Category Archives: HOA violence

A Victory For Colorado Homeowners!

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It seems like each state has a hero in the anti-HOA movement. Colorado has Stan Hrincevich. He has worked long and hard to get some kind of state control over the HOA scam. Here’s his latest update on HOA legislation in our state:

The HOA Property Manager (aka Community Association Manager (CAM)) licensing law was fully implemented July 15, 2015. This law provides homeowners a chance to help clean-up abusive industry practices and provide a forum for home owners to rein in violations of State law and HOA governing documents. HB 13-1277 is the licensing law.

The complaint process involves an on-line/web application and is fully explained in our Complaint Guide and should not take more than 15-20 minutes. Since the State HOA Office has no investigative or enforcement authority we suggest you direct all your HOA problems that you want investigated to the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) under the licensing law. The State HOA Office can also be apprised.

Several CAM violations stand out and we ask you and your fellow homeowners to pursue via a complaint:

1) CAM is not licensed (simple lookup on your part)

2) violations in conducting elections, meetings, extremely poor property maintenance, records release (items a,b,and/or c below) and

3) charging HOA Transfer Fees (items “a” and “c” below). All are applicable to CAM complaints. Each one requires a separate complaint.

The explanation of your CAM complaint involves:

1) a description of your problem including how you understand it violates your rights. Include one or more of the below statements extracted from the licensing law to support your complaint.

2) Evidence such as you paid a Transfer Fee documented on your home closing papers, your request for documents has been refused, etc.

Supporting all complaints should be your documentation including an email informing BOTH the HOA Board and CAM of your problem, allow 7-10 days for resolution and if not resolved file a complaint. If you need guidance let us know. Complaints are confidential with DORA.

Let’s all participate to surface problems and hold violators accountable.

Extracts from CAM Licensing Law:

a. KNOWINGLY VIOLATING OR KNOWINGLY DIRECTING OTHERS TO VIOLATE CCIOA (or your HOA governing documents)

b. HAVING DEMONSTRATED UNWORTHINESS OR INCOMPETENCY TO ACT AS A COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MANAGER BY CONDUCTING BUSINESS IN SUCH A MANNER AS TO ENDANGER THE INTEREST OF THE PUBLIC

c. ANY OTHER CONDUCT, WHETHER OF THE SAME OR A DIFFERENT CHARACTER THAN SPECIFIED IN THIS SUBSECTION (1), THAT CONSTITUTES DISHONEST DEALING.

Stan Hrincevich
Colorado HOA Forum LLC
www.coloradohoaforum.com
email: coloradohoaforum@gmail.com or coloradohoaforum@coloradohoaforum.com

 

 

Just Follow The Money!

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Whew! There’s a nasty dispute going on in the Cobblestone Community Homeowners Association in Atlanta. It’s a very tidy neighborhood of upscale Atlantans. But the HOA president and treasurer won’t release financial documents to show how dues are being spent. The neighbors want to throw out the board members and get an audit done. The HOA president won’t schedule an election.

The cops have been called. Neighbors have to meet in a nearby library. Watch the video. You have to admire the comments by the news anchor at the end of the story!

 

(link to fox5 Atlanta story on HOA dispute)

http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/i-team/53871300-story

 

 

Is Democracy Disappearing in the U.S.?

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Deborah Goonan is one of the most learned and articulate people in the country on the subject of Homeowners Associations. She, along with Nila Ridings, have expressed major concern about a wacky situation in Pagedale, Missouri, where the city has taken on the role of HOA lawn Nazis. It’s so far over the line that it has even attracted a lawsuit by the Institute for Justice. Her column on her own blog (linked below) is a critical subject for all of us.

(is democracy disappearing in the US?)

 

 

Sneaky HOA Trick in Baton Rouge

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Ah, the HOA movement has some pretty sneaky moves in some parts of the country. The Times-Picayune column linked below talks about how homeowners get together to form a neighborhood crime district in Baton Rouge. Theoretically, they hire an unneeded security guard or two, then BAM! They’re suddenly in a Homeowners Association.

Pay special attention to this guy’s third paragraph.

(link to Times-Picayune article on crime districts)

 

 

Homeowners Associations vs. HAM Radio Operators

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Sara Benson is reaching out to members of Congress and asking all of us to do the same. Pass the Amateur Radio Parity Act (S. 1685). National organizations that lobby to keep HOAs in business are on the opposite side. They’re telling Senators that HAM Radio enthusiasts destroy nice neighborhoods, something as ridiculous as saying that satellite dishes destroy neighborhoods.

HAM radio operators save lives when disaster hits. To forbid them from operating in a Homeowners Association is beyond the pale. When police radios and all cell phone service went down in New York during 9/11, who was getting out messages about where ambulances and rescue boats should be sent? I’d bet dollars to doughnuts it was HAM operators. Same thing during Hurricane Katrina and any number of other natural disasters. It happened in Colorado during the Boulder flood two years ago. It happened in my state in July of 1976 when a huge flood in the Big Thompson Canyon killed 143 people and trapped thousands for days. I was there. I saw it.

Big Thomson flood of 1976 washed out Highway 34. The Big Thompson Flood, Loveland, Colorado

Sara thinks it’s urgent that we overcome the cacophony of false information pouring into the U.S. House and Senate. Ask your legislators, no demand of your legislators that they pay serious attention to the Amateur Radio Parity Act. I agree.

(link to information on the Amateur Radio Parity Act)