Category Archives: embezzle

Can They Really Do That?

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Can an HOA which dissolved itself really come back to life and start liening homes?

Can an HOA refuse to disclose its budget to homeowners?

Sadly, we get questions like these all the time. And the answer: An HOA can do whatever the heck it wants, whenever the heck it wants and there’s very little you as a homeowner can do about it.

Sure, you’ll read lots of ‘pablum’ like in the story linked below on how homeowners can ‘reclaim’ their neighborhoods. But it’s mostly junk information. The bottom line is that if you, as a homeowner can get screwed you probably will get screwed. Get used to it. It’s a fact of life. Of course there are laws on the books all over the country. There are laws against infidelity, too. But when’s the last time you saw anyone criminally prosecuted for it?

There really is an answer for homeowners who want their boards to follow the law. Create mandatory criminal penalties for board members or HOA managers who break the law. Throw them in jail. After all, these board members ran for office promising to be honest. Just like a Congressman who breaks the public trust, nothing will ever, ever change until we start filling our jails with public officials who refused to honor the public trust.

Jail!

Nothing else will work.

(link to nonsense article about getting HOAs to obey the law)

http://newstimes.augusta.com/news/2014-06-01/ivy-falls-home-owners-divided-over-revived-association

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Kind of Guest Blog

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(note to readers: This lady’s email request was so poignant that, with her permission, I wrote it up as a ‘guest blog’. Let’s help her with some suggestions)  

 

guest blog by Pippi

Hello! As many homeowners have likely done, we bought a place with an HOA. It was in 2005, and it was our first home. I would need 2 hands to count all the mistakes we made, and have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Our real-estate agent was also an owner here, and on the board, and quite pushy. Fast-forward 9 years – our condo that we bought for 96,900 is now worth about 40k! We pay “interest-only” on the loan (almost no equity at this point). We pay 417/mo. for HOA and utilities (no washer or dryer, no air conditioner, no tv in living room, etc).

The whole property is a dump. They are trying to pass a special assessment. Our portion of it would be almost 7k. They are “offering” a payment plan of 2 years, so about $280/mo on top of the $417. If I had $700/month extra, I wouldn’t be living here. In return for this assesment, we get nothing (and in fact, it includes the demolition, but not rebuilding, of our carport for insurance reasons).

Part of the reason we bought this home was that the dues included an exercise room, hot tub and car port, and now all 3 of those amenities will be absent.

I’m looking for advice on how to get out of this mess. We can’t sell, as we’re upside down, and one would have to be crazy to enter into any agreement with this HOA. We can’t even short-sell, as an older management company put liens the on every unit for non-payment of emergent repairs. Ugh, help! Do we just quit paying and save the dough to rent? Pay the bank but not HOA? Pay both and hang in there as long as possible?

This is the tip of the iceberg as far as our HOA issues go. I could write a book, too, unfortunately.

 

Helping Candidates Helps to Educate

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

You may remember my blog on May 10, 2014 about helping political candidates with their campaigns.

The time of year for that massive undertaking has arrived. I was happy to offer my help when I saw one of our Kansas legislators walking door to door on the campaign trail.

This resulted in a very interested call from Astrid. To protect her I will not be using her real name. Astrid was asking for my help to call registered voters to get their agreement for the candidate to place the campaign signs on wire hangers in their yards. The big issue of course: HOAs! We discussed the laws in Kansas about the signs and I gave her the state statute numbers. And then I asked the BIG question!

Yes, Astrid lives in a HOA with her politician husband and she has another family member, an attorney, who also lives in an HOA. We spent about a half hour talking about HOAs, property managers, the CAI, Ward’s book, Evan McKenzie’s books, George Staropoli’s books, and Shu Bartholomew’s radio show. Astrid was shocked. She had no idea of the real truth about her HOA. But she did tell me they had recently gotten their board president booted. She had to rally the neighbors to get him voted out, but she got the job done! <applause>

I expressed to Astrid that I feel Realtors should be required to disclose information about the HOAs or condo associations BEFORE they even show the client the property. Using the example of when you go to the hospital to have surgery. The check-in representative asks if you know you are there to have your right kidney removed and you confirm. The prep nurse asks if you are there to have your right kidney removed, and the surgical nurse, and finally the doctor asks the same question. Before the mask is placed over your nose to send you into a deep sleep you are rest-assured that everybody knows you are not there for an appendectomy! Astrid said, “I know you are right because I did have my right kidney removed and they even marked my body with a pen!”

Okay, so you’ve got the idea that the medical field is making every effort to avoid a malpractice lawsuit. I think the home selling and buying, HOA, and Condo industry should follow the same policies! Astrid said, but nobody would buy then. EXACTLY, Astrid is 100% correct! If buyers knew the truth about HOAs and COAs they would not buy into these nightmares with massive risks for losing their life savings and homes.

If the American Medical Association is supporting these step by step confirmations before surgery, why isn’t the CAI and the Board of Realtors Association doing the same for the housing industry? Therein lies the 40 Billion dollar question for one and the “how would we make a living” for the latter.

We are now more than ever, demanding transparency, integrity, and hopefully the following of our US Constitution from our legislators. We’ve had enough and the polls are starting to show it. Shouldn’t we be demanding the same from those who are selling us the biggest investment of our lifetime?

If we’re able to say, no my appendix is fine, I’m here for my right kidney to be removed. Shouldn’t we also be able to say, NO to an HOA or condo association before we’re shown the property? Why do we have to be subjected to the sales pitch about the beauty of living in the HOA community if we are informed of the truth in advance that we are signing away our US Constitutional Rights, becoming business partners with all of our neighbors in a non-profit corporation, and the HOA has the legal right to assess us to the point our bank accounts could be drained down to pennies.

Don’t we have a RIGHT TO KNOW this before we’re sitting at the table signing our signature on legally binding documents? And the moving van is loaded with all of our possessions because we’ve sold our HOA-FREE property to somebody smarter than we are! I say, yes we do have that right and that needs to be the message we are sending to our legislators along with our fight to end the days of abusive HOAs.

Gotta go, time to hit the campaign trail!

Blow N’ Go High On The Roof, Part II

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

On June 7th, I shared my gutter cleaning, police truck, firefighters and frustrating day with you now known as “Part I.”

Do you recall me saying my attorney told me to never let anyone on my roof or do work on my house or the attached neighbor’s house without showing me their Certificate of Insurance?

Once I had the name of the company with employees on my roof, I requested to see that certificate on their Facebook page. No response. I called the office of the commissioner of insurance. No records for the company. I called the county contractor’s licensing office. No records. I called the city building safety and permits office. They don’t require someone working up on the roof, other than roofing contractors to have a permit, license, and proof of insurance.

Which all boils down to this: If the guys blowing out gutters on the roof fall off, I’m liable. If they get hurt, I’m liable. If they die, I’m liable. And guess what? Every one of my neighbors is liable, too. And I doubt they even have a clue.

This is exactly why my attorney told me to always get a copy of the Certificate of Insurance. And now I’m suggesting you do it, too.

In talking to a non-CAI property manager, I learned that he never allows anyone to work on the property without seeing their Certificate of Insurance. If they are sweeping the parking lot he makes sure they have it in case they hit a car, run over a child, or knock down a light pole. If they change a drain in a pool he makes sure they have insurance. Absolutely nobody works on that property without insurance.

When and where do the risks end while living in an HOA?  It seems they never do. All the risks and expense are going to fall on me and you!

 

 

More Collapse Gar-bage’

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In keeping with our theme of the past few nights (the predicted financial collapse of the HOA neighborhood as we know it) here’s another fascinating perspective. This one comes from the gurus at the IMF, that bastion of financial ethics that seems to rule the world and tell us when and where and by how much our currencies will collapse.

Please keep in mind I’m not an economist. My degree was in Political Science, which is kind of a safe haven major when you’re flunking college economics. But I still find the IMF predictions as reported in the Financial Times fascinating.

(Yah, yah, yah, I’ll quit taking yours if you quit taking mine. But here’s the obligatory Financial Times disclaimer:) 

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IMF sounds global housing alarm

By Robin Harding in Washington

The world must act to contain the risk of another devastating housing crash, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday, as it published new data showing house prices are well above their historical average in many countries.

The warning from the IMF shows how an acceleration in global house prices from already high levels has emerged as one of the major threats to economic stability, with countries making limited progress in keeping them under control.

Min Zhu, the IMF’s deputy managing director, said the tools for containing housing booms were “still being developed” but that “this should not be an excuse for inaction”.

House prices “remain well above the historical averages for a majority of countries” in relation to incomes and rents, Mr Zhu said in a speech to the Bundesbank last week, which was only released on Wednesday because it clashed with a European Central Bank announcement.

In the wake of the global recession central bankers have cut interest rates to record lows, pushing house prices to a level that the IMF regards as a significant risk to economies as diverse as Hong Kong and Israel.

In Canada, for example, house prices are 33 per cent above their long-run average in relation to incomes and 87 per cent above their long-run average compared with rents. The figures for the UK are 27 per cent relative to incomes and 38 per cent relative to rents.

The IMF’s new global house price index shows a fresh acceleration, with prices up by 3.1 per cent on a year ago. House prices are rising fastest in emerging markets, with prices up more than 10 per cent on a year ago in the Philippines, 9 per cent in China and 7 per cent in Brazil.

“In some cases house prices are recovering from a sharp correction during the Great Recession,” Mr Zhu said. “In other cases, house prices have continued an upward march with only a bit of moderation during the Great Recession.”

Mr Zhu said that even though the tools for controlling house prices were new, countries must start using them immediately. He pointed to options including limits on mortgage lending relative to house values and incomes; higher capital requirements for banks making risky loans; and stamp duties to damp foreign demand for investment properties. (exactly what Neighbors At War has been predicting!)

“We need to move from ‘benign neglect’ to an ‘all of the above’ approach when it comes to policy choices,” said Mr Zhu, adding that policy makers could combat the shortcomings of different approaches with “the interlocking use of multiple tools”.

In the US, house prices are rising fast but not overvalued, coming in at 13.4 per cent below their long-run average relative to incomes, and 2.6 per cent above their long-run average relative to rents, according to the IMF’s numbers.

The world’s cheapest housing market is Japan, where housing is 41 per cent below its long-run average relative to incomes and 38 per cent relative to rents. Germany and Estonia also appear cheap, with prices in both more than 10 per cent below their long-run average compared with incomes and rents.

(NAW editor’s note: Robin Harding’s story is a good one and has fascinating charts and further implications which the IMF says prove the worldwide housing collapse is coming. It certainly is worth subscribing to.)