Category Archives: Duck Dynasty

Second Arrest in HOA Embezzlement

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They got him! A couple of days ago a longtime HOA manager in San Mateo, California was arrested and accused of stealing 2.8 million dollars from the Woodlake Homeowners Association. Now they’ve arrested her partner, a man who allegedly wrote fake invoices for construction work that was never done. It sure sounds like a copycat of the decade-long swindle of homeowners in Las Vegas.

And it sounds a lot like the multi-million dollar organized crime racketeering swindle of Homeowners Associations in Colorado.

And Homeowners Associations in Florida.

In Alabama.

Virginia.

Texas.

And every other state.

Still, you keep hearing from Realtors, and Congressmen, lawyers, city officials and state representatives that this kind of swindle is extremely rare. What are these guys smoking, anyway?

(link to arrest story in San Mateo Daily Journal)

 

Corruption in Hotel California

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it in the future. When you’re investing your life savings in your home, don’t trust anybody. Don’t trust the Realtor. Don’t trust the county’s master plan, and above all do not trust your HOA. Homeowners in Chula Vista, California are learning about what all west coast residents know as ‘Californication.’

They bought into a peaceful valley where traffic was minimal, wildlife was everywhere, no smog was in the air. Life in the Eastlake III Homeowners Association was Heaven on Earth. The master plan showed their pristine way of life would last forever. But that kind of promise evaporates the minute land developers start knocking on doors. All of a sudden builders began jamming high density neighborhoods all around, packing in low quality homes like sardines in a can.

Eastlake III is no longer the promised land. The Homeowners Association is embroiled in legal disputes, recall elections, charges of corruption, violence threatened. Police are being hired to maintain the peace in HOA meetings.

Promises are like…. no, discretion says “don’t go there.” Let’s just say that promises are hollow. And promises made by a Homeowners Association are especially worthless.

(link to story in the San Diego Reader)

 

To Counter-Act C.A.I. Disinformation

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The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is famous for testifying before state legislatures that it represents all homeowners living in HOAs. Absolute nonsense. In the beginning it probably did. But in the early 1990s a conscious decision was made to turn the organization into a referral group, sending high-dollar referrals in HOA disputes to its member lawyers, property managers and contractors. Under its phony non-profit shield it sent out surveys on how satisfied Americans were with their Homeowners Associations.

Whoa! Any legitimate, honest survey of homeowners living under the HOA yoke should have told a far different story. Finally, some in the anti-HOA movement are releasing studies which appear to be far more legitimate than the pablum being spread by the CAI. It’s hard to get legislators to pay attention to what they see as a non-issue. But surveys like the one linked below tell a more interesting story about homeowner dissatisfaction and abuse.

(link online survey of homeowners, real estate professionals and homeowner associations)

Also, housing consumer advocate Deborah Goonan was interviewed about this story today by Shu Bartholomew, host of OnTheCommons.net. It really is worth listening to.

 

 

The New Code Word: Gentrified

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Yes, that’s pretty much the new code word for Homeowners Associations: Gentrified or Gentrification. And it’s the word of the day in Denver where brand new HOAs or condo associations are trying get rid of some homeless shelters and rescue missions. The missions have been in the lower downtown Denver area almost forever. But Coors Field changed everything.

The now-famous home of Colorado Rockies baseball was built where land was cheap, right at the intersection of skid road and the nation’s central railroad hub. The rescue missions continued to do their work but suddenly the ‘gentrified’ wanted to live near the ball park. Century-old slaughter houses were turned into luxury condos. A two-bedroom setup where cows were once butchered can now cost millions of dollars.

The bums still lie around on the streets where they always did. The City of Denver issued a permit for one mission to improve its homeless shelter. But the ‘Newly Gentrified’ went nutz and took the whole mess to court. The judge issued his order this week. Gentrification is in. Bums are out.

(link to Denver Post story on HOAs vs. the homeless)

 

Victories Are Rare!

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It’s not often when a beleaguered homeowner gets a chance to beat up a bullying Homeowners Association, but I do love to see it happen.

I remember my own battles with a Homeowners Association in Morrison, Colorado. My wife had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She had no visible symptoms whatsoever, but the president of the HOA said he would not allow ANY accommodations for a disability. He told us, “well, you’ll just have to move downtown.” I was blown away at his bluntness. But this HOA president, Hatch Wroton, told me, “You know, in a restaurant people just kind of lose their appetite around gimps. They don’t want to see them.”

That was my new awakening that HOAs were too exclusive for blacks, gays, Jews and ‘gimps’ like my wife. Wroton was the former Martin Marietta scientist who designed some of the spacecraft which were destined to land on Mars. But this neighborhood will never escape from the legacy of this anti-Semitic, anti-homosexual, anti-Negro board and its president. There are others to take their place, of course, and the hatred will wax and wane.

But the message is that the extreme bigotry of my HOA is NOT unique. It goes on everywhere.

The story linked below is about a disabled Marine pilot from California who was also treated horribly. They wouldn’t give him access to the community swimming pool. It apparently made the other residents uncomfortable. Never mind that the federal government found their actions illegal. There’s a settlement. The HOA insurance company will pay the elderly couple a hundred thousand bucks if they just take their disabled, disfigured military hero to some other neighborhood.

Photographed in July 2013, Cynthia Campbell kisses her husband, Allen Campbell, to calm him down after he talked about his complaint with their homeowners association. The retired South Natomas couple have settled the case for a six-figure sum – provided they move out after they accused their homeowners association of denying Allen Campbell, a disabled former Marine pilot, access to the community pool.

(link to story on disabled Marine)