Category Archives: Foreclosures

Frickin’ FEMA

A Hurricane? And You’re Not Covered?

A recent issue of Realty Times discusses what thousands of victims of Hurricane Sandy already know: Homeowners in HOAs Co-ops and Community Associations aren’t eligible for storm coverage.

Huh? What’s that again?

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says Homeowners Associations are private businesses. As such, a homeowner who’s damaged in a major disaster can’t get federal grants. If they’re lucky they might qualify for loans, but by buying into a Homeowners Association a homeowner is actually just a shareholder in a business enterprise, not a real homeowner.

So, all you great people who bought into a condo, townhome, co-op, or Homeowners Association don’t wait for that check from the feds. It’s probably not coming!

(click here for FEMA nightmare)

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20130821_condostormrelief.htm

 

Florida HOA Kicked in its St. Augustine Grass!

guest blog by Nila Ridings 

The good doctor and his wife really wanted to follow their HOA’s rules and regulations. They also wanted to keep harmful fertilizers out of the Intracoastal Waterway near Jacksonville. 
 
They filed the necessary paperwork for a “Florida Friendly” yard. After getting no response during the customary 30 day waiting period, they started their landscaping project.
 
Whoa! The official “HOA Double Standard” raised its ugly head in the form of a nasty lawsuit!
 
Dr. and Mrs. Sidle had followed all the HOA rules, but the HOA didn’t bother to follow its own. So, off to see the judge they went. The court ordered mediation and the HOA board gave complete representation to the mediator to settle the case. Everyone agreed and the couple planted all the approved flowers. They were even presented with the first-ever Gold Certified Florida Friendly Landscape Award in Duval County.
 
The problem? The HOA president didn’t like the mediator’s decision and demanded a full-blown trial!
 
Ultimately, the judge ruled in favor of Dr. and Mrs. Sidle. Sadly, the Sidles weren’t awarded their legal fees. And all their neighbors will undoubtedly get slammed with a special assessment to pay for the board’s arrogance and ignorance of Florida law.
 
No mention of the current board’s status, but I hope this board president gets booted into the Intracoastal Waterway with all that soggy St. Augustine Grass draped around his neck. The Florida Friendly Landscape Award sounds like a winner but this board president has proven himself to be a real loser!
 
 

Your Voting Rights Really Are At Risk!

There’s no better homeowners rights advocate in the country than CalHomeLaw.org., in California. I wish they’d let me link directly to some of their blog posts, but they are a paid-only subscription website and I understand and respect that. In the meantime, I have to re-purpose some of their material, while giving them full credit.

CalHomeLaw.org has been vigorously lobbying against Internet voting for Homeowners Associations. The reason is obvious. The Homeowners Association industry is a wasps nest of fraud and once they get Internet voting passed, you and I as private property owners are toast.

Their latest blog cites www.verifiedvoting.org as an expert on what goes on in elections, public AND non-profit.

Now, imagine this scenario: In California, AB-1360 would allow the HOA industry to set up its own internet election equipment, count its own votes, and name the winners. There’s no paper trail, there’s no audit. Challenging election results will be absolutely impossible.

The HOA industry has poured massive amounts of money into trying to lobby for this bill and others like it.

Remember Las Vegas? Hundreds of millions of dollars were skimmed away from Homeowners Associations into the pockets of private law firms, police officials, political bigwigs, all based on the fact that phony ‘straw men’ were elected to HOA boards in completely fixed elections!

Dang it, Folks, this is ORGANIZED CRIME! This is the NEW MAFIA!

We’ve already seen gunfire break out in a number of Homeowners Associations across America. We’ve seen suicides, and we’ve watched thousands of people evicted from longtime homes. We’ve seen cases where a buddy of the HOA lawyer bought up the victim’s home at auction for pennies on the dollars a day after the foreclosure.

Heck, we’ve even seen cases where the HOA board auctioned off and then bought a homeowner’s house and put the money back in the HOA treasury! Talk about a conflict of interest!

This is ugly stuff gang, and it’s going on in neighborhoods all around the country, even in the town you thought was so benign and peaceful.

Organize Folks! Beat these criminals down at every possible chance. I’m not much of a bell-ringing alarmist, but I know this stuff is coming. I swear to you that we are in the very real situation where Constitutional rights we all thought we once had are being pulverized. When they’re gone, we have no way of getting them back.

 

“He fought for the flag and we’ll die for the flag!” ~Louise Helton

guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
This story has reduced me to tears!
 
I hold a special place in my heart for aviators, veterans, and the American flag.
 
In the course of his 92 years, Mr. Helton of McDonough, Georgia has VOLUNTEERED to fight in 3 wars for the United States of America.  He fought for my freedom and yours. He fought for these ungrateful, insensitive, and brain-dead board members, too!  Today, He sits in his chair with his aviator’s shirt on. He is devastated. And he can’t hold back the tears.
 
Why?  
 
Because four board members from the Village At Spring Creek HOA marched themselves to his front door and ordered him to take the America flag off his house or they will fine him $25 per day.  And one of them said, “If you don’t take it down, I’ll take it down!”
 
If you’ve read this far please think about what I am about to say.  Do we really and truly want the last years, months, days, or hours of life on this earth for those who have sacrificed so much for each of us to be spent in the greatest battle of their lives to be with their Homeowners Association?  The Helton’s have lived in this HOA hellhole less than one year. President George W. Bush signed into law the RIGHT to fly the American flag in 2005 so any of us who wish to fly it could freely do so.
 
This story makes me feel more and more like our enemies are not on foreign soil. They are right here living next door and down the street.  Every single story I read about HOAs cements that belief for me. 
 
Please join me in our efforts to stop this insanity by flying your American flag today.  
 
United we can and will make a difference!
 

Georgia Marine Loses Right To Fly The Flag

A patriotic member of the U.S. Marines tried to fly both the American Flag and the Marine Corps flag outside his home in Atlanta. But the Sun City Peach-Tree Homeowners Association says he’ll be fined, sued, liened and foreclosed if he does so. Seems that Sun City will only allow one flag at a time (Southern Homeowners Associations have been consistently losing their fight to ban all flags).

The Griffin Management company thinks it has total control over its homeowners and can micro-manage every aspect of their lives.

Former Marine Captain Jim Lowe still has the spit and fury of a U.S. Marine in his heart and says he’s going to fight. But his Homeowners Association is fining him 25 bucks a day each time they spot the reviled Marine flag on his flagpole.

Captain Lowe and his wife say they plan to move out of the community. Apparently they’re just now realizing that Amerikan Homeowner Associations are not really part of America. And he wants to move back into the country that he loves.

BTW, it’s not about this man’s right to fly which ever flag he chooses. It’s about the equity in his home. No HOA fines a guy unless it first checks public records to see how much equity there is. Follow the money, folks. Never follow the ideology or the reasoning behind stupid board decisions. Follow the money. It’s all about the equity and how much can be seized and transferred to the HOA’s operating budget.

Believe me.

Just believe me.

(click to read article in the Atlanta Free Beacon)