Category Archives: HOA Issues

A New Website Feature

I’m a total Rube Goldberg, so put me into a room with dials and meters and ramps and hammers and I’m quite likely to hammer together something very stupid-looking that might actually have some societal value.

On the opening splash page of Neighbors At War, there’s a category called “Resources.” Click that and you’ll find another “resources’ button. Tap that and you’ll see a list of crimes, like embezzlement, robbery, burglary, assault, and a dozen similar words. Clicking on each of these words brings up an automatic Google search. In other words, if you click ’embezzlement’…. in the background I secretly run the terms “Homeowner Association, property Association, Property Owner Association, HOA, POA, CID, CIC embezzlement.” That, hopefully, gives you some interesting numbers to show to a non-believer, someone you’re trying to rescue from ‘the dark side.’  The numbers are quite staggering…and convincing. And it’s certainly an interesting (but not necessarily perfect) research tool.

I may run this promo a few times over the next two months in an effort to try to get our many readers thinking in terms of raw research.

Oh, and another thing for which Homeowners rights advocates have long lusted… is a national (or even international) list of attorneys who are willing to represent battered and bruised homeowners who try to fight the kind of anti-Constitutional outrages we see each day in our neighborhoods. Please help me build that list. Attorneys on our side won’t get rich. The billions of management dollars are on the other side. Still, sometimes the Revolutionaries win. And they win because someone, somewhere, believes in the concept of Justice under the law.

BTW, any research I accumulate on this project will be shared with every other would-be Paul Revere in the country. No cost. No fee. Just a personal promise to me of your personal integrity.

Ward Lucas

 

OMG! Is Jill Schweitzer Trying To Kill The Phoenix Cash Cow?

guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
She’s a real estate broker on a mission and armed with a new website (www.hoasavers.com).  She sat on her HOA board and got her eyes opened to all the waste by property managers.  But her board was able to save her HOA $40,000 by getting their own bids, minus the “guidance” of any property manager.   
 
HOLY COW!  Michael Latz of Golden Valley Property Management says Jill needs to get away from the HOA herd.  He’s runnin’ this ranch and got this biddin’ business under control! (Wink, wink.)
 
Come to think of it, wouldn’t Jill make a stellar replacement in the Legislature for The Bimbo? State Representative Michelle Ugenti has made a mockery out of the legislative process in Arizona. Can we talk Jill Schweitzer into running?
 
That would actually be a legislative race that would be fun to watch!
 
 
 

Jerry Brown! Jerry Brown!

Governor Jerry Brown! In what orifice is your head hopelessly lodged?

California is in the middle of a horrible drought, even the drought of a lifetime. Farmers who generate most of the nation’s food are going broke. Governor Jerry has asked homeowners to quit using so much water on their lawns. In fact, he’s even declared a drought emergency.

A Republican State Senator has even proposed a law to force HOAs to quit fining residents over their brown lawns.

How impotent! And ignorant

Homeowners Associations are merrily fining, suing and foreclosing on homeowners who’ve followed the governor’s water rationing requests and have allowed their lawns to turn brown.

You see, Homeowner Associations are private non-profit corporations which are beyond the control of state and federal laws. After all, Americans have a Constitutional right to make contracts, even if those contracts are counter to decency and common sense.

Despite the efforts of the governor and other California legislators, Kentucky Bluegrass will continue to decorate the grounds of Homeowners Associations.

http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/01/24/drought-or-not-brown-lawns-bring-hoa-fines/

(link to Democratic Underground story)

(link to CVT HOA story on drought emergency)

(link to KTVU-TV news story)

 

Organized Theft IS Organized Crime

The Colorado Legislature is embroiled in a controversy over ‘transfer fees’, a mysterious item that appears on closing papers when a homeowner is trying to sell his property.

What’s a transfer fee? It’s a mandatory fee the seller has to pay. It’s not related to any specific kind of work. It was recently outlawed on all real estate sales EXCEPT those in Homeowners associations. It can range from the hundreds…even into the thousands of dollars, and there are no state controls. A transfer fee doesn’t benefit the HOA, it just drops into the pockets of HOA management companies. Pure profit.

When CAI lawyers were asked, “Why do you charge these fees? The answer was stunning, “Because we can!” That kind of unmitigated arrogance is beyond appalling. Why do you steal cars? Because we can. Why do you steal little old ladies’ retirement money? Because we can. And legislators turn their heads the other way! Unbelievable.
 
With that in mind, here’s a recent blog from ColoradoHOAForum.com
 
First let’s thank Leslie Stevens, the victim of a transfer fee of over $1,000, for contributing to the news story and Channel 4 News (KCNC, Denver).
 
Transfer fees when real estate documents were exchanged are ILLEGAL in Colorado EXCEPT when a Homeowners Association is involved. If they’re so illegal for all other homes, what’s the difference with HOA homes? In a word, NOTHING!
 
 
 
 
Note, once again the CAI never attempts to explain what these costly, laborious, and time consuming tasks are that require hundreds to over one thousand dollars in transfer fees only “that is the way it is” (because of them).  They got away with this by slipping an exception into SB 11-234 and now again in 2014 with HB 14-1254 by actually crafting this Bill to ensure, if passed, nothing will change in picking the pockets of home sellers. 
                               = = = = = = = = = =
Because this is a breaking story in Colorado, there’s more to come on the subject tonight. We’ll post on NeighborsAtWar.com
 
 

More News About A Crushing Housing Bubble

I still think I’m right on target in predicting a coming housing and HOA bubble that will make the 2008-2009 implosion look like child’s play. And this one is aimed EXACTLY at the country’s Homeowners Associations. This is a crisis to be very afraid of.

The New York Post story linked below discusses it, not as a housing crisis, but as a lack of spending crisis.

Demographics show our population is aging. Older people have already paid for their cars, their homes, their toys. If we follow Japan’s financial implosion in the 1980s people will suddenly have no money to spend. That means a disaster for aging Homeowners Associations.

More folks will be moving out, deflation means home prices will start dropping like a rock. HOA budgets will be crushed. As evidenced by their behavior over the past eight or nine years, HOA lawyers will be filing more liens, lawsuits and foreclosures over increasingly minor infractions.

As you read this New York Post story, keep thinking about the potential impact on your HOA investment or the real value of your vacation home!

(link to New York Post story)