Tag Archives: Realtor

Kansas Legislators, We Are Counting On You!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Why was I in Topeka testifying in front of the Kansas legislators today? HB 2557. Kansas now has this bill in the Local Government Committee being discussed to make amendments to the Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act.

The bill needs a lot of work but the legislators were all ears today. Some were very open about how they are hearing from more and more of their constituents that are having HOA problems.

House Representatives Scott Schwab and Amanda Grosserode both spoke in favor of the bill. I supported the bill with many changes and additions and strongly encouraged the committee members to learn who the CAI is and how they operate. Next came the CAI attorney and property manager who tried to convince the legislators all is well in the HOA neighborhoods. Kansas legislators were not buying it! Being a Realtor himself in Wichita, one representative spoke strongly about how HOA problems are getting worse and he’s hearing about it more and more. Afterwards, I spoke with him and he was very familiar with the case of Jerry Berg* being beaten with a crowbar by the HOA board member in his condo association.

(*Jerry Berg’s story can be found on this website http://neighborsatwar.com/2013/06/insanity-in-kansas-2/            He was also recently interviewed on Shu Bartholomew’s HOA radio show www.onthecommons.net)

Observing the discussion was a reporter from the Kansas City Star. Another was a homeowner who had been in a legal battle with her HOA, but will not speak on record for fear of more retaliation. A few more attorneys. And, last but not least, the Special Assistant to the Kansas Attorney General who asked him to attend and learn more about what is happening with the HOA issues in Kansas!

Readers…we are making headway. We are truly making headway. When I worked on the Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act back in 2008, 2009, and 2010 the term HOA or Homeowners Association was foreign to the legislators. Today, that is certainly not the case. It appears the legislators phone lines and emails are on fire with unhappy HOA member constituents demanding help!

For a chuckle, I’ll share this. The big time CAI attorney spews out the number of Kansas homeowners living in HOAs. He then says, and you see only one or two of them have complaints. (Okay, yes, I nearly jumped out of my chair!) Trust me, if homeowners were not so frightened of their HOA board placing them on their radar for abuse, I could fill buses with people to testify for this bill to pass.

I will not be able to take busloads of people to Topeka, but I’m asking for your help. Keeping in mind this bill is being written with the intentions of helping HOA homeowners and states seem to follow what other states do…would you please send a short note of support to the email below and ask the Kansas legislators to support HB 2577? I would love to hear that hundreds of emails of support were received from all across America. Let the Kansas Legislators know we are counting on them to blaze the trail for better legislation for HOA victims all across America.

rich.mergen@house.ks.gov

Subject: Local Government Comittee- HB 2577

Here’s a sample of what would be a sufficient email:

Dear Kansas House of Representatives:

As an HOA homeowner I am asking you to support HB 2577 because all across America we are experiencing far too much abuse and there is very little to no rights for us. We have limited protection and no place to go for help. Please listen to the homeowners, not the members of the Community Associations Institute (CAI).

I live in (name of your state) and I’m hoping my legislators will follow your lead.

Thank you for your public service and willingness to recognize the need for better legislation for those living in HOAs.

Your Name
City and State

http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/hb2557/

 

My Evan McKenzie Confession

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As a lifetime broadcast journalist, I sometimes did some odd things as I negotiated my way through the low ranks of radio journalism into the top ranks of TV journalism. One odd thing that became a habit was ‘snooping’ on the reading habits of my supervisors. Really! Whenever I was called into the office of a supervisor I would carefully note which books I saw on his or her desk. When a book is recommended by upper management you can usually see copies on the desks of each of your managers. I used to carry a tiny notepad into the boss’s office and write down the names of books and authors that various managers were reading. It seemed a clever and calculated thing to do, just to track what management was thinking at any given time. It’s how I came across, “Winning through Intimidation” by Robert Ringer and “How To Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Carnegie. I ALWAYS bought and read copies of the books I saw on the boss’s desk.

About fifteen or twenty years ago while I was working on a story, the subject of which I don’t remember now, on the floor of my photographer’s van was a book with an intriguing cover. At first glance it looked like a contorted x-ray of a human spine. At second glance it was an aerial photo of a California Homeowners Association. The book was called, “Privatopia,” by Evan McKenzie.

Of course, I ordered a copy of the book. It completely blew me away. It perfectly described the kind of torment I was going through in my own Homeowners Association at the time. I read it twice, three times, possibly more.

I have never spoken to McKenzie on the phone or in an email. But I’ve ordered copies of his book and have sent them to various members of the Colorado Legislature. When I learned from an intern that state legislator Morgan Carroll hadn’t read the first copy of Privatopia I sent her, I had Amazon send her another Privatopia, then another. In fact, McKenzie should probably have paid me a commission for the number of books I sent to various Colorado Legislators.

McKenzie is one of the pioneers of The Awakening, the realization by homeowners across America that the national HOA Movement is one of the biggest financial scams in modern history. He’s too classy to describe it as such. But those of us in ‘the movement’ know about it all too well.

Thank you, Dr. McKenzie, for waking me up!

 

Debt Collectors Have Rules, HOAs Don’t!

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We hear it all too often on this website: How come HOAs don’t have to follow the law like all other debt collection agencies?

The only answer I have is that legislators are either crooked, or stupid, flat-out don’t care or a combination of any of the three. Believe me, your message is getting through to a handful of them. They occasionally contact me. But overall, lawmakers are feigning ignorance of this growing national scandal.

Linked below is a tragic story of an older man who’s dying of leukemia. The $75 dues payment he couldn’t afford has turned into a multi-thousand dollar campaign to snatch this man’s home. Make a note: It’s the Heather Lakes Homeowners Association near Tampa Bay, Florida. Make sure to tell your Realtor you don’t want to live there!

Debt collectors are forbidden by state and federal law from using the collection practices so common in the HOA industry. No one can tell me that this national scam doesn’t amount to organized crime. It does, and it has to be recognized as such.

(HOA fines dying man, FOX13 News)

 

 

 

HOA Trouble In Colorado

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guest blog by Stan Hrincevich   (coloradohoaforum.com)

Colorado Springs Town Hall Meeting: let us know how you can help get the word out about this meeting on Feb 13: contact legislators, post flyer at your HOA, local media, etc.

Construction Defects Legislation: here we go again with the Denver Post exclusively contacting the Community Associations Institute (CAI) to represent homeowners’ interests in how homeowners’ money is used in litigation. Below is our letter to the editor of the Denver Post and copied to legislators:

“The Denver Post again allows those making millions of dollars from HOA Construction Defects (CD) litigation to represent the voice and rights of homeowners and distort the debate in CD legislation reform. No input is accepted from any recognized homeowner’s organizations. Once again, the only point person on homeowner’s rights is none other than the Community Associations Institute (CAI). The CAI represents the interests of property managers and HOA lawyers, NOT HOMEOWNERS! If CD legislation is ever be explained in a truthful, balanced, and productive manner it must first get by the pervasive CAI smoke screen.

First, almost all HOAs created in the past 15 years mandate in their Declaration that arbitration must be used in CD dispute resolution. Of the 8,500+ HOAs in the State most are beyond the statute of limitations and cannot sue. As a percentage or relative number of all HOAs, those that changed their Declaration (at the encouragement of HOA lawyers) is very, very small. Thus, precluding HOAs from changing their declaration and infringing upon homeowner’s rights is a weak argument. Furthermore, a recent Colorado court case has ruled HOAs can be prevented from changing their Declaration. The CAI would have the public believe the inability to change the Declaration will have a profound impact on homeowners’ rights but the reality is that it would mostly impact the ability of HOA lawyers to promote litigation in our costly court system.

The other issue involves requiring homeowners to vote on the approval of the use of their own funds in CD litigation. Currently, any HOA Board at the encouragement of their attorney can spend unlimited HOA funds on litigation without the knowledge or approval of homeowners. The CAI opposes this empowerment of homeowners as it would effectively reduce litigation.

We at the Colorado HOA Forum offer the following CD legislative proposal to mitigate litigation and empower homeowners: “HOA homeowners are required to be apprised of and vote on the use of HOA funds in all litigation.” Why is this so difficult?”

 

Las Vegas Review-Journal is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!

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Finally, I’ve found something written by reporter Jeff German to be dead wrong. You’ll think it’s a minor point, but I think it’s huge. However, I still think it would be a sin not to award this journalist the Pulitzer for his stories on the massive organized crime network that stole more than 60 million dollars from Las Vegas Homeowners.

German will think his error is small, but he might even end up agreeing with me. The misstatement is contained in the fourth paragraph linked below. The story is about the last criminal in the HOA swindle being sentenced to three years in prison after the prosecutor asked for 21 years in prison. More horrible sentencing by a Federal Judge.

German’s misstatement is this line:

“Her sentencing officially ends the largest public corruption case federal authorities have brought in Southern Nevada.”

No, this public corruption case is not officially over because the coverup is still going on. And the cover is being provided by a Federal Judge and US Attorneys who are refusing to let the public see more than ten million pages of documents on the long-running investigation. This is the same judge who is handing out tongue-lashings and feather-light sentences to racketeers who were instrumental in crashing the entire Las Vegas housing market. Tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of Nevada homeowners lost their savings, their confidence or their homes in the 2008 housing meltdown. That was the same time these racketeers were plundering Homeowners Associations across the Valley. That was the same time when stories were wildly circulating that judges and high state officials were involved in the scam.

And now a judge won’t let the public see what kind of information the FBI uncovered?

It’s rather obvious to most observers that 43 people couldn’t steal 60 million dollars. I’d promise to run naked around the Nevada State Legislature at High Noon if those unreleased papers didn’t implicate ten times the number of people convicted.

“Some high state officials and judges might be embarrassed because the secret papers might reveal some bizarre sexual activities by high state officials. It might hurt their families.”  Awwww. There was lots of bribery in the Las Vegas HOA scam. Since the beginning of time one of the most effective forms of bribery is illicit sex.

Going one step further, the taxpayers paid for those ten million pages of documentation. Right or wrong, the public deserves to see them and make their own decision. Who has more rights,  a few hundred high state officials, judges and businessmen who took part in one of the largest racketeering cases and public corruption cases in history? Or the rights of 300 million Americans to oversee  the federal government’s use of tax dollars?

No, this public corruption case will never be ‘officially’ over until a corrupt judiciary recognizes its errors and begins treating the taxpayers with the respect they deserve.

(link to latest Review-Journal story on the last conviction in HOA case)