Whoa! This doesn’t happen very often. But apparently there’s so much fraud and embezzlement from Miami condo owners that police are making a tentative attempt at cracking down. The link below shows an arrest by a special police squad formed to combat condo embezzlement.
Still, if Miami dedicated every one of its police officers to fighting fraud by the HOA Lawn Nazis, they’d barely put a dent in the problem. Homeowners Associations and Condo Associations are all fundamentally corrupt, every single one of them. Even if a rare HOA has escaped an embezzlement situation, they’re all just one vote away from disaster. From the very beginning, the rules governing Homeowner Associations were written by the lawyer to the lawyer from the lawyer. Developers were given government permission to build higher density housing as long as they enacted approved covenants and controls. Those controls were never meant to protect homeowners. They were built to protect developers, funnel money to lawyers, and obtain that money from the pockets of gullible home buyers. No homeowner can possible be in 100% compliance with all HOA rules. It’s not humanly possible. That means fines, liens and foreclosures…and lots and lots of lawyers’ kids are collecting their sports cars and their college tuition money.
Follow the money. Always follow the money. if you see a photo of some HOA treasurer getting busted for stealing, just look where the big money’s going. There’s always a cloud of vultures circling over the carrion.
(link to Miami Herald HOA bust!)
This letter to the editor of a Pennsylvania newspaper by a CAI member is terrifying. He doesn’t use the words ‘fascist’ or ‘communist’ but it’s a pretty wild look at what homeowners have done to themselves by buying into the concept of Homeowners Associations. This country has essentially sold its soul to the devil. We have created a parallel system of government which has no controls, no ethics, no honesty. It’s a system of trial lawyers, by trial lawyers, and for trial lawyers. Homeowners have no access to traditional Constitutional rights. And the concept of true home ownership is a thing of the past.
(read it and weep)
The link below is horrifying, but really should be read by everyone concerned about elder abuse. It involves state agencies that declare an elderly person ‘incapacitated’ and appoint a guardian who takes over that person’s care and gives the guardian unlimited access to the older person’s bank accounts.
While I was an investigative reporter for the NBC affiliate in Denver I reported on several such cases. Then, attending my 50th class reunion last month, I spoke to a longtime neighbor (and a good-lookin’ gal, too!) about a different kind of theft. Seems that a sibling was executor of her parents’ rather substantial estate and that sibling stripped out all the assets. My friend didn’t get a dime of what her parents left her.
State governments and the courts look the other way when these financial crimes are committed. They just don’t seem to care. When an old person is involved it’s just easier not to have to think about the abuse.
With all that in mind, please, please don’t neglect reading this linked web post. And apply it to your own situation and where you might find yourself some day.
(link to article on ‘theft by guardian’)
The video associated with this news story is actually pretty funny. But the subject matter isn’t funny. Killer mosquitoes actually do exist!
In Smyrna, Tennessee, a homeowner is furious because the town won’t do anything about an outbreak of giant mosquitoes in the retention pond behind his house. With Zika, West Nile, Chikungunya, dengue fever and who knows what other diseases carried by these bugs, the lawsuits are going to be flying.
More amazing is the size of these bugs. The homeowner in the video captured one and said this is the size of the mosquitoes that are biting him and his family. The retention pond is owned by the developer, which means there’s probably a Homeowners Association involved. With a few multi-million dollar verdicts it’s not hard to imagine that massive special assessments will soon start hitting all the homeowners. A situation like this can end up bankrupting an entire neighborhood and the typical HOA homeowner has no access to basic Constitutional rights.
(link to stories about the outbreak of giant mosquitoes)
guest blog by Nila Ridings
Purely by accident Mr. Plumbean changed his neighborhood. I think if he would attend some HOA meetings across the country he could change the mindset in HOA Amerika!
Like many of you, I follow the HOA stories that Judy Thomas has been writing in the Kansas City Star’s HOA Hell series. The comments that people make are very interesting and most are supportive of the homeowners, not the HOA. One comment read something like this: “This story reminds me of a book I read in elementary school.” I was so curious I asked for the name of the book and she wrote back The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater.
The orange splot starts a chain reaction of major change in the neighborhood by Mr. Plumbean. Prior to its appearance every home looked exactly alike and that’s the way everybody wanted it to be. They liked the “neat street” sameness. I will not give away the story line but I think the HOAs of Amerika desperately need Mr. Plumbean! And I feel sure the author was a victim of an HOA at some point in his life.
While this is a children’s book it’s one that HOA homeowners will no doubt relate to and hopefully learn from. The answers we have been seeking can be found in just 32 pages!
