

Now, with camera-bearing drones available for less than a thousand bucks, there’s no doubt they’ll soon be in the skies and peeking at activities in your backyard.

HOAs are private non-profit corporations and despite their apparent  presence as governmental agencies, they are not. They are private investment clubs. When you buy into an HOA you’re not buying a home. You’re buying shares of stock. You own a percentage of each of your neighbors’ homes. All your neighbors own a share of your home. That’s what gives an HOA the power to regulate and control your activities as a resident. It also puts the Homeowners Association outside the control of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

If you think you have a right to privacy, you’re wrong.

If you think you have a right to consider your home, your papers as your private belongings not under the control of ‘government,’ you’re wrong.

If you think you have a right to own a weapon under the protections of the Second Amendment, you’re wrong.

As funny as the story linked below seems, there’s a reason to be dismayed. Spy drones are being used for private purposes. And sooner or later there’ll be one over your house.

(link to drones used by pot thieves)

Footnote: I once spent a day in a DEA plane looking for marijuana crops in the Rocky Mountains. Believe me, pot plants are slightly warmer than most surrounding vegetation. Through an infra-red camera they stand out like a sore thumb. You can’t even hide a single pot plant in a 100 acre cornfield. 

Architect Lives Small With Baby, Dog & All

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
My fascination continues with the creativeness of those that seek shelter without a mortgage, living off grid, and most of all HOA-FREE.  
 
Macy Miller put her architectural skills to work and resourced recycled materials to build herself a very nice small home for $11,000.  There’s even room for her baby and Denver, the dog.  The gooseneck trailer makes the house mobile if she takes a notion to move.  
 
She’s living the “good life” HOA-FREE.
 
Macy, I so envy you and your generation because you guys wandered off the traditional path and found happiness in smaller ways.  Your “American Dream” doesn’t come with a mortgage, property taxes, utility bills for unused spaces, and the destroyer of health and happiness…the dreaded HOA!