Category Archives: lawsuit

$100,000-Love Scores Zero With Quivira Falls Homeowners

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Tennis anyone? Well, not for the past several years because the courts have been bolted shut. The surface is broken and the weeds are growing wild up through the cracks. When the courts were open they were enjoyed once in a blue moon by non-residents with Missouri plates on their cars.

On October 22, 2007 six of the board members signed and mailed a letter to every homeowner to defend their position against the petitions that had been signed by over 240 homeowners to recall the board. In that letter they state, “They say we are also frivolous to buy wind screens for the tennis courts.” And, then they go on to say that due to the foreclosures that would impact their revenue they voted “for,” but decided “against,” buying the wind screens and new nets.

You bet there were homeowners opposing that ridiculous and unnecessary purchase because our townhouses were rotten to the point of having frame damage. As a matter of fact, just four months after that letter was written the electric meters fell off my house because the siding and the structural frame was so rotten it just completely gave way. This happened during a torrential rain storm and ripped two holes about the size of five gallon buckets in the back of my house. Water was literally spraying out the electrical breakers on the wall downstairs and the water was gushing in under my new wood flooring, all over my new basement ceiling, down the walls, and running like a river across my brand new white berber carpeting and on across the basement to the drain in the utility room! And there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it. My work order had been in for over two years for wood rot repair and it was met with nothing but totally goofy childish excuses. When I told a board member I was going to hire my own contractor to repair the exterior of my house and apply the stucco, she told me…get ready now readers… brace yourselves………………..“If you hire your own contractors we are going to sue you and make you take the stucco off and put the wood rot back on!” To this day, that is one of the most stupid things anybody has ever said to me in my entire life!

Back to the tennis courts. One of the homeowners got ticked at the HOA and decided to report the tennis courts as abandoned property to the City of Overland Park. Of course, I was notified of this because any time people are upset…I hear about it.

Nobody wants to raise hell with this HOA board because if you dare do it, there is hell to pay. Sheer hell. Ugly hell. Hate-filled hell. That treatment silences 99.999% of the homeowners. They haven’t been blind to the treatment I’ve gotten by the board and their cronies so they are not marching down the “Nila Ridings Road.” No sir, they value their quality of life and bank accounts far more than speaking out…thus, this HOA is a horrible nightmare!

Quite by accident I found the property manager on my driveway right after hearing of this report. I decided since she was right here within two feet of me, I’d ask about the status of the tennis courts. She told me it was CITY CODE that Quivira Falls had to have these tennis courts resurfaced or totally removed, including the asphalt. The cost to remove the fencing and asphalt for both courts was going to be $100,000.00 and 1/3 that amount if they were resurfaced. I was skeptical….my gut instinct and intuition was saying this “smells” rotten. My call to the City revealed it is not City code for Quivira Falls to have tennis courts. A plan can be submitted for something new in their place, OR they can be removed. BUT THE ASPHALT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE REMOVED!

I’m 99% sure I could find somebody that would take those fences down for free and haul them off and reuse them. I know a few loads of dirt and some grass seed can be purchased for far less then $100,000.00. And, in the end the HOA would save money by not having to maintain the courts, buy nets, or those wind screens that were voted on in 2007, the lights could be removed as well and probably sold, but certainly there would be no electricity burning and there would be no expense of changing the bulbs when they burn out.

I sent emails to the property manager and the board demanding this project be stopped so further discussion could take place before another $35,000 is wasted. For those of you who don’t know this, my HOA borrowed $1M and most definitely it makes more sense to pay down debt then it does to resurface unused tennis courts! Nope, this CAI property manager is going forward with this project no matter what!

Did I fail to mention just a couple of years ago they built a fancy handrail down the steps to the tennis courts? That’s right, it’s been the “staircase to nowhere” because once you walked down there you were “welcomed” with the padlock!

Homeowners are putting protest plans together. It looks like ANOTHER war is about to begin in Quivira Falls!

Here’s the kicker…”Arizona Dave” just had the tennis courts at his condo complex resurfaced. They are larger than the ones in Quivira Falls. Dave’s association is managed by him, not a CAI property management company. He emailed me the paid invoice….$12,000.

Like I said, something “smells” rotten!

On Stopping Bullies

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guest blog by George Staropoli

And how does one stop a bully?

Here’s a short, direct answer, not from me but from Alexander Hamilton:

“If there is no penalty [for] disobedience, the resolutions or commands which pretend to be laws will, in fact, amount to nothing more than advice or recommendation.” (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #15)

Proposed HOA reforms must include necessary and sufficient detriments to put an end to HOA bullying and abuse. People do not become angels when they become a board member, like our astute, politically savvy legislatures would like you to believe.

“If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” James Madison, The Federalist papers, # 51.

“CIDS [HOAs] currently engage in many activities that would be prohibited if they were viewed by the courts as the equivalent of local governments.” … Privatopia, Evan McKenzie(1964).

Much of HOA legislation does not contain external enforcement provisions, such as an outright “null and void” statement, but rely on the goodwill of upstanding citizens and officers of the court to do what is right as intended by the reform legislation. Well, we know that that is a vast delusion. We see HOA attorneys seeking loopholes in statutes, bring up vague and unsupportable questions of law, etc. to intimidate homeowners into not taking action or else pay through the nose. All those words and clauses that the attorneys seem to find vague and unclear and seek civil action to clarify their meanings.

No, stop the bullying by imposing civil penalties on those who do not serve good public policy to make better communities, rather than to stuff their pockets. Like special taxing districts, civil penalties abound in the laws of all states. I prefer misdemeanor charges to make the message clear.

Another Million $$$ Embezzlement Hits A Homeowners Association

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Why hasn’t Hollywood jumped on the uncontrollable embezzling that happens in Homeowners Associations across America? Some astute member of the Writers’ Guild could come up with a great screenplay. The reason it hasn’t been done is that the plot would just be too unbelievable.

If you know a good writer, tell him to look at the current story in the Bear Reserve Homeowners Association in Eustis, Florida. The cops have just busted a couple of developers who became board members on this HOA. The pair are accused of embezzling 1.5 million dollars and moving it to shell corporations. How the heck didn’t homeowners discover many years ago that they were being ripped off?

Always remember that embezzled money is rarely returned, which means a special assessment against all HOA property owners. That’s part of what makes HOA embezzling such a horrific crime.

If your board refuses to give you an accounting of all HOA funds spent, if you get delayed, harassed or ignored for making such a request, then you, my dear friend, may rightly assume that your HOA money is being embezzled. Just assume it! It’s going on everywhere.

(link to WESH-TV story)

Link To Lawsuit Against Blondie & The Bimbo

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Several readers have asked for the exact text of Arizona Dave’s lawsuit against Blondie and the Bimbo. Governor Brewer and Rep. Michelle Ugenti keep sneaking patently illegal HOA laws onto the books after bamboozling other legislators. So, here it is:

(link to text of lawsuit against Blondie & the Bimbo)

The more complete story was posted several nights ago. Just click back in this website’s history. I didn’t actually mean for this link to be a separate post. But I just like saying, “Blondie and the Bimbo.” From what I hear from insiders it makes this pair so angry. Especially when they realize this website has had 375,000 visits over the past 12 months.

Pennsylvania Widow Loses Home Over Six Bucks

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The grapevine is buzzing about a Pennsylvania widow who inadvertently underpaid her property tax by six dollars & change and lost her house at the county tax auction. This fight’s been going on for several years but now a judge has essentially told her, “The loss of her home was just fine and dandy.” Her $280,000 house seized and handed off to someone else.

When her husband died, she apparently got behind on the bills. She paid the property tax but she says she was never informed about the six dollar interest charge. She’s going to appeal, and who knows, she might win in a higher court.

Still, she was protected by the U.S. Constitution, she had the right to due process and the right to appeal, the right to appeal over and over again.

Across this country the same thing is happening. The record home seizure was in West Boca, Florida, where a single mom lost her home over an inadvertent underpayment of Homeowners Association dues by 78 cents. But day in and day out, Homeowners Associations are attacking residents of the neighborhood for such things as parking the wrong kind of car in the driveway, not getting your trash cans inside within an hour after pickup.

In one paper written by a fellow in the Cato Institute, the author talked about HOA attorneys in Houston running around ticketing cars because they knew they’d make extra legal income by generating extra fines, liens and lawsuits. Talk about a conflict of interest!

The difference between the government home seizure in Pennsylvania and the confiscation of all those other homes by Homeowners Associations… HOA residents don’t have the Constitutional rights to fight back. There’s no due process, there’s no way to appeal, no checks and balances. The guy who tickets you is a member of the board or the HOA manager. So you have to appeal to the same people who are beating you up in the first place.

The typical HOA is based on the private non-profit corporation model, and when you’re attacked by your own corporation you have little or no access to Constitutional rights.

Welcome to your new life in your HOA.

(link to Associated Press story)