Category Archives: embezzle

Free Speech Rights Upheld in NJ — Six Year Legal Battle‏

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

Great news! The Supreme Court of NJ did right by the First Amendment, upholding free speech rights for residents of HOAs, Condos, and Co-ops in the state.

It took six long years, and the determination of resident of Mediterranean South, Robert Dublirer, a semi-retired, former criminal prosecutor from NY.
Dublirer was a critic of the former condo Board, and in 2008, contemplated running for a seat on the Board. However, the Board at the time prohibited him from placing campaign leaflets under the doors of residents, so Dublirer sued the Association for violating his rights to free political speech.

The Supreme Court’s finding sets the records straight: First Amendment free speech residents in HOA, Condo, or Co-op in NJ must be upheld, and cannot be unduly limited by the Board. Constitutional free speech protections trump CC&Rs and Rules barring solicitation of residents, when such speech goes to the heart of democratic process of engaging in political discourse.

Kudos to Frank Askin, Rutgers School of Law professor who filed an amicus brief on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

Thanks to the NJ Supreme Court’s unanimous decision upholding the state’s Constitutional rights in Common Interest Communities, the tide of decades of injustice is finally turning.

(link to story on fighting over leafletting)

ULI Promotes Urbanization, While Developers Prefer Rental Properties To Condos

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

Members of a recent Urban Land Institute (ULI) panel are reporting high demand for urban housing, both within existing city cores and in densely populated “instant cities” (HOAs), created by developers in suburban locations near mass transit.

The attached article highlights how the major players in American housing policy and the real estate industry are not all on the same page.

Housing policy makers still push home ownership as the endgame, while NAR and CAI lobby Congress to pass FHFA proposals to relax mortgage standards. Meanwhile, developers and investors are shying away from less profitable, more risky condominiums, and engaging in new construction and redevelopment for the rental market.

Housing is becoming less affordable, across the board, as cities become more and more gentrified. If left unchecked, the majority of Americans will left with few housing choices: rent for the long-term in an apartment community, or buy or rent a single family home in a private, corporate-governed HOA.

(link to Urban Land Magazine: Changing Face of Residential)

(link to Urban Land Institute – mission and priorities)

 

HOA TV Interview in Denver

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Ward Lucas on HOA Madness

Ward Lucas on HOA MadnessHi Folks,

This interview got out to our network a little bit early, mainly because I was still learning how to embed videos directly on the Neighbors At War website. Now that I’ve learned how, I may be able to link to more interesting HOA related videos. One possible subject that comes to mind is videotapes of fights and assaults in Homeowner Association meetings! That might be educational for those who are skeptical about our claims of rampant abuse of homeowners in the HOA system. So feel free to send me links to such videos.

My interviewer this past weekend was Jon Caldara, a radio and TV fixture in Colorado and host of Devil’s Advocate, a PBS show in the Denver area. Caldara is also head of the Independence Institute, an activist conservative think tank. Many of those reading this blog are liberals or libertarians. This interview gives me another chance to emphasize that our cause is not liberal OR conservative.  It’s about the loss of Constitutional rights in neighborhoods which were built only because they were mandated by local government.

We have to continue spreading the word that real government institutions should never be allowed to mandate the formation of quasi-government or faux-government organizations that consistently deny Constitutional rights.

 

 

HOA War In North Carolina

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North Carolina is certainly a state where the HOA system has gotten way out of control. Fortunately, outspoken advocates like Ole Madsen (HEAR4NC.org) are articulating the insanity that’s disrupting the lives of so many homeowners around the country.

When you buy into an HOA, you’re essentially pledging all your personal assets to a group of partners, most of whom you’ve never met. Your assets become the de facto assets of a non-profit corporation which is potentially subject to liability lawsuits, damage from natural disasters, poor workmanship by developers, frivolous legal actions by overreaching board members, embezzlement by board officers and management companies. That’s a crazy kind of partnership, but it’s one that tens of millions of Americans have blindly accepted. And it’s one where HOA law firms are bathing in the mythical pot-of-gold.

In many HOAs homeowners are beginning to realize that they’ve entered a vortex that is spinning downwards, threatening property values and life savings.

The TV story linked below is worth watching. But as you do so, just be aware this isn’t an isolated incident. The HOA system in America is so badly broken it can never be fixed. It’s built to reward criminal behavior and those who bully their way to the top. When there’s a record of bad behavior by HOA officials and management companies, how do you persuade a potential buyer to take over your mortgage?

(link to WWAY TV story on missing HOA money)

 

HOA Controversies Finally Getting Media Attention

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I cannot remember a time in my 40 years as a journalist when so many broadcast stations were discussing abuse of homeowners by their own Homeowners Associations. Denver, Las Vegas, Houston, San Antonio, Florida, Virginia, North and South Carolina. Talk show hosts are inviting homeowners’ rights advocates to join them on the air, newspaper columnists are finally standing up to the incredible falsehoods being spread by those who profit from managing HOAs or supplying lawyers to sue homeowners over incredibly minor infractions.

Another shift I’m seeing, unless I’m fooling myself, is a change in attitudes among the talk show hosts, themselves. In past years many of them have been big defenders of the HOA system. But in at least a half dozen cases I’ve seen prominent talk show hosts changing their opinions and deciding that the kind of ‘democracy’ practiced in many HOAs is getting pretty outrageous.

This week I was in getting some medical tests done and the medical tech told me about some things he had witnessed in his own HOA. He hadn’t been through anything more significant than the occasional nastygram. Those nastygrams! We all get them. But they really do change the character of a neighborhood, don’t they? What makes a homeowner want to attend the 4th of July or Labor Day picnics when he’s constantly eyeing the crowd for the Nastygram Lady or the board members who sling the lawsuits? I’ve lived in neighborhoods both inside and outside of HOAs. And the block party, in my experience, was always better attended in the more traditional neighborhoods.

Anyway, I really do feel there’s a national shift occurring, probably because more and more people are speaking out about the abuses they’ve witnessed or experienced in their own neighborhoods. More and more people are feeling the sting of falling or static property values in HOAs which they presumed would protect their investments. This website is growing…I’ll have more on that in a few days. But people are spreading the word about HOA outrages on this and other forums.

Off topic, but even more important, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, hopefully with family…and with good neighbors.