Category Archives: HOA violence

Newly-elected HOA President Exercises Power…Off To The Court House They Go!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Kenneth Torrence is a Palm Beach sheriff’s deputy. His best friend is his mixed breed dog, Sasha. But they both have the misfortune of living in the Whispering Woods of Palm Beach Homeowners Association. Kenneth and Sasha have lived there for two years with no problems.  

Suddenly, a newly elected HOA president, Maria O’Connell, says Sasha is a pit bull and has to go. In fact, a  letter sent by Castle Management LLC says, “If you do not take action to resolve this violation within (10) days of the date of this letter, the Association will have the work performed, with all costs charged to your account.”  
 
What are they planning???  To steal his dog?  Put her in the animal shelter? Euthanize her?  
 
Animal activist Maria Rivera says Sasha isn’t a pit bull. In fact, a DNA test showed she’s a mix of five breeds. Besides, Rivera says, other neighbors and their dogs like Sasha. The only one who doesn’t is Maria O’Connell.
 
Torrence says he’ll take it to court. Initial legal costs will be around $30,000.  But just wait and see what happens when the HOA pulls in its insurance-backed legal team to beat up on the deputy.  That 30,000 will be nothing more than seed money. 
 
I say, Kenneth, pack up Sasha and move!  Make a donation to the local animal shelter instead of paying for another vacation home for the HOA attorney!
 
 

Changing Times

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I think it was Mark Twain who advised people to buy land because God wasn’t making any more of it. He also said, “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe when the Legislature’s in session.” His last witticism may have been more accurate than the first. 

Look  around the country where condos and residential high rises are being bought up by foreign investors. In Florida, California, Texas, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, senior citizens are buying small retirement homes where they hope to be comfortably living out their years. But as more and more of these apartments are turned into rentals, property values have plummeted.
 
Teresa Fusco of Reading, Pennsylvania found herself in a stunning situation. Her condo at Deer Path Woods was initially appraised at more than a hundred thousand dollars. She was one of eleven families who owned their homes outright. Ninety seven other units were held by renters, but the appraisals all said the units were worth about a hundred-thousand each. 
Then, Teresa learned that an investor was buying up all those rental units for about $7200 apiece, essentially giving himself almost 90% control of the entire complex. 
 
It gets deeper, still. 
 
The investor said that now he had all the votes he needed to control the association he promptly dissolved it. Throwing his new found weight around even more, the investor announced he was putting the entire complex up for sale. He got himself a new bulk appraisal which said the complex was worth far less than anyone imagined and the condominium was suddenly on the auction block. 
 
Any guesses as to who the top bidder was? Yep, the same investor who bought up all the rental units he had initially purchased and put up for auction. Except he now owned all those units which were once in private hands. Hands like those of Teresa Fusco.
 
Those former homeowners are just shaking their heads in bewilderment. This kind of thing can’t happen in America can it?
 
Well, it happened in Pennsylvania.
 
 
 

Wow! Any Doubt a Housing Collapse is Coming?

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This blog post is, indeed, a little esoteric. But many experts have predicted that another financial bubble is going to collapse, this one involving the HOA housing industry.

You really have to dive in between the lines of the story linked below. But this financial expert is predicting societal changes which actually could lead to a housing collapse in suburban America. He says the most dynamic part of our growing financial culture is the diversity of thought and creativity that’s only found in our inner cities and not in our stale suburban neighborhoods. He claims that our societal focus on suburban life is destined for failure and calls it “…the primary reason for global financial crisis.”

I’m no economist and my own predictions are far less sophisticated than his. But it boils down to the same conclusion: Sir Thomas More’s vision of Utopia is exactly backwards and is destined to collapse simply because the human spirit is not designed for life in Paradise. It’s evolutionarily designed for survival of the fittest. And the HOA Utopian model was never designed to handle the harsh realities of life. 

When those institutions which underwrite home loans discover that the typical Homeowner Association model does not protect or stabilize property values, when they discover that homes outside HOAs actually rise faster in value than those inside gated neighborhoods, when they finally discover that embezzlement is the Achilles heel of covenant controlled developments, then investor money will start flowing out of homeowners associations and back into more traditional neighborhoods.  

(click here for Richard Florida’s interview)

 

Legitimate Reason For An HOA?

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Finally, there may be a legitimate reason for a Homeowners Association! Some of my good friends will disagree, but it’s a free country. No, I take that back…it once was a free country.

Still, the story linked below might make you think some community rules might be needed, especially when former husbands and wives are feuding.

(click here for Detroit middle finger statue)

 

Alfred Thompkins Is Back Home…Thanks To A Reverse Mortgage!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
Let’s refresh our memories about the Davis Lake Community Association in North Carolina, the HOA that foreclosed on Alfred Thompkins, an ill and elderly man who stopped paying his dues.  He was upset because the HOA wouldn’t let his niece and nephew who lived with him use the swimming pool.  Obviously, he was honest and said he wasn’t their legal guardian, so the HOA just grabbed his house.
 
The point is:  Who gives a rip? In the beginning Thompkins was paying dues, which contributed to the pool even though he wasn’t using it. So why not let his niece and nephew take a dip?  
 
This is what gripes me about HOA board members.  So many of them seem to be incredibly lacking in common sense!  They foreclosed and sold Thompkins’ house for pennies on the dollar.  But was that really the issue?  Or could it have been the fact that his house was mortgage-free and loaded to the roof top with equity? (Click on the link below to find out how a reverse mortgage saved his house from foreclosure.)
 
I think of all the people inconvenienced and costs that were involved in this insane situation:
 
1) He had to pack and move
2) Rented a storage unit
3) Stayed at a relative’s house
4) Wells Fargo got involved
5) The television station got involved
6) The county court system got involved
7) Utilities were disconnected 
8) His mail had to be forwarded
9) Relatives are buying gas and driving from Chicago to help him move back in
10) Utilities have to be re-connected
11) Mail has to be re-established
12) He will have to unpack and re-settle
 
In the big picture, would it not have made better sense to have worked this out with Alfred before putting him and all these other people through such tremendous stress and nightmares? 
 
I can personally think of at least ten ways this could have been resolved without this “bullies on the board” approach. 
 
Not to mention,  Mr. Thompkins could have just lied and said his two relatives were his children.  Would the board have paid for DNA testing?  Doubtful.  But he told the truth and this is the mess he got into for being honest.  A person’s honesty should never be met with a penalty.  This is one of the reasons deception and dishonesty have become a way of life in America!!! 
 
And, now we have another elderly person in tears because of the torture he endured at the hands of an HOA!  The rest of his days in that house he’ll be living in fear of doing something wrong and losing his house again.  
 
I guarantee it!
 
 
list of Davis Lake board members:
 
stevendonai@davislake.org
 
bettylee@davislake.org
 
bruceauerbach@davislake.org
 
lesliematthews@davislake.org
 
briansenatore@davislake.org