Where is Uncle Billy Bob? Sounds like he was hired to restore the Heritage Landing Condos in Saint Charles, Missouri but has headed off to….fishing trip? Guadalajara? Elsewhere? Residents are living in hotel rooms but the contractor is MIA. Who hires these losers, anyway?
Ten months ago, the Jahnke family and Scott Collins were told they would be back in their condos by the end of 2012 after a fire in July. Collins is reduced to tears because the restoration left his place in worse condition than pre-fire. And poor Debra Jahnke is so stressed out she’s on blood pressure medication and anxiety drugs. She says a new home could be built from the dirt up faster. And ten months in a hotel is, well, miserable.
Ahhh, but the big question is: Why the shoddy work? Who IS the contractor that is showing up on a sometime”ish” basis? And the biggest question of all is…”Where’s the insurance money?” “And the property manager?” Oh my! Imagine this, NOT AVAILABLE for comment on camera!
In emergencies, condo dwellers are left at the mercy of property managers who hire the cheapest labor and produce the shoddiest work. That means owners are zapped with future expensive repairs. And, of course there’s no “go to” source for answers.
One of the early founders of our movement who’s perhaps one of the top three homeowners rights advocates in the country is Arizona’s George Staropoli. He has testified before legislatures, he’s a devout Constitutionalist, he’s perhaps one of the most articulate people standing up for downtrodden victims of the national HOA scam. To say he was a huge inspiration to me is putting it mildly.
His website, pvtgov.org, has tens of thousands of fans. In fact, his was the first site I discovered when I was trying to learn what was wrong with the basic nature and structure of American Homeowners Associations.
But his post linked below is exceptionally powerful, and should be spread to every legislator in the country. It should be a guest editorial in every newspaper. It’s not negative, but is actually a positive critique of HOAs because it points us to an escape route from the current HOA system.
Larry Delassus lived in a condominium at Hermosa Beach. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy and is badly disabled. Wells Fargo apparently didn’t take any of that into consideration when it seized his home and quickly auctioned it off.
Delassus filed a lawsuit, and his attorney tried to present evidence that Wells Fargo had combed its records for homeowners who had more equity available for the taking. Those records included requests for loan modifications, a horrible violation of trust by those homeowners who filled the re-fi paperwork out.
In any event, Delassus finally did get his case into court. Wells Fargo admitted that it had made a mistake in Delassus’ foreclosure because it used the wrong parcel number from the assessor’s office when it targeted his home.
But Delassus didn’t get to see how the case turned out.
The Texas Legislature has passed a bill to protect people who xeriscape their lawns from the HOA Lawn Nazis. If the Governor signs it, it’ll become law.
The tougher thing to understand is why Texas waited so long. The state is desperately short of water, it’s suffering under an ongoing drought. Clean drinking water is going to be the world’s challenge as environmental conditions continue to deteriorate under human stewardship.
The kind of bluegrass mandated by many Homeowners Associations is horribly thirsty. But Texas homeowners who try to conserve water have been harassed, fined and liened countless times over the years.
This gives the HOA management monsters one less way to rake in money. No need to feel sorry for them, though, as long as they can continue stealth towing of vehicles, fines for solar panels, and lawsuits over the display of the American flag.
I’ve been predicting for a couple of years, now, that Homeowners Associations would eventually begin using drones to gather private information on members of the neighborhood. And they will.
The story linked below is about a Seattle man who used a camera-equipped drone to peer through a third story bedroom window of a neighbor. It’s beyond creepy. But it’s exactly what’s coming to a Homeowners Association near you.
If your HOA president hasn’t yet used a drone-carrying camera to spy on you, your lady friend, or your kids while they’re sitting in your private backyard hot tub, just wait.
