Category Archives: Home Assoc

Cohen The Bully Has Arrived At Two Midtown Miami

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
Seth Cohen arrived from New York with $1.5M to spend on a condo in South Florida.  He impressed his neighbors with his swagger which won him enough votes to sit on the board as their president.  
 
Looking around he decided Two Midtown Miami needed more of his “touch” in its decor.  Even though the building was only five years old the elevators got a facelift and the pool furniture was pitched for something more expensive. 
 
Next, on his list was the lobby renovation with some “Munsters” chairs and bookshelves that sent his neighbors out to the curb in protest.  In typical COA dictatorship style, he called the police only to learn his neighbors were smarter than he thought because they had obtained a protesters permit.  
 
Supporters started dropping like rocks and the “Fresh Prince of Two Midtown Miami” quickly earned the title of bully! His neighbors wanted to feed him lunch with their assessment letters. He was demanding $6,844.27 from each owner to cover the cost of his grandiose decorating plans until the uprising raised awareness to the point they were demanding he be removed from the board. I applaud them!!! based on my HOA experience, I’m wondering if seth Cohen is in the “decorating business?” Wash he slick enough to try and recoup his condo investment with some high-priced re-decorating?
This should be an eye-opener for all owners in HOAs or condos. Redecorating projects can quickly turn into an ATM for board members. If you don’t keep a close watch they will declare re-decorating as a “necessity” and use their power as president to funnel the money right into THEIR bank accounts. It’s called self-dealing and in most states it’s illegal. Take if from me, it’s also a “red flag” warning. Once accomplished they will try it again on something else. like selling advertising in the community newsletter and claiming to be in the publishing business!

How to Build a Trustworthy Organization

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guest blog by Robert E. Frank, Colonel, USAF (Ret.)
           (Founder, HomeOwnersCoalition.Org & Veterans Advocate)

My business experience has taught me over the past 50 years that if a process is designed to be as trustworthy as reasonably possible, EVERYONE benefits from being able to accept it as such.

But, if systems, such as board elections or controls of something like association credit/debit cards and checks, are allowed to be designed and implemented with very obvious loop holes in the audit trail, then no one can trust the system.

It is common for an organizational manager and/or board members to raise their voices and get belligerent when someone points out that an election or financial system component can be easily corrupted. They typically change the subject to “how dare you accuse my group of election fraud!”

Of course, that is not the point. The point is why would an honest, ethical person or organization (either board of directors, election committee, CAM or community management company) want to ALLOW an election process to exist where allegations of misconduct could be fairly suspected and/or made part of a criminal complaint?

Money is NOT the issue on implementing “trustworthy” board elections and trusted financial management processes. Nothing is more important for a board or CAM than to ensure that the member’s money and property is cared for according to statutes and common sense.

Much flexibility is allowed to developers, boards and CAMs when it comes to business system components of the association. Failing to ensure the key components are designed and managed to be reasonably trustworthy is, in my opinion, a sign of gross negligence and possible corruption.

The necessary tools and techniques are relatively easy and inexpensive to use to assure trustworthy systems for HOAs and Condos. In my opinion, blustering objections to implementing trustworthy systems within HOAs and Condos should be summarily rejected by all professionals. Such mismanagement puts a blight on all our business reputations.

Neighborhood Snit In Austin

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It’s happening all over the country, but another old neighborhood in Austin, Texas has decided to create a community improvement association to encourage homeowners to clean up their properties. The old time homeowners who’ve been in the Hyde Park neighborhood generally don’t want to turn the association into a mandatory HOA. Newbies in the neighborhood definitely want that kind of dictatorial power.

One homeowner says he’s spent a fortune upgrading his house. So have other residents. But there’s one neighbor who won’t go along.

“It’s just not fair!” the clean guys say. “Just no fair!” Gosh, when you hear a whiner throwing that kind of phrase around, watch out! Life isn’t fair. What’s fair about a crippled kid, or racism, or crime, or any of the other unfair things that happen in life.

This neighborhood’s first step is a good one. A voluntary group that encourages a cleaner neighborhood is a boon to property values. When a homeowner resists improving his or her home, that’s a time for diplomacy, not threats or humiliation. Not ostracism or confrontation. This is a chance to prove the benefits of inclusion and good will, volunteerism and neighborliness. It actually works, folks!

Well, these ‘clean’ neighbors now want the fascist rules of the HOA movement imposed so they can snatch the offender’s house, clean it up themselves, and sell it to a new owner who’ll agree to abide by the ‘clean rules.’ And suddenly you’ve got a fascist government arising from the ashes of what used to be a relatively free neighborhood.

The place to fight for mandatory rules is with the local zoning commission. If an HOA is created then it creates a neighbor vs. neighbor mentality where the most vicious of personal attacks are made. If city zoning rules are imposed, the disputes are less expensive, less confiscatory and peace in the neighborhood can be maintained.

If Hyde Park homeowners think an HOA will raise property values, think again. Those who don’t want to live, or don’t like living in an HOA amount to about 90% of the population. Think about it. 90% of all potential home buyers won’t even look at your for sale sign. What’s your nice clean home really worth now? HOAs have just been developing a stinky reputation over the past few years. And you’ll see my predictions come true. HOAs do not improve or preserve property values, and there are thousands of examples around the country.

(click here for Hyde Park story)

http://www.austinhydepark.org/2014/04/is-there-a-homeowners-association-in-hyde-parks-future/

What Does A Candidate Need And Remember Most?

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

I love phone calls like this one from an HOA/COA reform activist. She read Neighbors At War by Ward Lucas several months ago. And she has been doing more research and telling everybody about the CAI propaganda every chance she gets. She’s bought several boxes of Ward’s book and hands them to every legislator, city employee, and candidate she can shake hands with while sharing the plight of the suffering homeowners.

This activist reminds me of the movies; Norma Rae and the one about the environmental activist, Erin Brockovich. She’s professional, determined, and on a mission. We need 10,000 people just like her waking up the legislators!

Thinking there is a strong probability the CAI is contributing cash to political campaigns and knowing nobody can out money the CAI, she did something more effective. She marched into the campaign office of someone that will be very influential in helping her if he/she wins the seat. Lo and behold…who’s there? The candidate! Ms. Activist says, I’m here to help you with your campaign. I’m volunteering to work doing whatever you need, but I need to talk to you first. I have a serious problem in my HOA/COA and I am here to tell you the CAI is filling all of the candidates and legislators full of false information and it’s time for the homeowners’ side of the story to be heard. The office was small and intimate so they sat down for a nice long chat. It ended with Ms. Activist presenting this candidate with a copy of Neighbors At War! The candidate just happened to mention that tonight he/she was having dinner with a legislator with a title that starts with a “G” and Ms. Activist left feeling sure their conversation was going to be shared with others over dinner.

Anybody who has ever been involved with volunteering knows it’s much easier to write a check than it is to physically do the work. Ms. Activist can’t write a $50,000 check or take the candidate out to an upscale resort for a little “sweet talking” over a bottle of wine with a price tag equivalent to her house payment. But she’s willing to be a soldier with boots on the ground walking the campaign trail.

After our legislators passed the bill for the Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill Of Rights Act, I offered to help with the re-election campaigns for a senator and representative who truly were incredibly wonderful to work with throughout the entire legislative process. We went door to door in horrible heat and placed signs in the approved areas around the city. All signs had to be picked up within a day or two of the election.

After the results gathering at the hotel, I drove around picking up signs until daylight. They were both so exhausted, and boy did they ever appreciate my efforts to ease the additional demands of a campaign by pulling up the signs and delivering them to their homes. To be fair I should share, one of them was a Democrat and the other a Republican. I did it to show my gratitude. But all of us can do it to help the candidates who are gearing up now, just like Ms. Activist is planning to do.

Ask yourself, what would impress you the most? The check from the CAI? Or the HOA Reform Activist who walks with you for hours in the heat, talks with you over lunch, lightens your load when you’re weary, believed enough in you to sacrifice their personal time for no pay to help you achieve your goal, and gave you the opportunity to see with your own eyes the true character and grit of that once stranger who you have been told is either an apathetic homeowner that “should have read the CC&Rs” or possibly just another HOA “pariah?” Who would you remember and be willing to listen to?

This is a perfect time to recall the words of Maya Angelou:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said.

People will forget what you did.

But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

-Maya Angelou

Architect Lives Small With Baby, Dog & All

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
My fascination continues with the creativeness of those that seek shelter without a mortgage, living off grid, and most of all HOA-FREE.  
 
Macy Miller put her architectural skills to work and resourced recycled materials to build herself a very nice small home for $11,000.  There’s even room for her baby and Denver, the dog.  The gooseneck trailer makes the house mobile if she takes a notion to move.  
 
She’s living the “good life” HOA-FREE.
 
Macy, I so envy you and your generation because you guys wandered off the traditional path and found happiness in smaller ways.  Your “American Dream” doesn’t come with a mortgage, property taxes, utility bills for unused spaces, and the destroyer of health and happiness…the dreaded HOA!