Category Archives: Handicap

“Quail Run Condos Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down, Quail Run Condos Falling Down, Run, Mr. Johnson!”

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
What’s happening at Quail Run Condos in Charlotte, North Carolina? They have no money to repair James Johnson’s cracked foundation which has caused his floor to drop and walls to crack. But they do have money for a two year battle and a property manager who can schedule the repairs but can’t get the work started. Talk is cheap so they’ll be discussing this nightmare at the next HOA board meeting. 
 
Quality-built? Sure, if compared to your breakfast cereal box!  Lowest-grade cheap materials and sloppy construction.  In about thirty years or less they are ready to be bulldozed.  No more structurally sound than a mobile home minus the wheels.
 
Mr. Johnson, the HOA admits the structural problems are theirs to fix.  Okay, so they have breached the HOA’s side of the contract.  They break promises to repair it because you are a “troublemaker” for trying to keep your condo from falling down. I call that deceptive practices. Next, they will claim they are not responsible to pay for the interior damages. They will try to force you into bankruptcy with a legal battle which they will have funded by a multi-billion dollar insurance company that is committed to destroy you.  
  
Forget about selling.  You’ll be dumping this nightmare on some other innocent person.  Hire a structural engineer.  If they declare the place unsafe, contact the City of Charlotte Safety Inspector.  They may condemn the property.  Have your attorney sue for breach of contract and deceptive practices in violation of the North Carolina consumer protection laws. Add a demand for the HOA to buy your property and pay your legal bills. 
 
If you don’t, you’re right, you’ll have to pay somebody to take this worthless piece of crap off your hands.  This is precisely why condo owners all across America are walking away and letting the banks foreclose on their properties.  
 
How do I know this drill?  I live in an HOA with nearly these identical problems.  I’ve been living this same nightmare for eight years!!!!!!
 
TRUST ME, IT DOES NOT GET BETTER!
 
I’ve learned these maintenance-provided HOAs are nothing but cash cows for the HOA, property managers, insurance companies, attorneys, and the city and county tax collectors. They are a massive hemorrhage on the owner’s bank account, health, and happiness.
 
Maintenance-provided is the worst kind of HOA hell.  The buyers become the losers the day we sign the contract!  
 

(click here for WCNC-TV news story) 

 

Matthew

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On various patriotic holidays I’ve blogged about my dad, who was one of General George Patton’s tank commanders in WWII. He was critically wounded and taken POW in Kaiserslautern, Germany in March of 1945. 

I’ve never blogged about my mother’s first husband who was also a hero of that war. He was killed in the Battle of the Bulge on Christmas Eve, 1944, when Nazi forces surrounded Bastogne and St. Vith, Belgium. Many years ago I did record a 4th of July story on him…

Please remember our veterans on this special day.

Ward

 

Alfred Thompkins Is Back Home…Thanks To A Reverse Mortgage!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
Let’s refresh our memories about the Davis Lake Community Association in North Carolina, the HOA that foreclosed on Alfred Thompkins, an ill and elderly man who stopped paying his dues.  He was upset because the HOA wouldn’t let his niece and nephew who lived with him use the swimming pool.  Obviously, he was honest and said he wasn’t their legal guardian, so the HOA just grabbed his house.
 
The point is:  Who gives a rip? In the beginning Thompkins was paying dues, which contributed to the pool even though he wasn’t using it. So why not let his niece and nephew take a dip?  
 
This is what gripes me about HOA board members.  So many of them seem to be incredibly lacking in common sense!  They foreclosed and sold Thompkins’ house for pennies on the dollar.  But was that really the issue?  Or could it have been the fact that his house was mortgage-free and loaded to the roof top with equity? (Click on the link below to find out how a reverse mortgage saved his house from foreclosure.)
 
I think of all the people inconvenienced and costs that were involved in this insane situation:
 
1) He had to pack and move
2) Rented a storage unit
3) Stayed at a relative’s house
4) Wells Fargo got involved
5) The television station got involved
6) The county court system got involved
7) Utilities were disconnected 
8) His mail had to be forwarded
9) Relatives are buying gas and driving from Chicago to help him move back in
10) Utilities have to be re-connected
11) Mail has to be re-established
12) He will have to unpack and re-settle
 
In the big picture, would it not have made better sense to have worked this out with Alfred before putting him and all these other people through such tremendous stress and nightmares? 
 
I can personally think of at least ten ways this could have been resolved without this “bullies on the board” approach. 
 
Not to mention,  Mr. Thompkins could have just lied and said his two relatives were his children.  Would the board have paid for DNA testing?  Doubtful.  But he told the truth and this is the mess he got into for being honest.  A person’s honesty should never be met with a penalty.  This is one of the reasons deception and dishonesty have become a way of life in America!!! 
 
And, now we have another elderly person in tears because of the torture he endured at the hands of an HOA!  The rest of his days in that house he’ll be living in fear of doing something wrong and losing his house again.  
 
I guarantee it!
 
 
list of Davis Lake board members:
 
stevendonai@davislake.org
 
bettylee@davislake.org
 
bruceauerbach@davislake.org
 
lesliematthews@davislake.org
 
briansenatore@davislake.org
 

Whew! A New Housing Bubble?

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A lot of pundits have been predicting a new housing bubble, one even worse than that of 2008-2009. In this economy, of course, anything is possible.

But Bloomberg News now reports that the Fed is requiring a dozen major banking institutions in 2014 to stage a series of ‘war games’ if you will, stress-testing their ability to endure a plunge in the value of their portfolios.

How would they fare in another massive housing bust?

Hmmm, let’s toss into the mix a few factors that nobody ever talks about. 24% to 50% of the mortgage portfolios held by some major lending institutions are in homes located within American Homeowners Associations.

Several recent studies have shown that home values don’t appreciate or hold their value in Homeowners Associations as they do in properties outside of HOA control.

As documented in my new book, Neighbors At War, every foreclosure in a Homeowners Association drives down surrounding home values by several percentage points.

What’s that again?

Uh oh.

(Bloomberg News report)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-02/fed-gives-banks-new-dire-scenarios-for-2014-stress-tests.html

 

Read The Book. Return The Book. Or Get Booked!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
Are you borrowing Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association from your local library?  Don’t miss the due date for return or there’s a chance you’ll end up in jail!
 
This is the only book I own that has yellow highlighter on the pages from cover to cover.  Marking all the important things I wanted to reference later.  Library users tell me once they read a couple of chapters they had to own a copy so they could mark theirs, too!
 
Save yourself some time…just buy it!  
 
Living in an HOA is already too much like being locked in a jail.  Except you have to pay to live there and there are no free meals!