Category Archives: Foreclosures

The Problem With Private Police

Last year I ranted and railed about the Illinois Supreme Court allowing Homeowners Associations to hire untrained security guards who are allowed to make traffic ‘arrests.’ It was an idiotic decision because it put no limits on the police powers given to these ‘wanna-be’ cops. Anyone who’s covered news events for as many decades as I have knows that untrained guards cause many problems, not the least of which is unlimited liability to their employers.

Legitimate police officers are in constant training, their skills are always being honed, they’re repeatedly learning new law enforcement techniques, going to legal seminars and qualifying at the shooting range. Under the Illinois decision any 18 year old punk could put on a uniform, badge and gun, and even brandish an AK-47 if he so wished. There are no rules!

Now we read that it’s common practice in Homeowners Associations in Virginia. Fake cops there can even ‘invent’ fake police departments. After a number of incidents involving private cops, the Virginia Legislature is trying to give them some mandatory training.

But imagine the liability to the individual homeowner! A sex assault, a car accident during a chase, an accidental discharge of a weapon and a multi-million dollar lawsuit could be filed against the HOA that hired the fake cop. All those homeowners could be hit with special assessments to cover legal fees and liability judgments.

Very scary.

(link to Washington Post story on Virginia’s private cops)

 

Dallas Jews Face Yet Another First Amendment Fight

guest blog by Deborah Goonan

About a month ago, I wrote about Congregation Toras Chaim (CTC).  With the help of Liberty Institute, CTC prevailed in a lawsuit filed by their HOA with regard to a dispute over deed restrictions limiting HOA homes to “single family use.” Based upon two Texas laws protecting religious freedom, a Colin County judge threw out an HOA’s case against owners of a home used as an Orthodox Jewish synagogue.

But that’s not the end of the story.

On March 2, 2015, the City of Dallas filed suit against CTC and the owners of the property at 7103 Mumford St, Mark B. and Judith D. Gothelf. The petition claims that the defendants have failed to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) required by the City of Dallas for all non-residential uses of property. The City insists that the property be brought into compliance with local ordinances before they will issue a CO for the property.

Specifically, the City explains:

Currently, Defendants’ only permissible use of the Property is a single family use. Any other use of the Property that would require a CO [Certificate of Occupancy], such as the proposed use as a synagogue, without first obtaining a CO and complying with the life-safety requirements entailed therein, presents a substantial danger of injury or adverse health impact to persons and/or property of persons other than the Defendants.”

Curiously, the dispute over the CO and ordinance requirements stretches back to November 2013, not long after homeowner David R. Schneider filed his first lawsuit against the Gothelfs on the matter of deed restrictions in the McKamy IV and V HOA.

The City is now requiring that multiple modifications be made to the property, including adding 13 parking spaces, adding a firewall barrier between the first and second floors of the dwelling, and handicap accessible features including 2 wheelchair accessible restrooms on the first floor. The estimated cost to bring the Mumford Street home into compliance: roughly $200,000.

Attorneys from Liberty Institute, representing the Gothelfs and CTC have been back and forth with the City of Dallas for 18 months, initially arguing that the CTC is exempt from the City’s bureaucratic ordinance requirements based upon state and federal laws governing religious freedom.  After all, they argue, the congregation of Orthodox Jewish families is smaller than most Christian Bible Study groups that meet in residential homes, without being required to comply with cost-prohibitive and unnecessary city codes.

The City claims they are within their legal rights to insist upon CO requirements, despite religious use status, state and federal law. The Congregation, through their attorney, then proposed a modification of their request, to ensure a maximum capacity of less than 50 occupants, but despite the good faith effort to compromise, the City has refused to back down on its requirements. In fact, every attempt of the CTC to compromise and avoid litigation has been rejected, or the City has changed the requirements yet again. The City now claims it will allow the defendants to formally request a special exception or variance, however if that request is denied, the modifications will have to be made within 14 days. If the deadlines are not met, CTC faces $1,000 per day fines for non-compliance.

According to the Rabbi, about 10 people attend daily religious study, and about 30 attend on the Sabbath, arriving on foot since their faith forbids driving on the Sabbath.

Also according to the Rabbi, the cost of extensive modifications combined with the cost of daily fines threatens the very existence of the Congregation. Its members would have to move to a different location within walking distance of their gathering place for weekly services.

Is it the City’s intent to protect religious freedom or to circumvent First Amendment rights by way of unreasonable enforcement of ordinances? And why has the City chosen to stop working with the Congregation and property owners now, on the heels of dismissal of the HOA’s case against them?

This battle for First Amendment rights is not over. The Liberty Institute has issued a statement that it plans to aggressively defend the religious rights of CTC.

“This outcome matters,” said Kelly Shackelford, Liberty Institute President & CEO.

“Any verdict that does not protect this congregation would be tragic. Not only for them, not only for Dallas, but for America. If small meetings by people of faith are not allowed in their homes, that would greatly damage religious freedom for all.”

(link to previous blog)

(link to WFAA TV news coverage of suit filed by City of Dallas)

(link to Dallas News article coverage of news conference)

(link to statement from Liberty Institute)

Corruption in Pennsylvania HOA

There’s so much official corruption in Pennsylvania that it’s not surprising when the corruption model goes all the way down to private Homeowners Associations. After all, when judges face prosecution for such things as bribery and selling kids to perverts for cash, where is the moral standard?

What official in public office is setting the example for honest and decent conduct? Apparently, moral leadership is severely lacking in that state.
Now, an entire family has been arrested for embezzling from the Skyview Homeowners Association in Richland Township, Pennsylvania.

(link to latest HOA embezzlement case)

 

A Lesson in Contradiction and Irony – America’s Real Estate Market

guest blog by Deborah Goonan

I must admit, it’s becoming very difficult to keep up with real estate market news these days. The most recent Census data report pegs the US homeownership rate at a mere 64% – a 25-year low. Yet, markets are heating up and home prices are making the American Dream even less attainable.

I’ve included a few links to some of the dozens of recent reports that I read every month. If I had to describe the current housing market in one word it would be “insanity.”

The so-called market recovery varies considerably from one market to another, and even between market segments. For instance, in Miami 4th Quarter year-on-year sales of single family homes were up 7.7%, while condo sales in the same market were down 3.3%. Prices were up 4.7% for single-family homes, and 8.6% for condos, despite falling demand. Yet 325 new condo towers have been have been proposed in Miami, and 13,000 of the total 41,000 units proposed are currently under construction. Foreign buyers from Russia, South America, and European countries make up a significant portion of the market, but their buying power is eroding as the value of the dollar increases.

Who is going to buy all of these condos?

Phoenix and Denver also reports low supply and high prices, while in Chicago, sales are still lagging behind.

Meanwhile, in the Tampa Bay area, where dozens of condo conversions gone bad were de-converted to apartment rentals in recent years, several previously stalled new construction condominium projects have since been scoffed up by investors and rented for several years. Guess what? Now those rentals are converting back to condos for sale. Staging companies are having a field day furnishing vacant units to woo buyers.

So in addition to displaced condo owners losing their homes and life savings, we also have displaced tenants competing in an already tight rental market. The problem is, condo prices are too high for most of these displaced owners and rents are going through the roof for all of these folks on the move. But who cares? Not all those private investors in the process of making their next wave of fortunes in this budding boom market.

The same condo conversion euphoria is reportedly occurring in other major urban areas, especially New York City.

My head hurts from shaking it.

At the same time, the luxury real estate market is going wild. In Tampa and Miami, for instance, many condos are selling above $1 million, even though the median price for condos in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market last year was a mere $110,000. New high-end condo complexes in Tampa Bay are pre-selling their units for millions of dollars.

Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham reports that the McMansion is back in vogue across America. Developers are apparently targeting affluent families buying up the real estate ladder, despite the fact that the millennial generation is opting out of buying first homes and renting instead. (Be sure to check out the photos of some very posh properties in FL, selling at $5 million and up. The author also notes that despite all the marketing and political hype about the virtues of urban living, most developers and construction companies are politically Conservative (according to campaign contribution records), and prefer to live in spacious homes with large lots in far-flung locations away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Go figure. After all, I suppose big-time stakeholders in this insane real estate market need somewhere nice and private to live

(link to Tampa Bay Times on condo de-conversions to conversions)

(link to NBC real estate market report – Miami)

(link to Tampa Bay Times on luxury condo market)

(link to Orlando Sentinel/Washington Post  on the return of McMansions)

(link to Jan 2015 US Census housing data)

Sewage backups a problem for St. Cloud condo complex, trailer community

guest blog by Deborah Goonan

There is a national misconception that HOAs are all prestigious gated communities or luxury condos for the wealthy. That’s just not the case. The vast majority of HOAs across the country are home to people of all income brackets.

Florida, like many other states, has its share of “affordable” and low-income housing in Associations. Most of these are multifamily arrangements such as low-rise condos and townhouses, or trailer parks where residents lease lot space.

But in St. Cloud, FL (Osceola County), owners in Palm Gardens condominium complex and Floridian RV Park have something to make a big stink about – literally. They’ve got sewage backing up when it rains, and bubbling up from the street and into yards. Their children cannot safely play in contaminated areas. The stench is terrible, and owners and residents are frustrated.

Florida DEP and Osceola County have been slow to respond. Palm Gardens condo owners have been told they will each have to come up with $3000 to rebuild the entire system, but few can afford that much money. They already pay $165 per month maintenance fees to the condo association.

It is unclear who will pay for repairs in both of these low-income residential neighborhoods, and perhaps that’s part of the reason these issues have festered so long.

This is another shining example of what can go wrong when public works are privatized: poorly built infrastructure, no regular maintenance or inspections of the system, finger-pointing and blame-shifting when inevitable problems come to the surface. Local governments say that the owners in the private community should pay for repairs. Owners say that building inspectors and code enforcement should have been doing their jobs all along. HOA and Condo Boards, with little guidance and oversight, have been allowed to underfund reserves or squander money over the years, and now owners cannot come up with hefty special assessments. They wonder, “Where did all our money go?”

Where indeed.

Palm Gardens condo complex

Floridian RV Park, WFTV Video coverage