Category Archives: HOA Issues

Franklin TN HOA: $156K Fine over treatment of Disabled Children

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

When Charles and Melanie Hollis purchased a home for their family in 2011, they probably didn’t expect to run into difficulty getting approval from their homeowners’ association for a sunroom addition. The sunroom was needed for two of their children, who happen to have physical and mental disabilities. It was intended to provide space for exercise equipment and physical therapy for the children.

After four attempts at getting a modification plan approved by the Architectural Review Committee, their reasonable request was essentially denied. Reading the September 2014 District Court decision, linked below, in December 2011, Chestnut Bend HOA attorney wrote a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Hollis, making approval of the sunroom conditional upon the agreement to install a more expensive shingle roof rather than a metal roof. The main reason for that condition was apparently to enhance the addition’s appearance.

The Hollis’ attorney replied that the owners would like to proceed with the metal roof, because of its lower cost, the fact that other homeowners also have additions with metal roofs, and the Property Manager had already acknowledged in writing that a metal roof would be acceptable. Attorney Tracey McCartney, Tennessee Fair Housing Council, provided a deadline date for response from the HOA Attorney, who never did issue a definitive approval.

So the Hollis family sold their home in Chestnut Bend, at a loss, and moved to another nearby home in a different community.

Four years later, the HOA has agreed to compensate the Hollis family $156,000 to cover damages.

Incredibly, the HOA Board still won’t admit any wrongdoing. After all, the rules are the rules, and they must be followed, according to the Board President. According to the Tennessean, Mr. Vaughn blames the Hollis’s for “hurting” their Association by creating the impression that the HOA is not a welcoming place. Call it Reputation Management.

And Westwood Property Management company was able to wiggle out of the lawsuit by agreeing to train its employees about Fair Housing laws, and to create a written policy for the company to use in the future.

But isn’t it rather disturbing that a professional management company would not already provide sufficient training to its staff? After all, it’s not as though requests for accommodation or modification by disabled residents are a rare occurrence.

And why does it take four years and several appeals to get to a resolution? I wonder how many HOA residents simply move out and give up on pursuing the matter, just to avoid the stress?

Maybe that’s part of an unscrupulous HOA Board’s playbook —  perhaps even encouraged by the Association Attorney and/or Manager. Say it isn’t so!

(link to news release regarding legal settlement)
(link to Sept 2014 District Court decision)

 

Interesting Sentence for ‘Depressed’ Embezzler

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Question: If you knew you could steal $40,000 and only get a 60 day jail sentence, would you do it? $20,000 tax free dollars a month is pretty tempting, isn’t it?

Well, that’s the sentence given a 72 year old Idaho woman when she embezzled that amount from her seniors-only community, the Florida Estates HOA. She said she stole the money because she was depressed.

The sentence gets even more interesting. After her two month jail sentence she’s required to make $40,000 restitution at the rate of $200 a month. I’m not very good at math but it looks like that’s about 17 years. And she’ll be 89 when she’s finished paying. I suspect most of the neighbors she ripped off will be dead or institutionalized by that time.

Crime really does pay.

And the crooks know it.

(link to Idaho Press story about woman sentenced for grand theft)

 

How to Get Away With Being a Crook in Nevada

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How bad does a lawyer have to be to get five or six years in prison? If he’s stolen millions of dollars, if he’s got more bar complaints against him than any other lawyer, if he’s defrauded Homeowners Associations and other clients, if he’s cheated the IRS you’d think he’d at least get a few decades behind bars.

But lawyer Barry Levinson, who knows the legal system inside and out, put on an amazing performance for U.S. District Judge James Mahan, who’s overseeing that massive organized crime HOA scandal in Las Vegas. Levinson knows the ropes. He cried. He sobbed. He apologized. He said, “I stole from clients. I embarrassed Las Vegas. I let everybody down. I accept responsibility. I’m paying for it.”

Well, no, he’s not paying for it. This guy took part in a scam that will ultimately amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to homeowners. He and his organized crime partners funneled millions of dollars away from Homeowners Associations in the Valley. But this scam has legs. Thousands of Nevada residents lost their homes which are still sitting unsold. Taxes aren’t being paid. Part of that was the housing bubble, but who in his right mind would want to buy a house in Las Vegas right now? Stupid people will, of course. But with the Nevada Supreme Court ruling that an idiotic one-dollar HOA lien against a house can extinguish a half million dollar mortgage, what sane mortgage company would lend money in Nevada? The ripples go on, and on, and on.

Barry Levinson cries a few tears. And the judge gives him six years in prison. He’ll probably get two or three of those years off for good behavior. Unless some angry imprisoned homeowner beats him to death.

(link to latest stupid prison sentence in Las Vegas HOA scandal)

 

Committed Christian? Bad Idea To Live In An HOA!

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Most HOAs have a regulation about “No Home Businesses.” With so many people working at home on the web that’s an almost meaningless rule…except when Board Bullies want to throw their weight around.

Sure, nobody wants to live next to a neighbor who operates a sawmill in his back yard. But sometimes the local HOA Nazi gets out of control and too full of himself. You’re an author and you write books and magazine articles? That’s an illegal business. You use your computer to fill out medical forms? Illegal home-based business.

The latest outrage comes from Senoia, Georgia, where a Christian family decided to help other families in need. In their garage they collect things like bed sheets, groceries, household goods. Nothing is stored in sight of any annoyed neighbors. Every so often the family delivers the goods to those who desperately need them.

“HOME BUSINESS!” screams the Summerfield HOA. “ILLEGAL!”

When you think about it seriously, Jesus Christ would be unwelcome in the vast majority of America’s Homeowners Associations. Riff raff. Healing cripples without a license. Restoring sight to the blind without permission from the HOA. Claiming to be God, when everyone in the neighborhood knows that only the HOA president is God.

Give me a break.

(link to HOA attempt to shut down family ministry)

 

More Money Down The Drain

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

Yet another case of shoddy construction, this time a failing storm drain and a sinking retention pond in Michigan. Over several years, homeowners of Windridge Estates HOA have experienced cracked foundations and basement windows, shifting soil in their back yards, and movement of retention walls, as the shoreline of the nearby pond crumbles into the water.

The HOA lacks the means to make the needed repairs, so the City of New Baltimore has agreed to “help” by setting up a special assessment district, in order to collect $1.45 million from homeowners over the next 10 years. Each lot will ultimately be taxed roughly $6500.

That’s in addition to any regular HOA assessments and property taxes they have paid all these years the problem has gone unaddressed.

The HOA Attorney argues that the City should pay at least 18.5% of the cost, since City roads drain into the pond when it rains. In this particular HOA, the City maintains the roads and easements, but not storm drainage. This illogical arrangement is amazingly common in HOAs.

Several questions come to mind.

First, how did this storm water system get approved by the City Inspector? Second, why isn’t the developer on the hook to pay for these repairs? Third, how much will this end up costing City taxpayers who do NOT live in Windridge Estates?

Local governments have been abdicating responsibility for maintenance of major infrastructure for decades. But retention ponds and underground stormwater pipes are notoriously difficult and expensive to maintain and repair, even when they are constructed properly. Repairs almost always involve precise engineering design, heavy equipment, and moving around large amounts of soil. How do local governments justify dumping this responsibility on a volunteer Board and the disproportionate expense on unsuspecting homeowners?

In the meantime, one unfortunate recent buyer just got a fine welcome to the community. The seller hadn’t disclosed problems with the pond, and now the buyer is on the hook for his share of the cost. Just goes to show how affordability of your home in an HOA can be wildly unpredictable.

Oh, and as I’ve mentioned before, but it bears repeating: a lot adjacent to a retention pond is NOT a “lake view” or “water view” for which a buyer should pay a premium.

(read the story, check out the photos, here)