Category Archives: Fraud

A Las Vegas Reporter Who Just Doesn’t ‘Get It’

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A reporter for Channel 8 News in Las Vegas tried to help a homeowner in the Terra West Homeowners Association. It seems the woman, Esther Sardina, had inadvertently underpaid her HOA dues by twenty cents. The woman wrote a check to the HOA for a dollar but they started hitting her with late fees anyway. So this reporter swung into action, confronting a board member.

Terra West dropped the fine. But that’s beside the point. This HOA board simply doesn’t want this woman living in the neighborhood. They want her gone. No HOA puts a 42 cent stamp on a fine for 20 cents…unless they’re intentionally trying to provoke an expensive fight where both sides have to run out and hire lawyers.

Now that Terra West has been publicly shamed the HOA will go out of its way to torment this woman in perpetuity.

Has this kind of nuttiness ever happened before? Oh yes, as I document in my new book, Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association. A woman in West Boca, Florida had her house seized because she underpaid her dues by 78 cents.

Good Friends, there is no such thing as a benign Homeowners Association! Every one of the nation’s 335,000 Homeowners Associations is just one board election and one tyrant away from disaster.

When will the nation’s news reporters learn that? Someone tip off this reporter that he’s a fruitcake.

http://tinyurl.com/nqpnbkw

original source:

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/22383065/8-on-your-side-helps-woman-fight-hoa-charge

When Will These Useful Idiots Ever Learn?

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Seniors, seniors, seniors! You’re supposed to have learned a few lessons in life. How the hell did you decide to turn all your assets over to the Sun City Shadow Hills Community Association?

Shadow Hills is a few miles southeast of Palm Springs, California. It’s only for older residents, a 55 and older community. But now that this Del Webb development is all built and sold out, the Shadow Hills board of directors has sold out to the infamous Texas state senator, John Carona. All of a sudden, the residents say, the HOA managers have gotten heavy handed.

There are threats, fines, liens and all the other good stuff that goes along with life in HOA Amerika. But there are also questions about how the board and management company is, without transparancy, handling its nine million dollar a year budget.

Ah yes, I almost forgot to mention. The HOA private security guards use radar guns. They have police powers.

A Home Depot truck was delivering carpet to one of the Shadow Hills homeowners, the first of several deliveries that day. And the driver was going seven miles-an-hour over the limit. When he hit the HOA speed trap the make-believe cop asked where he was going. He gave the name and address of his first customer, and who do you think got the $50 speeding ticket? The homeowner!

But folks, that’s the way you’re treated in a neighborhood where Associa is the management company. Yes, dear friends, Associa is Senator Carona’s company. Oh, he’s got lots of subsidiary companies like banks, insurance companies, businesses which he can mandate that the 9000 Homeowners Associations he manages patronize. ‘Patronize’ is too kind a word for Carona since these conflict-of-interest businesses are jammed down the throats of homeowners. They don’t get a choice.

But seniors? And I’m one, too. Seniors, why are you idiotic enough to buy into a Del Webb or Associa-managed community? Are you dumb as a box of rocks?

By the way, Senator Carona looks a little fat in his pictures. But that’s not fat. It’s just that his clothing is stuffed with conflicts-of interest, ethics problems, deceit, sneaky tactics, and some of the billions of dollars that he’s raking in.

Good luck, Shadow Hills seniors! Good luck.

http://tinyurl.com/ozztld5

original source:

http://www.cvindependent.com/index.php/en-US/news/local-issues/item/376-evils-of-a-monarchy-residents-of-indio-s-shadow-hills-battle-an-hoa-they-say-is-heavy-handed-greedy

Another Creepy Vegas HOA

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Las Vegas homeowners are lucky in one respect: They have Darcy Spears of KTNV-TV, who does frequent investigative reports under the “HOA Hall of Shame” moniker. Her latest report involves a dysfunctional HOA called the First Light Homeowners Association.

The board of First Light  is apparently somewhat vicious to many individual homeowners. They hate the spying, the discrimination, the retaliation, the indiscriminate towing of cars. People are afraid to go home. They’re afraid to open their mailboxes because of the threats, the fines, the foreclosures. 

I should also mention the massive decline of property values in Las Vegas Homeowners Associations.

Caveat emptor, buyer beware.

First Light is a neighborhood you might not enjoy living in.

http://tinyurl.com/azr5q45

original source:

http://www.ktnv.com/contact13/hoahallofshame/207282771.html

Another Crook Bites The Dust!

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Somebody’s gotta write a song with that title.

Yes, indeedy, a crook who’s been stealing money from Northern California Homeowners Associations has been caught with his fingers in the graham cracker jar. Chris Barna, of Manteca, California, figured no one would be the wiser if he swiped a million or so bucks from his employer, a company that manages many HOAs in that state.

Barna saved everyone the time and money it would have taken to prosecute him. He pleaded guilty in Federal Court and agreed to pay full restitution. But that’s a laugh. If he gets the 30 year federal prison sentence, which is the maximum statutory penalty for stealing a million bucks, it’ll be a cold day in Hell before he squares up with the folks he ripped off. 

Thirty years in federal prison is way too good for creeps like this one.

http://tinyurl.com/kxxxwnl

original source:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/cae/news/docs/2012/11-2012/11-28-12Barna.html

 

Another HOA Flag Lawsuit

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Texas has legislation that prevents HOAs from harassing homeowners over their display of the American flag. But that hasn’t stopped the Forrest Lake Townhouse Association from suing homeowner Billy B. Martin over his flag. Martin says the HOA’s flag at the clubhouse was tattered. The board members wouldn’t do anything about it. So he put up his own. That’s when the HOA started fining him $200 a day.

The president of this Houston HOA, Jim Elswick, refuses to comment to reporters. Get used to it, folks. These guys are trained by their HOA lawyers to never respond. Still, as a lifetime investigative reporter I can tell that the phrase, “No comment,” most often means “liar, liar, pants on fire.” I used to love it when the bad guys turned to my TV camera and said, “No comment.” Just loved it.

In any event, this neighborhood is so torn up by nastiness right now, that Houston Police had to be called to preserve the peace at an HOA board meeting.

The board argues that Martin’s flag will lower property values in the Forrest Lake Townhouse Association.

Tell me this: Would you buy a home in the Forrest Lake Townhouse Association?

Nope. Not after this.

And THAT lowers property values!

http://tinyurl.com/omkerlw

original source:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/HOA-resident-go-to-court-in-flagpole-disagreement-4527260.php?t=21f5fae81db928bf52