Category Archives: Government

Massachusetts Condo Boards Out Of Control

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I’m always happy to pass along a link to a blog where HOA members are discovering the tyrannies that are coming to dominate the controlled neighborhood scene.

Some folks in Massachusetts are beginning to realize the horrors of living in a community where hidden personal agendas are par-for-the-course among board members and property managers.

Home ownership is an incredibly personal and private thing, just as a marriage relationship is private and relationships with children are personal and private.

Yes, government can intervene when laws are broken. But to have your neighbors pry into your private affairs is universally disgusting and revolting. Official retaliation against a homeowner in an effort to force him or her out of the neighborhood is as nauseating as the racism and sexism that dominated housing trends over the past century.

With that in mind, here comes another blogger who deserves to be followed as Massachusetts HOA boards are put under the microscope:

(link to Massachusetts blog)

 

http://20140125.commentary-by-ms-condo-board-reform.condoboardreform.tel/

Say It Ain’t So, Joe!

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The biggest corruption investigation in the history of Nevada, and one of the largest criminal investigations in the history of the U.S. Attorney’s Office is in danger of collapsing, with four years and millions of dollars of investigative efforts going down the tubes. The ultimate result will be the U.S. Government totally turning its eyes away from one of the biggest and most vicious frauds in American history.

A massive number of homeowners in the Las Vegas Valley have discovered the assets they thought they’d accumulated in their retirement homes were stolen…by lawyers, politicians, public officials, corrupt Homeowner Association officials.

The feds have known about this scam for years. Nevada law enforcement officials have known about it for at least a decade. 29 HOA officials have already pleaded guilty in exchange for their testimony against the bigwigs who rigged HOA elections with phony board members and funneled millions of dollars into private pockets.

A dozen Nevada bigwigs have been indicted. But their defense attorneys are now claiming they need at least another year to prepare a defense for their clients. They claim they still have millions of pages of testimony to examine.

This is the way Organized Crime works, folks. Stall, stall, stall, let a witness die here and there, some by suicide, some by car accident. Let a few more come down with faulty memories, get a few more federal investigators transferred to cushy assignments in foreign embassies, get some different people elected… and your investigation goes right down the toilet.

Did the feds finally get Al Capone for murder, assault, robbery, kidnapping, smuggling, murder for hire? Naw, they got him for a few income tax violations.

Yep, folks. That’s the way it works. Pray this Nevada judge doesn’t grant defense attorneys a year-long stay.

(link to latest Las Vegas Review Journal story)

 

Bank Foreclosures Down, HOA Foreclosures Up!

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Regular readers of this blog have long known most of the material in the article linked below. But regular readers also know that I’ve long predicted a second massive housing bubble, this one larger than the one in 2009, this one directed squarely at the 63 million homes controlled by Homeowners Associations.

As you read the article below, keep in mind that most of these 63 million homeowners have loans backed by the now bankrupt Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac along with the FHA and various other agencies connected with the federal government.

You still want to move into a Homeowners Association?

(link to story from Naked Capitalism)

 

Court Rules That Bloggers ARE Journalists

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In my book, Neighbors At War, I encourage homeowners rights activists to keep track of the wrongdoing of HOA board members and shout those wrongs from the rooftops.

HOA board members are public figures because they sought election to a public position. They are therefore public figures and you as a critic have special protections against libel and slander lawsuits.

Now, yet another federal court has ruled the same thing. It’s a long string of court decisions that protect Freedom of Speech in America.

In the Oregon case linked below, a bankruptcy trustee sued a blogger who was critical of the trustee’s activities. Even though this trustee was not a public figure the court still ruled in favor of the blogger. Because the trustee’s activities were of public concern, he could not win his slander lawsuit unless he was able to prove negligence on the part of the blogger.

If you’re trying to correct problems in your corrupt or negligent HOA you have all the Free Speech protections that any journalist in America has. If you’re trying to correct bad behavior by out-of-control, fascist-like actions in your HOA, do it courageously!

(link to Associated Press story)

Homeowners Associations Could Learn From Baboons!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
30 years of studying how baboons were able to change their culture could be the clue to what will change the culture of homeowners associations.  Wouldn’t the results be interesting if Dr. Robert Sapolsky spent three decades studying behaviors in HOAs?
 
Do we have to wait until the selfish, narcissistic, abusive, bullying, self-serving, and power-hungry board members die off?  Can we legislate these people to respectable conduct or do we have to sit back and watch them self-destruct?  Keeping in mind, they only self-destruct when they run out of our money.
 
We’ve learned a lot from animals.  Mostly, that they are more than companions.  They guide those without sight.  They alert those who cannot hear.  They comfort those who have been severely traumatized.  They assist soldiers and law enforcement in doing their jobs.  And now, we learn they know more about co-existing together than we do.
 
As I see it, Sir Michael Marmot is correct when he says, “The conditions in which people live and work are absolutely vital for their health.”  It is no wonder there are so many unhealthy and depressed people living in HOAs.

(click here for video on baboon study)