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

Separate Doors For The Rich & Poor

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This story was outrageous when we first heard about it last year. It’s even more hideous now that New York officials have formally approved it. But the builders of luxury condominiums will be allowed to send residents of ‘affordable living’ units through the back door.

I still remember the segregated water fountains in my grade school in Texas. And I frequently asked my parents questions they had trouble answering.

But when the ritzy buildings go up in New York along with the required amount of affordable dwellings, all those ‘po folk’ will have to enter the building through a separate entrance. Can we say, “separate but equal?” That sure has an ugly sound to it.

(link to article on luxury condos)

 

Not HOA Related, But Hilarious

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All you have to say to a New Yorker is the word, “Denver,” and they laugh.

Denver is a perennial punchline in the Big Apple. But we certainly do give them more than enough ammunition for their wicked humor.

A Denver bank robber was arrested within five hours of his crime. Yeah, this guy certainly should be considered a candidate for the annual Darwin Award.
He wore his nametag, John David Martinez, on his shirt. And his getaway car, a silver Honda sedan was registered in his name.

I’m still doing research, but I wondered if he could possibly be a board member in his Homeowners Association?

(link to story on stupid bank robber)

 

CAI To Wage Battle In Massachusetts

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Expect a ton of money to be poured into the pockets of Massachusetts legislators over the next week. What’s up? The State Senate has agreed to a ‘common sense’ bill to order condo associations to pay the legal costs of homeowners who have to sue to get financial records.

A homeowner has an absolute right to see the association’s financial documents, budgets and insurance policies. It’s basic common sense, especially for homeowners who are trying to sell their homes and move out. Mortgage companies require it. The current law mandates that those records be made available. But there’s no penalty for corporate deviants who decide they’re above such puerile requirements.

The current problem is that the bill is stalled. If the Massachusetts House doesn’t get off its collective rear end, or if a lobbyist in a legislative hallway waves a few thousand bucks around, this bill may fail due to official disinterest.

(link to Boston Globe story on condo law)

 

 

Wow! Good Numbers!

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It’s so fitting to be able to write this after two incredibly strong guest blogs by George Staropoli and Deborah Goonan. But sometime over the past 48 hours we passed another readership milestone. In the 12 month running average we have now surpassed 400,000 readers and more than 3.2 million pages of material read.

I haven’t tallied up all the readers since this website began, but I know by now it’s well over a million. So, together we really are reaching people.

Certainly, ongoing problems in the economy are bringing out the mean side in many HOAs and this obviously is causing homeowners to search the web to see if they’re all alone in their personal struggles. It’s also a strange weekend to have CAI come out with more blatantly fake polling data claiming that people in Homeowners Associations are happy with their HOAs. Both George and Deborah have written papers that prove what a sham these CAI polls are. But CAI has billions of dollars to pour into the halls of the nation’s legislatures. We’re just the people.

Yes, we’re just the people.

We’ll win.

 

Not Just HOAs! ALL Of You!

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

There may be a tendency on the Neighbors At War website to concentrate on warning people in Homeowners Associations. But that may be too narrow a scope.

Don’t limit our audience to HOA owners. Include tenants, who make up more than 30% of HOA residents in many communities. Include home and condo buyers, particularly those who are looking for a home and true quality of life.

Savvy real estate investors who really want the HOA model and know how to work the system: We can leave them out of the equation.

But an important audience of people who SHOULD be paying attention to the big picture are the owners of non-HOA properties. You see, all taxpayers are eventually going to foot the bill for the next approaching crisis in housing, as aging, failing HOAs with insufficient funds to maintain the infrastructure turn to traditional government to solve their problems. When HOAs cannot be maintained, blight and crime increase. Property tax bases decrease along with property values.

Evan McKenzie has explained this well in Beyond Privatopia. Local governments will have to pick up at least some responsibility – and cost – of repairing crumbling roads, correcting poor drainage that leads to flooding, increased police protection for crime-infested areas, increased strain on the courts related to crime and HOA-related lawsuits, etc.

I will give you a real life example. My former HOA in Florida had a developer-owned water & sewer utility which was recently sold to the local municipality and County under an inter-local agreement.

According to the pre-purchase County-funded Engineer evaluation, the water/sewer system was in shambles, the sewer system out of compliance with FDEP since 2010, the water system with a history of sporadic water quality violations and boil water advisories. Two out of four wells were unusable, and two wells were barely enough to meet demand. The entire system needs to be rebuilt – potable and sewer treatment system, lift stations, wells, etc. The system lacks redundancy – meaning there is NO back up if a major component fails. So redundancy must be built in to bring the system up to current code. This will cost in excess of $11 million. There are about 1500 homes and a handful of commercial customers (who threaten to connect to a different utility provider). After the purchase last fall, owners received a 47% rate hike. More increases will follow. So far, it has only been HOA owners affected.

But the local news recently reported that the city who purchased the utility is “broke” and they blame the high cost of acquiring the water utility from the HOA! They are reporting there will be tax increases for City residents! So you see, the people in this municipality are going to have to pay for the former HOA developer’s deferred maintenance of a water/sewer system that is not even used by non-HOA residents.

I recently read that Fairfax County VA is seriously considering taking over maintenance of “larger” storm water ponds in HOAs. Why? Because the HOAs cannot afford to maintain them, and downstream flooding is resulting due to lack of maintenance. Who will pay for this? Fairfax County homeowners, even if they do not live in an HOA.

So, should the Neighbors at War message be aimed only at those who own homes in Homeowners Associations? My answer would be “NO!” It’s a problem for all American homeowners. You will eventually be taxed for the misdeeds of the out-of-control Homeowners Association Industry.