Category Archives: lawyers

Norristown PA Condominium Failure Costs Taxpayers Millions‏

      3 Comments on Norristown PA Condominium Failure Costs Taxpayers Millions‏
guest blog by Deborah Goonan

Why should you care about continued construction of HOAs, even if you do not live in one?

City and County planning boards love HOAs because they increase the property tax base, while requiring very few, if any, additional services to be provided within the boundaries of these communities. In theory, HOA residents pay assessments for their own services – which can include road maintenance, storm water system maintenance, security, and the like, as well as maintenance of common areas and multifamily (attached) housing structures. In other words, HOA owners pay more of their property tax dollars for a lower level of city or county service. That means higher net tax revenues for cities and counties. Or does it?

I have blogged before about the fact that non-HOA taxpayers are increasingly footing the bill for HOA failures in their cities and counties. Over the past few months, several media reports have surfaced about troubled and failed private HOA communities. Today I present one example from Norristown, Pennsylvania, as originally reported in The Inquirer last month. (see link to article below)

According to the report, a 26-unit condominium at 770 Sandy Street was constructed in the mid-2000s. After construction, when problems became apparent, city “Inspectors pinpointed hazards years after the building was occupied, including load-bearing walls that were hollow, exposed wiring, and fire escape stairs made of wood.” How did the developer, R. Bruce Fazio, get away with selling homes with so many apparent construction defects?

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the municipality had issued a flawed permit, and apparently failed to identify building code violations prior to occupancy.

In 2010, the building was condemned, and a judge ordered the city of Norristown to make repairs totaling $3 million.

But despite the fact that taxpayers have already forked over $3 million for the apparent negligence and incompetence of the developer and city officials, problems still continue, with many units remaining vacant and unlivable due to water damage from frozen pipes. Another condemnation may be in the works. How much more money will it cost the city of Norristown?

The unfortunate owners of these ill-fated condos have faced major financial loss and stress, but the residents of Norristown at large are also paying the price to clean up the mess left behind. Meanwhile, the developer and city officials are not being held accountable. Read the article below for details.

Your tax dollars at work?

(link to news story about Norristown failures)

 

The Problem With Judicial Immunity

      1 Comment on The Problem With Judicial Immunity

Homeowners have long known that if a judge makes a horrible decision in a civil case they can appeal, but they can’t sue the judge. It makes sense. That is, until you consider the facts in an ongoing divorce and child support case in Detroit.

Judge Wade McCree is somewhat famous there because of the nude ‘selfies’ he takes of himself to send out to female admirers. The Michigan Supreme Court removed him from the bench. But a current civil case against the former judge is raising eyebrows.

News reports indicate that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that judge McCree is immune from a civil suit filed by the husband in a divorce case. Seems the judge was not only ‘sexting’ with the husband’s ex-wife, he was also having an affair with her. Ah yes, and at the same time levying heavy child support payments against the husband. This judge is one busy fellow.

(creepy, creepy, creepy)

 

What’s A Developer To Do?

      No Comments on What’s A Developer To Do?

A massive monkey wrench has been thrown into the field of real estate development with a 55 million dollar verdict against developers of a condo conversion project in South Carolina.

Developers are the people we homeowners all love to hate. They’re the bane of our existence. Their rotten reconstruction work has led to the financial ruin of hundreds of thousands, even millions of American homeowners. So we generally stand and cheer when a jury hands down a huge verdict against a developer.

Well, let’s stand back and give this one a little reflection.

There are about 200 residents of the East Bridge Town Lofts in Charleston, South Carolina. They all bought into the idea of buying an apartment that was converted to a condominium. Sloppy work. Unlicensed building inspector, all the usual jazz. But including all the legal costs, each of these property owners will theoretically get about 300 to 400 thousand dollars. So far, so good.

But…

…when the bankruptcy filings start filling the courts like an overflowing sugar bowl, where will those homeowners all be? When the delays and appeals to higher courts start piling up even higher costs, where will those homeowners be?

The American legal system was originally meant to provide justice for the injured. Sadly, that’s not the way things turned out. Oh, the lawyers on both sides will claim victory, of course. But the homeowners? The ones who’ve had to declare personal bankruptcy? The ones who’ve died or divorced or moved on to try to repair their lives elsewhere, what happens to them? Will they look back with great fondness on how the legal system treated them?

(South Carolina verdict)

 

No More Flag Stories?

      6 Comments on No More Flag Stories?

I may actually have to quit doing stories on HOAs that fine and foreclose on veterans who try to display the America flag on their homes. There are just too many of them. Despite my earlier promise to report on all these outrageous cases, I’d just end up doing several such stories a day and not much else.

So, I hereby reluctantly admit that the anti-American, anti-homeowner movement, CAI, Associa, American Bar Association, ACLU are too firmly rooted in our society to ever win back our right to display the flag on our homes. We might still be able to put flag decals on car bumpers, but that, too, is under attack.

Greed is a powerful taskmaster. When a lawyer knows he can automatically make a few thousand bucks every time he sues a flag-waving veteran like Larry McMurphree, when a morally corrupt HOA board knows it can put a few hundred extra bucks in the neighborhood kitty by fining any homeowner who even thinks displaying a flag is patriotic, then I guess that portion of our battle is lost.

The really weird thing is that if you displayed a Nazi Flag or the Rainbow Flag, or any of the flags representing the Islamic Revolution, you actually might have a stronger case in court.

images[3]

The courts have long recognized that certain people groups have protected status under our Constitution and cannot be allowed to suffer the indignities sometimes shown to people of other belief systems. They’ll get free representation in court. The owner of a Stars and Stripes flag never will.

Stranger still, it’s absolutely OK to desecrate the flag, trample on it, burn it, those are all protected forms of speech according to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It hurts to say all this. It really does.

(Tampa CBS story on veteran being sued by his HOA)

(Elisabeth Hasselback talks about flag story) 

(good news for flag-flying veteran)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Kind of Guest Blog

      8 Comments on Another Kind of Guest Blog
(note to readers: This lady’s email request was so poignant that, with her permission, I wrote it up as a ‘guest blog’. Let’s help her with some suggestions)  

 

guest blog by Pippi

Hello! As many homeowners have likely done, we bought a place with an HOA. It was in 2005, and it was our first home. I would need 2 hands to count all the mistakes we made, and have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Our real-estate agent was also an owner here, and on the board, and quite pushy. Fast-forward 9 years – our condo that we bought for 96,900 is now worth about 40k! We pay “interest-only” on the loan (almost no equity at this point). We pay 417/mo. for HOA and utilities (no washer or dryer, no air conditioner, no tv in living room, etc).

The whole property is a dump. They are trying to pass a special assessment. Our portion of it would be almost 7k. They are “offering” a payment plan of 2 years, so about $280/mo on top of the $417. If I had $700/month extra, I wouldn’t be living here. In return for this assesment, we get nothing (and in fact, it includes the demolition, but not rebuilding, of our carport for insurance reasons).

Part of the reason we bought this home was that the dues included an exercise room, hot tub and car port, and now all 3 of those amenities will be absent.

I’m looking for advice on how to get out of this mess. We can’t sell, as we’re upside down, and one would have to be crazy to enter into any agreement with this HOA. We can’t even short-sell, as an older management company put liens the on every unit for non-payment of emergent repairs. Ugh, help! Do we just quit paying and save the dough to rent? Pay the bank but not HOA? Pay both and hang in there as long as possible?

This is the tip of the iceberg as far as our HOA issues go. I could write a book, too, unfortunately.