Tag Archives: HOA

This Bubble Will Burst

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If you wanted to sell your home in a Homeowners Association, what would be a best case economic scenario for you and your prospective buyer? You’d want that buyer to be able to get a loan, right?

If you wanted your home to be more marketable, you’d want your HOA to seem less litigious, right?

If you wanted a quick sale, you’d want all HOA homes to be owner-occupied, right?

And to get top dollar for your home, you’d want no vacancies in the neighborhood, right?

Well, let’s toss a monkey wrench into the machinery and see what happens.

The housing bubble that popped in 2008 and 2009 led to a huge number of foreclosures as mortgage companies tried to limit their losses. It also led to more Homeowners Associations liening and foreclosing on homeowners who got behind in their dues. The typical HOA has a super-priority lien on all homes within its borders. That means that when the homeowner gets a few hundred bucks behind on his mortgage, the HOA can grab that property and auction it off at the nearest courthouse for a few thousand bucks. The HOA gets paid, the mortgage company does not. And that means the mortgage company gets screwed out of the entire value of its loan.

Now, suppose you’re an executive in a mortgage company. If you know that a certain neighborhood is in crisis, i.e., foreclosures, lawsuits against owners, a high number of vacancies, a high number of rentals, and the HOA doing its own foreclosures through super-priority liens, how willing would you be to offer mortgages to would-be buyers?

Thought so.

If you happen to be the homeowner who’s trying to sell a home in a neighborhood where no potential buyer can get a loan from traditional lenders, what do you do? You lower your price, lower your price, lower your price, lower your price.

And the housing bubble bursts. The economist linked below thinks the housing Armageddon is coming.

(link to the coming housing bubble)

 

“Wrong Way, Lady!”

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A Democratic State Legislator in Virginia is crowing about getting a law passed in her state. The new law will allow HOA officials in self-managed communities more time to answer written requests by homeowners for information. Current Virginia law requires HOAs to provide paperwork or answers to inquiries within five days. The new law Ms. Filler-Corn loves so much doubles that time to ten days.

Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn brags that this will help ease the burden on HOA officials. She says the five-day requirement is too much of a burden for neighborhood volunteers.

Listen, Lady! You’ve got it exactly backwards. Virginia HOAs are just as mean-spirited as those in other states. Your law does NOTHING to help beleaguered homeowners. How about actually pushing for some real reform? How about a two-point law that will really make Filler-Corn a household name.

First, you mandate that all neighborhood paperwork is posted online and available at all times! Then no homeowner would have to beg and plead to see HOA budgets, and how much board members were soaking the community with their hotel food-and-booze tabs. And no resident would have any questions because everything they could possibly need is instantly available.

Second, forget the First Point. Just abolish all HOAs as being fundamentally flawed. They’re all constructed to purposely allow agenda-driven ‘volunteers’ to get their claws into their neighbors’ throats. Actually, this law might make you a statewide hero!

What do you think, Del. Filler-Corn?

(link to Virginia story)

 

Tell Someone You Love, They’re Stupid

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If you know someone in the Bayhead Landings Property Owners Association in Pasco County,  Florida, do us all a favor. Call them on the phone and tell them they’re stupid. Fundamentally stupid. And they’re going to lose their shirts.

Board members in this HOA are out of their minds. They believe that federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities just don’t apply to them. They’re special, you see. Federal civil rights laws don’t apply to them.

This is a really nasty fight among property owners in this otherwise idyllic Florida neighborhood. Kim and John Whitt bought what they thought was a dream home about five years ago. Problem is that an auto accident left John in a wheelchair. Federal law says a handicapped person MUST BE accommodated. Homeowners Associations ARE NOT exempt from federal law.

The Whitt couple wants to take part in POA/HOA meetings but wheelchair access is supposedly impossible. The Whitts have even offered to host board meetings in their own home, but the board members will have none of it.

This case is convoluted with a wild array of legal schemes to avoid accommodating the Whitts or paying their legal costs. The Whitts appear to have lost at least this stage of the lawsuit. But there’s more coming.

Although a County Judge has ruled against the Whitts, ultimately higher courts are bound to rule that a Property Owners Association MUST COMPLY with federal law. HUD occasionally files lawsuits against Homeowners Associations. But many board members have a special brand of arrogance that allows them to flout whatever laws they don’t like. 

The legal bills are piling up. The resentment is building. When the dust finally settles in this dispute it’ll mean a massive judgment and fine assessed against the entire neighborhood. 

So, if you’ve got friends in Bayhead Landings… tell them they’re stupid. Tell them this is one fight they’re not going to win. Let it go.

(link to Florida story)

President – James Jarboe 
Vice-President – Gary Yates
Secretary – Graeme Woodbrook 

While no direct emails could be located, the general email address for the HOA is: bayheadlanding01@gmail.com

 

“Arizona Dave” Speaks Out Against Pending Bills

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Dave Russell is the on-site manager at Circle Tree Condominiums in Mesa, Arizona.  He is always looking out for the safety and security of its residents and all other condo owners in Arizona.  Always! Dave is more than a manager.  He’s a condo owner.  He resigned from a full-time job (one which paid a whole lot more) and became the manager of Circle Tree. He had a goal and commitment to turn the place into premier condo living.
 
On this blog, Ward has repeatedly exposed other Arizona characters like ‘Blondie’ (Gov. Jan Brewer) and ‘The Bimbo’ (Rep. Michelle Ugenti) for their underhanded and illegal ways in which they tried to pass HOA bills into law.  
 
And of course, our other “keep it legal” and “grant the owners’ their rights” experts like the honorable and skilled HOA fighter, George Staropoli. He has labored long and hard and his tenacity has helped a lot of Arizona homeowners avoid additional nightmares.
 
Arizonans are very fortunate to have Dave and George keeping an eye on the scandalous HOA bills that seem to sneak onto the annual docket! 
 
Keep up the great job you guys!  (Standing applause!)
 
 

Board Members Sell Out And Get Out!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
  
What do Walt, C.J., Bill, Molly, Pat, Porter, Vern, and Tom have in common? They were all HOA board members. Shortly after serving on the board or while on the board they sold and got out!  Could that be because they had access to records and information about lawsuits that the ordinary HOA “pariah” didn’t?  Could it be because they saw the “light” on this dilapidated HOA and all of it’s failed plans and programs?  Or is it because of the million dollar debt?
 
Whatever the reason, it does make a difference when you have access to “insider” information.
 
When a “pariah” wants to see HOA records they must make the request and pay by the hour to examine them.  A “pariah” has to pay additional copying fees for each page.  They don’t know how many lawsuits the HOA has filed or how many have been filed against the HOA.  They don’t have a say in whether the board borrows $1,000,000 on a line of credit… and then agrees to pay the property manager 10% of it as some sort of “finder’s fee” or “management fee” on top of the hundreds of thousands per year he’s already collecting.
 
What seems to have been “brushed under the rug” in a majority of HOAs is the fiduciary duty that a board member has to the homeowners.  What happened to that?  Is it just some unheard of and forgotten obligation that board members routinely ignore?
 
And how have these board members managed to get thousands of dollars worth of work done on their units before selling them?  While the neighborhood “pariahs” have work orders that collect dust for years.
 
I’m going to offer up this piece of advice for whatever it’s worth to our readers. If your board members are heading out the exit…you should, too.  Pay close attention to the real estate listings in your HOA.  Check the addresses against your county records for owners’ names.  Board members’ properties listed for sale could be a sure sign something is rotten in the HOA!!!
 
“Pariah” was used in an HOA newsletter by the HOA president to describe homeowners who insisted the dues be used to repair their wood rotted houses as opposed to having the clubhouse completely redone.  Since the clubhouse is rarely rented anyway, that project made no sense when the exterior of the houses was rotted so severely there is frame damage.  But the board president decided to self-deal the clubhouse redo through her personal “decorating” company. And the HOA newsletter (it was learned in court) is printed by her “publishing” company!  Which was how she justified pocketing all the advertising dollars from the ads that paid for the newsletter…and the profits became hers, too.  Another one of her self-dealings!  Her “pariah” newsletter was presented in front of a judge and jury…it most definitely helped the homeowner win all counts of the lawsuit.  Hooray!  Just another reminder you just can’t fix stupid!
 
Oh yes, and imagine this…the state has NO RECORD of her owning a decorating or publishing company. How many 80 year olds do you know who have the energy to own and manage two flourishing businesses that “cater” to the HOA while being president of the HOA? Since she’s been exposed she uses her middle finger to express her displeasure to her neighbors.  Nope, she’s not even a classy old lady!