Category Archives: beekeeping

“Somebody Is Fattening The Frog For The Snake” ~Martha Preston

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by guest blogger Nila Ridings
 
Pine Village North HOA in Houston, Texas is not fooling former board members Martha Preston and Christopher Mitchell.  Over $550,000 in dues collected and the pool is dry, the security cameras are dangling from their brackets, and they have trash piling up.  Not to mention the burned out units!  Yet, the records show the money was spent on maintenance. And the financial report says they ended up with a negative $25,000.
 
Something is “fishy” with the money alright.  And the board members and their attorney have “no comment.” But they did vote to throw Preston and Mitchell off the board for questioning where the money went.
 
At least the developer got something right by naming the streets Wild Pine and Twisted Pine!  Because somehow in this wild and twisted mess they ended up with two boards of directors!  
 
As I see it, the best case scenario for these townhome owners is: Assessments for tens of thousands of dollars per owner for the rebuild and tens of thousands more for legal bills. Together, those will exceed the value of their property which at this point is worthless. I’m afraid I would be calling Two Men And A Truck and leaving the keys on the kitchen counter.
 
However, at the end of the day, I applaud Martha Preston and Christopher Mitchell for exposing yet another rotten stinking HOA. Theirs is a perfect example of why HOAs should be illegal!!!
 
The trial begins March 2014.
 
 

The Power the CAI Has Over the Idiot Media

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I know, I’m a forty-year former member of the idiot media. And I don’t watch TV or read newspapers today, for the same reason meat packers don’t eat sausage. They know how it’s made.

Yes, the press releases would pour off the fax machines and they’d be distributed to various reporters in the newsroom to go out and call in stories. Make ’em short, make ’em sweet. Those reporters who didn’t make a fuss about questionable interviews always got more assignments…and better assignments.

But our friend in North Carolina wonders why homeowners can’t get their own opinions published in the the Charlotte Observer, while the lies-by-fax get reported all the time. Jim, my friend, it’s because the media are lazy. They’re not evil. They’re just short-handed and lazy.

So when the CAI (Community Associations Institute) launches a decades old campaign pretending to represent all homeowners, the lazy reporters do what lazy reporters do. They don’t make phone calls. They don’t double-check the facts. They go out, find a talking head, and phone in the nonsense. It’s one of the reasons the credibility of the news media is about the same as the credibility of Congress.

In any event, Jim’s concerns are rooted in his genuine search for the truth.

(click here for Charlotte Observer)

 

A Special Thought for Christmas

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Some, but not all, will get the message in the short video linked below. But it warmed my heart. And it’s one I’d like to share.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Hz4P1m1bZFY

 

 

The Lawn Nazis Grab Another Home

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Each story I read disgusts me more: A Homeowners Association in the Colorado Springs area has foreclosed and auctioned off a 350,000 dollar home for about 11,000 dollars. And the homeowner never saw it coming.

Christopher Wright lived in the Woodmen Hills Filing Number 11 HOA. He thought he was fighting a fine for leaving the kids’ bicycles outside, but he discovered that the home was really taken because he hadn’t been paying his annual dues. His $900 nonpayment had turned into more than $10,000 worth of late fees, collection fees and attorneys’ fees. But non-payment of annual dues in most HOAs is a more serious crime than rape, armed robbery or burglary. Overstatement? No, rape and armed robbery usually net a less serious sentence than the confiscation of one’s home.

The management company is owned by Associa, which in turn is owned by an ethically-challenged Texas State Senator who has long faced criticism for his shifty dealings. Senator John Carona is a billionaire who owns or controls more than 8000 Homeowners Associations across the country, many of which are required to use insurance companies he owns, banks he owns, the list goes on and on. Media criticism of Carona’s ethics goes back years.

But none of that really impacts Christopher Wright’s case. He lost his house. And he’s dazed and confused about the Constitutional rights he thought he had.

Was Christopher Wright just stupid? Some would say so. But others would look with awe at the record of the Woodmen Hills Filing Number 11 HOA.

853 homes.

225 liens filed.

126 lawsuits filed.

4 foreclosures.

About his sky-high fees, the Woodmen’s HOA attorney, Hal Kyles, of the law firm Orten, Cavanagh and Holmes says, “I’m not cheap.”

No, you’re not cheap, lawyer Kyles. You’re not. But you are arrogant.

Shame on you for your arrogance.

(click here for KOAA-TV news story)

http://www.koaa.com/news/news-5-investigates-hoa-forecloses-on-home/

 

Please Don’t Leave Me!!!

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Dear Friends: I really don’t won’t to lose any of my regular readers. But it would be irresponsible of me to find a great HOA website and not let you know about it. This is a good one for you to mark and check in with regularly:

(click here for HOA Consumer Affairs)