Category Archives: Home Assoc

Creepy, Creepy Realtors!

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LOL! I intentionally avoid going to other Homeowners Rights websites so I don’t inadvertently post a story without giving full credit to the initial blogger. But someone in our movement emailed this to me, and it’s too good not to re-post. In any event, full credit here goes to Dr. Evan McKenzie for coming up with this one first.

It’s about a couple of Realtors involved in high-end McMansion sales who were caught throwing dead animals around the driveway of a neighboring property, apparently to scare potential buyers away from a rival Realtor’s listing.

There really must be some rampant mental illness going around in the real estate business. This is one they really should highlight at the annual Realtors Convention. Somehow, I think they won’t.

http://tinyurl.com/mxlwrwa

Definition of an Arrogant Jackass?

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I always love to blog about, and link to, Darcy Spears and the HOA Hall of Shame feature she does for KTNV television in Las Vegas. She was one of the first television reporters in the nation to regularly investigate and expose the wrongdoings of Homeowners Associations. Of course, the criminal empire in Las Vegas generously provides her with lots of material. Nevada has some of the most notoriously felonious HOAs in the country, as evidenced by the dozens of indictments in the ongoing FBI/U.S. Attorney investigation.

In Darcy’s current expose’, she notes how federal FCC law gives homeowners the right to set up satellite dishes, and no HOA in the country has the power to supersede that federal law.

But then, we’re talking about the Pallatine Hill Homeowners Association in Henderson, Nevada. And its president, Barry Tedesco, is mind-numbingly idiotic about federal law. He’s sent out a flood of letters saying homeowners would be fined if they didn’t remove their satellite dishes. Even an appearance in front of the Pallatine Hill HOA board showed homeowners that Tedesco is in serious need of either a brain transplant, or a recall election. He apparently feels he’s above federal law. And he’s willing to risk ever last cent of this HOA’s budget to sue, lien and foreclose on all those homeowners using satellite TV. I honestly hope someone will walk my blog post door-to-door in this HOA.

Darcy Spears is too mannerly to call Tedesco a complete jackass.

But I’m not.

The president of the Pallatine Hill Homeowners association, Barry Tedesco, is a jackass.

(Note to KTNV General Manager: Darcy Spears deserves a raise. She’s getting you national publicity!)

http://tinyurl.com/kxqs5r6

Money Grab In Florida Ruled Illegal

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The Supreme Court of Florida has slapped the pinkies of some municipalities that were trying make a little extra money from homeowners by trying to do what Homeowners Associations do all the time. When a homeowner buys a property in an HOA or CID or condo association, the buyer agrees to pay off his HOA dues before he makes a house payment. Thus the HOA actually has more power to punish miscreants by liening and auctioning off the house before the mortgage company gets its take. Thus, HOAs have a super-priority lien over the main lender on the property. The super priority. The ability to have super-priority status is built into the original developer’s Covenants Controls and Restrictions usually because that’s what the local municipality ordered.

The City of Palm Beach, seeing a chance to cash in on struggling homeowners the way Homeowner Associations did, passed local regulations giving themselves the same kinds of super priority status as HOAs. After all, weren’t municipalities charged with enforcing some of the same kinds of codes as the typical HOA?

Not so fast, said the State Supremes. Yes, the Florida Constitution gives broad powers to municipalities to take other people’s stuff…but only as far as what the state legislature allows. Still, this particular legislature has done some pretty goofy things to homeowners over the years. You just can’t predict when these parties will all be back in court over some ‘new’ taxing powers handed to them by lawmakers. “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe when the Legislature’s in session.” -Mark Twain

http://tinyurl.com/mx8b9r3

Important Post as the 4th of July Approaches

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The Homeowners Association movement is rife with hypocrisy. This truth was demonstrated in a recent Illinois Supreme Court case, Spanish Court v. Carlson. The Illinois Supreme Court has made some goofy decisions on HOA issues in the past, but this one was spot-on. It essentially ruled that homeowners can withhold dues if the HOA isn’t fulfilling its contractual obligations to homeowners.

Community Associations Institute (CAI) makes billions of dollars by pretending that Homeowners Associations are exempt from annoying and petty requirements of the U.S. Constitution because they’re not real governments. They’re private non-profit corporations.

On the other hand, CAI argues that it needs the right to break into private homes to force homeowners to pay dues (taxes). And just like government, it needs to collect dues (taxes) to pay for common amenities, even if it fails in its contractual duties to maintain those amenities. Wild, huh?

Arizona’s HOA expert, George Staropoli, has an excellent analysis of this ‘friends of the court’ brief filed by the CAI. It’s a quick read, but important. It potentially means that the CAI’s hypocrisy is finally being recognized.

Please, please, take a few moments to consider George’s post.

http://tinyurl.com/pn3eguy

Then, tell everyone on your email list to read it as well. It looks like some homeowners are actually beginning to win back some of the Constitutional rights they’ve lost to the national HOA scam.

BTW, be sure to click on the link at the bottom of George’s post. It’s a more in-depth analysis of the Illinois decision.

Throw Christians To The Lions!

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Don’t think for a moment your HOA has any sympathy for your religious views. Across the country there’ve been plenty of homeowners who were forced to shut down their Wednesday night Bible studies because it meant one too many cars parked on the street or the driveway.

In Katy, Texas, a young lady named Meagan Schmidt joined a church a few months ago. She says the church changed her life so much that she wanted to tell others. So she put up a small sign in her yard that said, “Journey Church.” But the Highland Creek Village Homeowners Association says it’s a commercial sign and blatantly violates neighborhood covenants.

The young lady is resisting and even tried to explain her side to the board members. They shouted her down. Now it’s fines and liens and pending lawsuits. The HOA has even cancelled pool permits for the family’s kids.

In days of old, Texans would have resorted to six-shooters at sundown. These days it’s all about shaming the kids until the parents submit.

Highland Creek Village HOA. Another one to avoid like the plague.

http://tinyurl.com/kkfvta3

original source:

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/22614783/2013/06/17/homeowner-association-tells-tenant-that-church-sign-has-to-go

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