Category Archives: Duck Dynasty

Oh! My Goodness…Imagine THIS Happening In A Condo Association

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
My title might have been the reaction back in the 1960’s.  Since then HOAs and COAs have come a long way in the development of dishonest business practices, deception, and embezzlement.
 
$81K was all they could charge the COA treasurer, Kostantina Gardner with stealing.  But they are sure it’s more than that.  Folks, I promise you it’s more…probably a whole lot more!
 
If not for the water bills being $55K in arrears this might have gone on for another twenty years. Clifford Albertson has been the board president since dirt was invented and he trusted this well-liked treasurer.  
 
I have some questions for Clifford: 
 
1) How did she get an ATM card on the BonAire Condominium One Complex bank account?  
This should have been established long ago that no one could walk in and acquire an ATM card!
 
2) Why was the board not reviewing the water bills? 
 
(a) And the other utility bills? 
 
(b) And most of all the bank statements?!?!?
 
 
Folks, we must change the way we think!  
 
We lock the car door when we get out.  We bolt the house shut, turn on the alarm, and illuminate the exterior.  We take steps to avoid being caught up in identity theft.  We teach our children about “stranger danger.”  We place lanyards on the elderly for a medical alert. We dance in circles and jump up and down warning our daughters about “date rape” drugs.  We cross the street and walk faster with our pepper spray ready when we see a teenager in a “hoodie.”
 
Yes, we do it ALL to protect ourselves YET we totally trust the people we should be the most suspicious of….the HOA board and the property managers!  STOP IT!  Stop trusting these people. They know you trust them by not paying attention and never asking any questions.  Stop giving them the freedom to steal, deceive, lie, and destroy your bank account and property values!
 
Think about it…If just one member of this condo association had asked to see the water bill or the bank statement this thief could have been caught long ago!  
 
Remember: the word TRUST and HOAs or COAs or property managers should never be used in the same sentence! 
 

 

Can They Really Do That?

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Can an HOA which dissolved itself really come back to life and start liening homes?

Can an HOA refuse to disclose its budget to homeowners?

Sadly, we get questions like these all the time. And the answer: An HOA can do whatever the heck it wants, whenever the heck it wants and there’s very little you as a homeowner can do about it.

Sure, you’ll read lots of ‘pablum’ like in the story linked below on how homeowners can ‘reclaim’ their neighborhoods. But it’s mostly junk information. The bottom line is that if you, as a homeowner can get screwed you probably will get screwed. Get used to it. It’s a fact of life. Of course there are laws on the books all over the country. There are laws against infidelity, too. But when’s the last time you saw anyone criminally prosecuted for it?

There really is an answer for homeowners who want their boards to follow the law. Create mandatory criminal penalties for board members or HOA managers who break the law. Throw them in jail. After all, these board members ran for office promising to be honest. Just like a Congressman who breaks the public trust, nothing will ever, ever change until we start filling our jails with public officials who refused to honor the public trust.

Jail!

Nothing else will work.

(link to nonsense article about getting HOAs to obey the law)

http://newstimes.augusta.com/news/2014-06-01/ivy-falls-home-owners-divided-over-revived-association

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gold? Fuggeddaboudit!

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After the financial blogs of the past two nights, let me pass on another warning about the approaching housing market disaster: I’ve have lots of questions about using gold as a hedge against whatever is coming.

Please listen carefully: Do not! Do not! Do not buy gold unless you truly understand it, which I seriously doubt anybody does!

Look at the charts linked below: every peak represents a person who’s won a fortune in gold investing at the right time.  But that subsequent valley represents an investor who’s lost a fortune in gold investing. If you think you can time the market you’re just flat out wrong. Many’s the speculator who bet on gold to hedge a collapsing economy and ended up as a net loser.

If you ever see that I’ve made a fortune in the gold market, then I give you carte blanche permission to tell everyone, “Ward cheated. He’s a liar. He’s a shyster.”

Betting on gold is worse than going to Vegas. Stay home. Pay the bills. Buy some emergency rations, enough to last your family for a few months. Don’t go nutty on me. We who are questioning the HOA debacle aren’t survivalists. (I have serious doubts that a survivalist can survive much of anything, anyway.) We’re just carefully analyzing an approaching disaster that every economist in the country is talking about… and puzzling over. There are just no clear answers. But I guarantee there’s a phalanx of con men out there being trained to take advantage of your fears.

(is gold really a good investment?)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/10019128/Is-gold-really-a-safe-haven-asset.html

 

Collapse! Collapse! Collapse!

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While I honestly believe the approaching mortgage and housing collapse will be the biggest in our history, I still respect well-written satire of economic fatalists like me.

Yes, China might someday be the biggest holder of American homeowner debt, but in the meantime I’ll always be able to smile at such wonderful prose:

(how to survive the collapse)

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/big-book/how-survive-next-economic-collapse

Management Company Fiasco

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Many HOA board members who are tired of fulfilling their duties try to hire professional management companies to do the heavy lifting. But an HOA in Houston has learned a sad lesson about how some idiot HOA managers can get them into massive trouble.

Jacqueline Greene, a single mom with three kids, got behind in her rent at the Villa de Cancun complex owned by Woodfair Properties. Woodfair has a nifty way of forcing late-payers into forking over the money. They just screw the front door to the doorframe. Jacqueline removed the screws. The HOA management company did it again, once again forcing her to remove the screws so she access her apartment.

This time, Woodfair properties simply removed the front door altogether. Neat trick to pull on renters, right?

Well, not exactly. After Jaqueline and her kids spent several nights in the cold she contacted a lawyer. They filed suit based on the fact that this oh-so-professional management company had blatantly broken the law. There are legal ways to evict a tenant. Woodfair chose the illegal way. And guess who won? Jaqueline, the tenant.

If you’re a homeowner whose board just decided to hire a management company, remember you may be more vulnerable than ever. And if you have deep pockets just remember the phrase, “joint and several liability.” It means that even if you had no idea your management company was being so stupid, a lawyer can start digging through your pockets to force you to pay the entire judgment.

Welcome to HOA Amerika.

(link to Houston Chronicle story)