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.
Those of you living outside Nevada might have missed one of the most important editorials of the week. Of the month. If you love your family and your home, please take the time to read this from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
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.
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.
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.
