Tag Archives: HOA

Say It Ain’t So, Joe!

The biggest corruption investigation in the history of Nevada, and one of the largest criminal investigations in the history of the U.S. Attorney’s Office is in danger of collapsing, with four years and millions of dollars of investigative efforts going down the tubes. The ultimate result will be the U.S. Government totally turning its eyes away from one of the biggest and most vicious frauds in American history.

A massive number of homeowners in the Las Vegas Valley have discovered the assets they thought they’d accumulated in their retirement homes were stolen…by lawyers, politicians, public officials, corrupt Homeowner Association officials.

The feds have known about this scam for years. Nevada law enforcement officials have known about it for at least a decade. 29 HOA officials have already pleaded guilty in exchange for their testimony against the bigwigs who rigged HOA elections with phony board members and funneled millions of dollars into private pockets.

A dozen Nevada bigwigs have been indicted. But their defense attorneys are now claiming they need at least another year to prepare a defense for their clients. They claim they still have millions of pages of testimony to examine.

This is the way Organized Crime works, folks. Stall, stall, stall, let a witness die here and there, some by suicide, some by car accident. Let a few more come down with faulty memories, get a few more federal investigators transferred to cushy assignments in foreign embassies, get some different people elected… and your investigation goes right down the toilet.

Did the feds finally get Al Capone for murder, assault, robbery, kidnapping, smuggling, murder for hire? Naw, they got him for a few income tax violations.

Yep, folks. That’s the way it works. Pray this Nevada judge doesn’t grant defense attorneys a year-long stay.

(link to latest Las Vegas Review Journal story)

 

Bank Foreclosures Down, HOA Foreclosures Up!

Regular readers of this blog have long known most of the material in the article linked below. But regular readers also know that I’ve long predicted a second massive housing bubble, this one larger than the one in 2009, this one directed squarely at the 63 million homes controlled by Homeowners Associations.

As you read the article below, keep in mind that most of these 63 million homeowners have loans backed by the now bankrupt Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac along with the FHA and various other agencies connected with the federal government.

You still want to move into a Homeowners Association?

(link to story from Naked Capitalism)

 

Homeowners Associations Could Learn From Baboons!

guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
30 years of studying how baboons were able to change their culture could be the clue to what will change the culture of homeowners associations.  Wouldn’t the results be interesting if Dr. Robert Sapolsky spent three decades studying behaviors in HOAs?
 
Do we have to wait until the selfish, narcissistic, abusive, bullying, self-serving, and power-hungry board members die off?  Can we legislate these people to respectable conduct or do we have to sit back and watch them self-destruct?  Keeping in mind, they only self-destruct when they run out of our money.
 
We’ve learned a lot from animals.  Mostly, that they are more than companions.  They guide those without sight.  They alert those who cannot hear.  They comfort those who have been severely traumatized.  They assist soldiers and law enforcement in doing their jobs.  And now, we learn they know more about co-existing together than we do.
 
As I see it, Sir Michael Marmot is correct when he says, “The conditions in which people live and work are absolutely vital for their health.”  It is no wonder there are so many unhealthy and depressed people living in HOAs.

(click here for video on baboon study)

 

A Lawmaker And Her Drone Incident

I’ve predicted for several years that Homeowners Associations would eventually start using drones to increase their ability to spy on the tiniest infractions by HOA members.

Because HOAs are generally unrestricted by laws or ethics they get away with some really crude privacy invasions. With incredibly inexpensive flying nightscope cameras that means no outdoor hot tub or upstairs window is off limits to them.

California Senator Diane Feinstein is concerned. She’s involved in hearings on privacy invasion and had a personal experience with a drone peeking into her window during a demonstration outside her home.

Feinstein thinks there have to be some federal regulations governing drone use. She might even be able to get a law passed. But until HOAs have to obey the kinds of laws that all other Americans have to obey, you’re going to see these kinds of privacy invasions skyrocket.

(link to Washington Times story on Feinstein’s drone)

 

HOAs and Marijuana

A friend of mine called about this week’s story in the Denver Post. Now that Colorado has legalized marijuana for recreational use, can Homeowners Associations ban the drug from being used in private homes?

While I disagree with some of the conclusions in the story linked below, my feeling after observing the extremes of HOA Amerika is that HOAs can pretty much do as they dang well please. Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of times across the country, HOAs pass ‘laws’ and hand out blatantly illegal fines, liens and assessments. They get away with it, because it’s just too expensive for the average homeowner to challenge. I’d be stunned if HOAs would ever lose a marijuana ban.

(click here for Denver Post story)