Tag Archives: Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Balance of Power in U.S. Senate Based On HOA Chickens?!?

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Some stories are just too weird to embellish, even for the sake of humor. But the U.S. Senate seat from Iowa may boil down to a neighborhood dispute over chickens.

Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley is running for Senate in a razor thin race. Braley has a vacation home in the ritzy Holiday Lake neighborhood in Brooklyn, Iowa. Covenants in the neighborhood say, “No animals or birds other than household pets can be kept in the subdivision.” But one of Braley’s neighbors (also a registered Democrat) keeps chickens on her property as ‘therapy animals’ for mentally handicapped youngsters.

The chickens apparently strayed into the Braley’s yard and litigation was threatened. The owner of the chickens tried to make amends with a gift of eggs, but the Braleys wouldn’t have any part of that.

Now, there’s a hot new Iowa Republican attack ad with some talking chickens making fun of Braley’s threatened lawsuit. You can read the rest of the details at the links below, but the story is just too ridiculous for words.

If the balance of power in the U.S. Senate shifts in this election, finally, FINALLY folks in Congress might start talking about the idiocy and meanness of neighborhood disputes in Homeowners Associations.

(talking chickens ad)

(washington post take on the chicken dispute)

 

Nevada ‘Mouth’ Moves Again

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Ah, Barbara Holland, how we love thee! Ms. Holland, who writes a column in the real estate section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, complains about a recent guest blog that lists some of the complaints against her: One is that she gets paid for writing her newspaper column which is massively biased in favor of Homeowners Associations.

Ms. Holland, who describes herself as the “Dear Abby of Homeowners Associations,” will never deny that writing her newspaper column has made her very rich in the real estate business. Her ‘voluntary newspaper column’ is the kind of self-promotion that every entrepreneur dreams of. Whether she gets paid ten or twenty bucks per column by the newspaper is absolutely immaterial. Barbie Baby, you started piling up your millions in the property management and Realty business the day your first column was published. In the most corrupt real estate market in the nation, most honorable people would be scared to death to identify themselves as being the “Dear Abby” or “Dear Ann Landers” of anything HOA related.

But all of that is petty infighting and beyond the point. The issue at hand is the stupidity and short-term thinking of the Nevada Supreme Court which ruled that an HOA’s Super-Priority lien could extinguish the mortgage company’s first deed of trust. Bottom line: thousands of Nevada homes that are in crisis can be snatched up by real estate bottom feeders who grab homes for a couple thousand bucks at auction, and flip them for hundreds of thousands of dollars each. A windfall profit. A disaster for those in the mortgage business. And Barbie tells us, “No big deal.”

In fairness to Barbie Baby, here’s her latest take on the subject:

(link to Barbara Holland’s column on Nevada court decision)

Now that “Dear Nevada Abby” has spoken, let’s look at some totally different conclusions made by far more astute financial folks at the Wall Street Journal, reporters like Joe Light (joe.light@wsj.com). The link below sometimes asks for a registration, but any good Internet researcher can find a way around that.

(link to WSJ article on Nevada mortgage mess)

(link to parallel article in Bloomberg News)

Now, to you, Dear Reader. Do we believe in dear ‘Self-Interest Nevada Abby?’ Or the financial folks on the national scene who are actually talking to the nation’s lending institutions about all the impending consequences?

 

 

 

 

Thuggery in Fort Lauderdale

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We did a blog here a month or two ago about the president/treasurer of a Fort Lauderdale HOA. Seems the neighbors are irked that this guy has written tens of thousands of  of dollars worth of ‘salary’ checks to himself. Then he got pretty cocky and used money from the neighborhood budget to buy himself a new car.

Well, police have finally seen fit to arrest the guy on a second class misdemeanor. A couple of observations, here. The most this guy can get is a 30 day jail term and six months probation. That’s not bad work at all, if you can find it.

Second observation. The story was broken by a TV reporter. That means (to me, anyway) that the news media are starting to discover a lucrative source of stories and on-camera confrontations among corrupt Homeowners Associations. We’ve got to remember the pioneer in this kind of TV journalism, Nevada’s Darcy Spears of the HOA Hall of Shame report.

(link to Florida arrest story)

 

New Mexico HOAs Struggle After Embezzlement Investigation

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Embezzling from HOA budgets is the gift that keeps on giving. More than two months ago a New Mexico realty business which managed a number of Rio Rancho HOAs was raided. All the computers were seized. Homeowners don’t even know how much was stolen because the management company’s records are still under lock and key.

Investigators say hundreds of thousands of dollars were embezzled. All Rio Rancho homeowners know is that their monthly dues are going up. They have no way of knowing how high. Strange, that while the consequences are so severe most HOA thefts by board officers and management companies are only discovered by accident.

The Way It Should Be Done

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There’s no question that someone who intentionally neglects their yard or home should face some kind of justice. The big question repeatedly raised on this blog is where is the appropriate court of discipline? Should it be elected city or county officials whose job it is to maintain zoning codes? Or should it be a gang of angry neighbors who are given the right to fine, lien and foreclose on homes, often personally profiting in the transaction?

Lenoir City, Tennessee undoubtedly has its own share of covenant controlled neighborhoods. But it also has some pretty strong zoning codes, codes which Karen Holloway apparently felt didn’t apply to her. Her yard, of course, was a mess. Admittedly, it took the city too long to act, but when it did Ms. Karen was given a five day jail sentence. She cut loose with all the usual whining, “Not fair!” “Never read my rights or allowed a lawyer!”

Home ownership involves some personal responsibilities, and responsibilities to your neighbors. But Constitutional rights of home ownership involve Due Process and removing self-appointed neighborhood dictators from the equation.

Holloway’s story is linked below, and please come back to this blog to leave your comments.

(link to story on jail time for unmowed lawn)