Category Archives: Fraud

Worst Neighbor Nomination: How about the one who shoots, kills your family dog?

      1 Comment on Worst Neighbor Nomination: How about the one who shoots, kills your family dog?
guest blog by Deborah Goonan

On New Year’s Eve in Wedgefield, a deed-restricted, golf and equestrian community in Central Florida, someone shot and killed the Evans family’s yellow lab.

The family’s beloved pet escaped from its yard, as pets sometimes do, and apparently wandered onto a neighbor’s property. The neighbor allegedly confronted the owner of the dog, Brock Evans, and threatened to shoot his pet. When Evans quickly went to retrieve his dog, and talked to his neighbor for about ten minutes, he heard several gunshots. Shortly thereafter his dog was found with gunshot wounds, and later died as a result of those injuries. The neighbor denies shooting the dog, but does not deny that his son might have pulled the trigger. Orange County is investigating the matter as a case of cruelty to animals.

Under Florida Statute, the perpetrator, if properly identified and if guilt can be proven, may be charged with a misdemeanor or fined up to $5000 or both. However, if your dog is deemed as “dangerous” or if your neighbor claims that your dog attacked a person, pet or livestock on his property, this often suffices as a defense for shooting your dog.

Before the unfortunate incident, Evans had never spoken to his neighbor, who lives just two doors down the road. Wedgefield is a deed-restricted community with voluntary HOA membership.

Orlando Sentinel link to story of family pet shot by neighbor

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-yellow-lab-dog-shot-20150107-story.html

Opposing Views report on Orange County neighbor dispute over shooting of pet dog

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/animal-rights/orange-county-florida-family-accuses-neighbor-shooting-their-dog

Wedgefield HOA

http://www.wedgefieldhomeowners.com/faqs.html

Legal references:

FL Statute 828.12

https://asci.uvm.edu/equine/law/cruelty/fl_cruel.htm

FL Statute 775.082

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0775/Sections/0775.082.html

FL Statute 767

http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2011/Chapter767

When Killing a Dog is Legally Justified

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/dog-book/chapter9-2.html

HOA Race Pioneer Dies

      5 Comments on HOA Race Pioneer Dies

It’s hard to believe that it was once legal for Homeowners Associations to outlaw the sale of homes to anyone of the ‘wrong’ race. But that’s the shameful racist background of the HOA movement. Homeowners Associations across America once banned the sale of homes to most minorities. It took some brave pioneers to break the HOA racial barriers.

Now, one of those pioneers has died at the age of 85.

Dorothy Mae Adams and her husband are black. Their HOA in San Francisco, Westwood Park, had a deed restriction against the sale or lease of any home to people of African descent. But in 1959 the Adams couple fought for their home and won. The only sad part of the story is that HOAs didn’t die along with the racial restrictions that got them started in the first place.

(link to story on Dorothy Adams)

 

Shake-Up in Holly Lake HOA in Florida‏

      2 Comments on Shake-Up in Holly Lake HOA in Florida‏
guest blog by Deborah Goonan

Bob Norman of Channel 10 has taken on yet another rogue HOA in Florida.

One of the oddities of some HOAs in Florida is that the Board of Directors retains the authority to screen and reject buyers and tenants. But what are the criteria used to arrive at those decisions?

The “HOA screening” issue has been a contentious one in Florida, as many would-be buyers or tenants have sued or filed formal complaints of discrimination.

For example, last year, one Venice HOA enacted restrictions for unmarried couples seeking to buy or lease a home! The Board claimed the July 2013 amendment was an erroneous oversight, but has never offered a reasonable explanation of how or why the single-people-or-married-couples-only restriction was approved. The media picked up on the outrageous restriction, and that prompted the HOA to amend its declarations to eliminate the discriminatory restriction.

Holly Lake HOA, located near the Everglades in South Florida, is the latest site of buyer-tenant review controversy. But this one involves a Board member apparently profiting from his position. It seems that Board Treasurer Paul Morales has been approving plenty of applications to purchase (or lease) units, but nearly all of those buyers have been family members and business affiliates. Meanwhile, it has been alleged that other buyers or tenants lacking direct ties to Morales have been rejected without satisfactory explanation.

Bob Norman’s review of public records seems to support those claims. Check out the video report. HOA members are calling for a criminal investigation, and have put pressure on Morales and colleague Ed Patton (President of the Board), prompting both men to choose not to run for reelection for the Board. Coincidence?

Another bit of irony: Florida Statute stipulates that convicted felons cannot serve on the Board; however, it does not require background checks for Board candidates. Yet Florida Statute fully allows Board to screen and background check their tenants and buyers! Talk about a double standard. Guess what? It just so happens that Morales faced federal charges in 2000, involving a past real estate deal – charges that were mysteriously dropped.

As usual, requests for access to financial records have been ignored, and one owner has been harassed for daring to ask questions. Also predictable, although the conflict of interest seems obvious to anyone with two active brain cells, there has not been any determination of illegality.

Link to Channel 10, Bob Norman, Holly Lake HOA story

link to Herald Tribune, Casa di Amici COA story on amendments to restrictions

A New Sign of Discontent

      1 Comment on A New Sign of Discontent

I’m not smart enough to know if anti-HOA activist Jonathan Friedrich will win his HOA lawsuit in Nevada. He claims he bought the house before the developer included it in an adjacent HOA. Friedrich says his home and several others were missed, and the paperwork was only recently filed. But more than anyone else I know in the country, Jonathan has chutzpah.

GetAttachmentIf your picture is a little grainy, it’s a 50 foot long banner that says, “Rancho Bel Air is Stealing from us and Breaking The Law!

Reminds me of the old advertising saying that goes:

“He who has a thing to sell and goes and whispers in a well is not so apt to get the dollars as he who climbs a tree and hollers.” Keep hollering, Jonathan. We hear you!