Category Archives: Horror Stories

Another Embezzlement, Ho Hum

It must seem like embezzlement from Homeowners Associations is the most unreported crime in the country. These crimes happen with stunning regularity.

Why, oh why, do America’s homeowners allow their neighborhood banking accounts to be handed over to board members and management companies who have no financial accountability?

http://tinyurl.com/c3gyyp5

original source:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130502/ARTICLES/130509864/1002/news?Title=Police-investigating-property-manager-over-missing-funds

A Nicely Balanced Letter to Editor

This letter to the editor of the Washington Post is well-balanced so I won’t comment further.

http://tinyurl.com/bqrf5ya  

original source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-homeowners-and-associations-can-get-along/2013/02/14/5fdc96de-754a-11e2-9889-60bfcbb02149_print.html

 

Excellent Reporting on Vegas HOA Scandal

Jeff German of the Las Vegas Review Journal is one of the few who’s done ongoing stellar work in reporting on the massive Nevada HOA scandal. If there are still any skeptics in America who think I’ve been exaggerating about the American HOA Movement being rife with old fashioned organized crime, then please follow German’s reporting.

Here’s his latest: 

http://tinyurl.com/d9zhaq2

original source:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/investigators-snared-hoa-suspect-using-hidden-microphone-bottle-wine

 

Texas Tort Reform Sadly Insufficient

Governor Rick Perry talks frequently about how tort reform in Texas has turned around a medical malpractice crisis.

Possibly it did work. But after reading the article linked below, ask yourself if deceptive HOA fines, liens and foreclosures in Texas shouldn’t attract the same kind of reform?

Texas is one of the top states where the HOA system has deprived homeowners of fundamental Constitutional rights.

I used to live in Texas. In fact, I grew up with the ‘Blue Book’ which was required reading for all Texas elementary school students. It taught Texas kids to be proud of their state’s revolutionary heritage and to question authority. Back then it was a thing of pride to be a Texan. But that was before the HOA Movement put millions of Texas homeowners in a death grip.

If you know someone who lives in a Texas HOA, ask him or her if they’ve observed out-of-control HOA boards and ridiculous fines and lawsuits. Or give them to link to my blog from last night about the San Antonio man who’s facing $200,000 in fines and legal fees for not keeping his grass short enough.

Come on, Governor Perry. Do the right thing! Get your HOA lawyers under control, too!

http://tinyurl.com/bqrf5ya

original source:

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/rollins-tort-reform-sparked-texas-miracle/nWzRP/

 

Just the Daily Tragedy

Another American homeowner is about to lose his home to his HOA.
 
David Moore has lived in the Huntington Place Homeowners Association in San Antonio, Texas, for eighteen years. But two years ago the neighborhood’s management company began assessing fines against Moore that added up to more than two hundred thousand dollars for alleged covenant violations. Among the violations, not keeping his grass short enough, and for a cat door built in his garage nearly two decades ago.
 
Moore will eventually learn that very few homeowners win this kind of fight. HOAs in Texas and elsewhere are being taught to taunt homeowners into expensive legal confrontations. Moore’s assets will end up in the hands of law firms and HOA management companies.
 
It’s just another example of a tort system that’s wildly out of control.
 
 
(original source)