Category Archives: discrimination

Civil Forfeiture

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I’m quite sure HOA warriors like George Staropoli and Evan McKenzie have written about this subject. But it’s really kind of spooky to chart the parallels between Civil Forfeiture laws and seizure of private property by Homeowners Associations.

Civil forfeiture laws are a horrendous holdover from the American Civil War and prohibition. They allow police the power to seize vehicles or property of people suspected of carrying on some kind of illegal activity. in the 70s and 80s police began seizing private homes that were suspected of being crack houses. At no time were the police required to prove guilt. Many times a homeowner who unknowingly leased his house to bad people ended up with no rights, no house, and no way to get it back.

In the 1980s Congress allowed police agencies all over the country to keep what they seized, even if there was absolutely no proof that a crime had been committed. Try to board a plane with too much cash in your wallet or purse the money? It can be legally seized. When do you get it back? In most cases, never. All the cops have to do is claim they suspected the money was involved in some kind of crime. No proof of guilt was needed. What rights do you have? You have the right to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit to get it back. Anything else? No. No due process, no way to prove your innocence. The money simply disappears into what’s little more than a police slush fund.

It’s stunningly evil. In a country where the Constitution created rights to protect citizens against the government, justice has been turned on its ear.

Across the country, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of homeowners have been victimized in much the same way. Wrong kind of window shades or a kid’s toy left out overnight? A big fine, then a lien, then forfeiture of your house. Your rights? You get to hire a lawyer and sue to try your stuff back. The boards of Homeowners Associations have absolutely the same power of civil forfeiture as the cops. And the money they seize also goes into HOA slush funds, or into the pockets of embezzlers.

What have we done to ourselves, folks?

(link to booklet on civil forfeiture)

http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/pdf/Forfieture-Booklet-FINAL-Full.pdf

After Judge ousts Receiver, no improvement at Blossom Park (FL) condos

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

Last time I told you about Blossom Park condos in April, owners had decided they wanted to take back control of their Association from Receiver Frank Barber.

http://neighborsatwar.com/?s=blossom+park&submit=Search

Several of the owners had high hopes of turning the place around, after many years of neglect. A judge terminated the Receiver’s contract last month.

Well, it didn’t take long for the newly formed Condo Board to throw in the towel. Assessments are seriously delinquent, and remaining owners are apparently not interested in paying for a place that has become a haven for crime and a safety hazard. Reportedly, the trash is piling up now, too.

Where are the developers willing to swoop in like White Knights and rescue this dilapidated old motel turned into low-income condos? Isn’t that why Florida clings to its “eminent domain for condos” law?

It appears Blossom Park has reached the end of its useful life.

(link to requiem for Blossom Park)

Hire The Dirty Book Lady!

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This one is just too delicious not to post. When you live in a Homeowners Association that’s squandered $700,000 bringing the neighborhood close to bankruptcy, what do you do? That’s easy. You get involved in porn!

Huh?

Yeah, you hire a property manager who’s been fabulously successful at writing kinky sex books.

That’s what the Woodlake Community Association in Chesterfield County, Virginia did. The community has been ripped apart by financial mismanagement. When the HOA board and property manager quit earlier this year they hired Bethany Halle, an author of 70 novels ranging from exotic to erotic. And she’s actually made some best seller lists with books about gay sex.

Fifty Blades of Gay?

No, I just made that up. But heck, as the new manager of Woodlake Community Association she’ll undoubtedly be exposed to lots of new material for future books.

Beating around the bush a little more, a great subject for a dirty book would be the huge HOA scandal in Las Vegas that’s sending up to forty people to federal prison.

Fifty Raids a Day? (big groan!)

Actually, hiring a sex-and-bondage author is probably an outstanding move by this financially strapped community. Bethany Halle is obviously a good business person and has been an HOA manager for many years, successfully straddling two very different professions. What’s not to love?

(link to Chesterfield Observer story on new HOA manager)

 

Are We Winning? Hunter’s Run Decision Says We Are!

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I never thought I’d see this day. But doesn’t it seem to you like more and more Homeowners Associations are losing big court cases involving fines, judgments and legal fees?

There’ve been several in a row where the feds came down hard on HOAs that overtly or passively discriminated against families with children or handicapped members.

The latest is an Indiana family that moved from their home and rented it out without asking HOA permission. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that the fines and the lien the Hunter’s Run HOA filed on the family were illegal. More than that, the lien was invalid and a slander against the homeowner’s property title making the home unsaleable. Now the Hunter’s Run HOA will have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to this family to make them whole.

I would bet dollars to donuts that members of this HOA didn’t have a clue their bully board’s actions were going to lead to huge assessments against every homeowner.

See this as a victory, folks! Homes in Hunter’s Run have lost all their value. They can’t be sold. The equity is gone. What fool would buy a home in an HOA where the board was stupid enough to lose this kind of case?

The tide is turning, and you and I are finally having an impact!

(the losers in Hunter’s Run HOA)

 

 

Franklin TN HOA: $156K Fine over treatment of Disabled Children

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

When Charles and Melanie Hollis purchased a home for their family in 2011, they probably didn’t expect to run into difficulty getting approval from their homeowners’ association for a sunroom addition. The sunroom was needed for two of their children, who happen to have physical and mental disabilities. It was intended to provide space for exercise equipment and physical therapy for the children.

After four attempts at getting a modification plan approved by the Architectural Review Committee, their reasonable request was essentially denied. Reading the September 2014 District Court decision, linked below, in December 2011, Chestnut Bend HOA attorney wrote a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Hollis, making approval of the sunroom conditional upon the agreement to install a more expensive shingle roof rather than a metal roof. The main reason for that condition was apparently to enhance the addition’s appearance.

The Hollis’ attorney replied that the owners would like to proceed with the metal roof, because of its lower cost, the fact that other homeowners also have additions with metal roofs, and the Property Manager had already acknowledged in writing that a metal roof would be acceptable. Attorney Tracey McCartney, Tennessee Fair Housing Council, provided a deadline date for response from the HOA Attorney, who never did issue a definitive approval.

So the Hollis family sold their home in Chestnut Bend, at a loss, and moved to another nearby home in a different community.

Four years later, the HOA has agreed to compensate the Hollis family $156,000 to cover damages.

Incredibly, the HOA Board still won’t admit any wrongdoing. After all, the rules are the rules, and they must be followed, according to the Board President. According to the Tennessean, Mr. Vaughn blames the Hollis’s for “hurting” their Association by creating the impression that the HOA is not a welcoming place. Call it Reputation Management.

And Westwood Property Management company was able to wiggle out of the lawsuit by agreeing to train its employees about Fair Housing laws, and to create a written policy for the company to use in the future.

But isn’t it rather disturbing that a professional management company would not already provide sufficient training to its staff? After all, it’s not as though requests for accommodation or modification by disabled residents are a rare occurrence.

And why does it take four years and several appeals to get to a resolution? I wonder how many HOA residents simply move out and give up on pursuing the matter, just to avoid the stress?

Maybe that’s part of an unscrupulous HOA Board’s playbook —  perhaps even encouraged by the Association Attorney and/or Manager. Say it isn’t so!

(link to news release regarding legal settlement)
(link to Sept 2014 District Court decision)