Category Archives: Foreclosures

How Would You Like To Live Next To THIS Nightmare?

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San Clemente is a picturesqe California coastal town. But the big local controversy is a huge condo complex that went bankrupt five years ago. The empty building attracts rats, drug dealers, and has a massive impact on other homes in the Timbers at Towne Center Homeowners Association. Homes worth nearly $300,000 a few years ago now sell for less than $150,000. That is, when they can sell at all. Homeowners say they occasionally get interested buyers. But they’re chased away at the thought of living next to a garbage dump.

The city can’t do anything. Banks won’t lend money.

One adjacent homeowner says the neighbors complain bitterly about the long term eyesore. But they reject any attempt by the city to raise taxes to help pay for the project’s removal.

It’s so typical of Homeowners Associations, which often seem suicidal when it comes to adapting and finding peaceful solutions to local problems. Sometimes it’s hard to feel sorry for them.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/oct/24/condo-unfinished-development-resident-hazel-dell/

You’re STOOPID To Buy An HOA Home In Nevada!

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The Bank of America lawsuit against dozens of Nevada Homeowners Associations chugs onward. Earlier this Fall, B of A filed a federal lawsuit claiming that HOAs were illegally charging excessive collection fees and arbitrary fines against homeowners who committed minor infractions of HOA rules and covenants.

In one such case, a family in North Las Vegas moved out of their home and attempted to short sell it through the Bank of America. But the HOA in question decided the home in question had too many pine needles and weeds on the property, and they filed a lien against the home. Although the initial fine was only a few hundred dollars, the HOA dramatically escalated its fines and costs to more than $16,500. That made the home virtually unsaleable.

In another case (reported by Darcy Spears, KTNV-TV in Las Vegas), homeowner Char Vanderveen had her home seized by the Mountain’s Edge Homeowners Association. The HOA sold her $700,000 home for $7000, less than one percent of its true value.

There are hundreds, if not thousands or even tens of thousands of similar cases.

Bank of America says that kind of thing is happening all over Nevada and they want a federal judge to intervene.  Any kind of major judgment against Nevada HOAs could cost them millions of dollars. HOA board members and their attorneys are now whining that if they lose the case, the costs will have to be assessed against all other homeowners.

To refer back to the headline of this story, would you buy a home in an HOA that’s potentially facing multi-million dollar judgments, legal fees and huge special assessments against all homeowners? Wouldn’t  you be stupid to do so?

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/174865911.html

Isn’t It Sweet When The Media Start Paying Attention?

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More and more noise is being made around the country from the smallest media to the highest…about abuses by Homeowners Associations. And it’s about time. There’s no more fundamentally corrupt American institution than the HOA down the street. Don’t believe me? There’s an easy test. Just Google “HOA embezzle” and look at the results. Then multiply your results by 1000, since less than one out of a thousand HOAs involved in embezzling ever get any kind of news coverage.

Shocking? Well, that still doesn’t cover even a fraction of the abuses by HOA boards. With more than 300,000 Homeowners Associations in the country, a massive number have complaints about the excesses of power-mongering board members. Don’t believe that? There’s an easy test. Just choose any one of those HOAs in the country and attend the annual meeting. Odds are you’ll see a vicious slugfest.

Enough said.

Ah! No, not quite enough. This blog below from San Fran is really worth reading.

http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2010/09/02/what-happens-when-your-hoa-becomes-hostile/

Dumb and Dumber on Marco Island, Florida

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Homeowners in the South Seas Condominium on Marco Island, Florida, may soon have to pay a hefty special assessment because of a particularly boneheaded decision by their HOA.

The Feds have consistently said that service dogs are covered under the ADA. An HOA doesn’t get to claim they are pets, if the dog is actually performing services for a disabled person. But this particular HOA obviously doesn’t ‘get it.’  They will.

The South Seas Condominium has been harassing 56 year old resident Larry McKay over his 80-pound boxer. In 2008, McKay contracted MRSA, a mostly fatal staph infection that’s hit a number of people in the Southeast. McKay is confined to a wheelchair, and he says the service dog does a number of things for him, such as turning on the lights, and helping him get out of bed.

McKay’s dog helps him with other activities like getting on and off airplanes. The airlines recognize it’s a service dog. This HOA board is apparently too stupid to do the same.

In other parts of the country, such as California, Homeower Associations have been hit with huge fines by the ADA because they insist that all service dogs are merely ‘pets,’ prohibited by the HOA.

McKay has lots of supporters in his condominium. Doesn’t matter. When the FDA slams this condo with a massive fine, each and every condo owner is going to have to fork up some bucks to pay for the idiotic decisions by their HOA board.

A dumb waste  of other peoples’ money. But it’s typical. So typical.

By Ward Lucas, author of Neigbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/19728171/man-in-dispute-with-hoa-over-service-dog?clienttype=printable