Category Archives: military

Oh, That Sinking Feeling When Your Builder Walks Away!

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

Let’s face it. There is no shortage of construction defect reports for many homes built in the past decade, and Colorado homeowners seem to have more than their share of shoddy construction.

The focus in the news lately has been on condominiums, with city leaders bucking state law to go around legal protections for homeowners, claiming that if they do not ease up on construction standards, developers won’t be able to build enough “affordable” condos for first-time buyers.

Well, here’s a story of apparent construction defects affecting some pricey single family homes on the outskirts of Frederick, roughly 30 miles north of Denver. It seems Dr. Robert Landry, a veterinarian, his wife and two small children have had to move out of their home. Landry alleges that the family’s Lennar-built “forever home” is uninhabitable, because the foundation is sinking into soft soil, allowing moisture and mold build up, buckling wood floors, and kitchen counters pulling away from the walls.

The homeowner hired an engineer to examine the foundation and crawl space, and to conduct soil testing. The results of recent soil tests indicate that the soil is too soft to support construction of a home. Lennar claims that soil testing done in 2006 indicated a drastically different soil composition that was deemed suitable for construction.

However, in 2013, Colorado saw historic flooding, and Weld County – where Landry’s home is located – was particularly hard hit. Additionally, Frederick has a history of coal mining activity, and in recent years, nearby land has become the site of oil and gas drilling, and the controversial practice of fracking. (the subject of another blog) Several of Landry’s neighbors report similar damage to their homes.

A Google search of Lennar Homes in Frederick indicates the company is no longer building homes in Rinn Valley HOA, the site of Landry’s home. Landry has approached the Town of Frederick and the HOA for assistance, before bringing his story to local media.

Landry contends that new soil testing should have been done following the 2013 floods, prior to breaking ground on his home and others nearby. He questions why the Town of Frederick approved construction and issued occupancy permits for homes built on shifting soils, particularly without drilling deep piers into bedrock to support their foundations. The inspection officer admits that the Town’s policy is to simply accept the Developer’s reports, signed by the builder’s own engineers.

This is common practice in many states – the local government’s development planning officials are mostly paper pushers. As long as the Developer files the required reports with signatures, the project is good to go. And many site inspections are either conducted by the Developer’s chosen experts, or, if conducted by the city or county, such inspections are cursory at best.

In other words, as a home buyer, no one is looking out for your interests.

To add insult to injury, the Attorney hired by Landry says that it is impossible for homeowners to sue Lennar, because the Developer requires arbitration to settle construction defect disputes. Those consumer-hostile terms were written into the sales contracts for all homebuyers. (Similar terms are most likely written into the governing documents for the homeowners association, with regard to defects that occur in the common areas.)

Landry and his neighbors hope to convince Lennar to buy back their homes, so they can move on with their lives.

Source articles and video:

(homeowner blames builder for sinking house)

(earlier report, Shifting Soil Damages Brand New Home in Frederick)

(March 2015, Dr. Robert Landry asks for assistance from Town of Frederick with Rinn Valley homes)

(Rinn Valley Ranch HOA)

Little Free Library Must Go Says The HOA!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Jennifer Fontanilla of Stockton, California had no idea she could not erect a Little Free Library in her front yard. Well, let’s say she had no idea her LeBaron Estates Owners Association could prohibit her from keeping the Little Free Library she won and then erected.

It’s got a bright yellow door and gives the impression literacy is just tempting inquiring minds of the young and old to open it. Take a peek inside. Find something interesting. And take it home to read.

OMG! What if there was a copy of Neighbors At War The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association by Ward Lucas in there? What if Miss Jennifer and her neighbors learned the TRUTH about the risks of owning in the HOA? What if they came across this website and read these blogs about abusive bullies on the HOA boards? What if she has no idea the board members can spend massive amounts of money to drag her into a lawsuit, a jury trial, and foreclose and take her home and life’s savings? All because she was providing FREE BOOKS to her neighbors to READ! Tell me dear readers, has there ever been a greater sin?!?!

The Little Free Library movement has gone global. To me, it’s a wonderful thing. I’ve been known to put books in the ones in my area, but NONE OF THEM ARE IN MY HOA! I would love to build one and fill it with books. But I know I would have to figure out a way to live in it because my HOA would definitely foreclose and take my townhouse if a Little Free Library appeared anywhere near here.

The ignorance in America continues to grow. Shouldn’t we be willing to do anything possible to encourage learning? Are we really this stupid to believe a Little Free Library across the street is going to depreciate property values? And are we willing to pay dues so a bunch of bullies can sue the neighbor that has a Little Free Library that most everybody enjoys?

When will we stand up and say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?

Jennifer Fontanilla has another ‘hearing’ about this issue on July 14th. Can we figure out a way to show our support for her from all across America?

A special thank you to Record staff writer, Nicolas Filipas for exposing more insanity from a California HOA.

(link to Little Free Library story)

http://www.recordnet.com/article/20150703/NEWS/150709883#ReaderReaction

Reflections on Flags

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Flag etiquette is a touchy subject in this country. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that burning the American Flag is a protected form of speech under the First Amendment. Still, we hear calls from elected politicians that displaying the Confederate Flag is not protected speech.

The beginning of the Confederate War was never about slavery, it was about the massive tax burden being imposed by the North against southern businessmen. The slavery issue arose two years into the Civil War and at that point the Stars and Bars and slavery were forever linked.

But the original flag, the one that George Washington commissioned, was never about slavery, either. It was about this country’s brash argument that it wanted to be free from foreign rule and oppressive taxes. Yes, George Washington owned slaves. So did many others of the country’s founders. So did the Cherokee Indians, for that matter.

So how is the American Flag any less a symbol of slavery than the Confederate Flag? The two flags are just red, white and blue pieces of cloth stitched together. And now professional rabble rousers are insisting that anything Red, White and Blue be torn down and assigned to the dustbins of history.

The two flags represent culture. There are good and bad things in every culture. But believing that Americans are too stupid to make up their own minds about important cultural issues is Political Correctness run amok.

Flee from political correctness, that apple barrel of hypocrisy and prevarication which is sitting and fermenting and waiting to poison the discussion and the common sense that most Americans have.

Now, we have a very real situation taking place in a Southern Colorado neighborhood. A Hispanic man hung a flag upside down as a show of disrespect because of the racism he feels in his community. He says he feels harassed by the HOA’s management company.

Whew! Don’t we all?

There’s a craziness afoot in American neighborhoods. There’s an intolerance that’s as insidious as a cluster of cancer cells. Let’s get rid of it. Leave the flags alone. Leave our First Amendment alone. If someone has the bad taste to display a flag improperly, just walk away and let him be. What a nice place this would be if we just gave each other some space. Forgive, forget, and get on with life.

(link to El Paso County flag story)

 

Wild Corruption In Nevada!!!

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OK folks! I’ve been an investigative reporter for forty years. And during that time thousands upon thousands of documents have been released to me. Oh, there’ve been two or three that were held back, but always because of some extraneous circumstance usually relating to a name a prosecutor or a judge wanted held back for personal or political reasons. And we usually found a higher judge who ordered the documents released.

But Damn it! Political reasons don’t apply here! Personal reasons don’t apply.  Nevada homeowners lost hundreds of millions of dollars when this organized crime ring crashed Homeowners Associations all over Nevada. Property values there still haven’t recovered. It wasn’t just a few dozen homeowners who were hurt in this monstrous scam. Millions were hurt. Taxpayers paid for this years-long investigation. Families went broke. Many lost their homes. Lives were lost. People killed themselves.

Who are you trying to protect by illegally keeping these files secret? A scummy judge who was able to escape indictment? Perhaps a scummy bigtime politician who, with his son, have become multi-millionaires investing in phony land deals based on illegal insider knowledge about housing trends in Nevada?

You found 100 “people of interest” in this case, but didn’t prosecute them because you thought it would be too expensive? Isn’t that a sneaky way of letting your friends and political boosters off the hook? Wouldn’t a thorough vetting of this whole slimy affair be a way for you to crawl out this greasy morass?

Federal Judge Mahan, there’s a lot you ought to be ashamed of including the awesome lack of meaningful prison time you handed out to these mobsters.

Now, you should be ashamed of letting your political cronies talk you into not releasing documents that you feel might shame your pathetic state and your miserable bench even further. I’ve learned over the years that when something doesn’t smell right, you start looking for the source. Something real close to where you’re standing, Judge Mahan, doesn’t smell just right.

(crooked lawyer gets ten years for swindling homeowners)

 

 

Just Another HOA Thief

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

No surprises here. HOAs and condo associations are nothing more than a thieves’ paradise. A simple internet search or glancing through neighborsatwar.dot com will reveal the massive numbers of thefts by HOA board members and HOA managers. The penalty…maybe a few days of community service and a little “talking to” by the judge and they are punishment free.

Here’s one in Still Meadows Condominium Association in Severn where Wanda Brooks could hardly shuffle into the courtroom with her walker but she was able to dine out, get her hair done, pay utilities, and buy gas on the HOA credit card.

Makes me wonder how many Mercedes have been purchased? How many kids have gone to college? (on a fully-paid HOA “scholarships”) How many luxury vacations have been taken? How much real estate has been purchased? How many bottles of booze have been consumed? How much jewelry has been bought? How many kids have had orthodontics? And how many boxes of diapers, dog food, and cigarettes have HOA dues paid for? Far more than we know about, I’m sure of that. Hundreds of millions of dollars per year are being stolen from homeowners and they don’t even know it.

The massive corruption in HOAs is beyond words. Yet, we have 1 in 5 Americans living inside of these hellholes under the belief their property values are protected by signing up for the HOA. What a joke!

Isn’t it interesting how people get so upset when somebody robs them of their wallet in a parking lot and it has $20 in it, but think nothing of all the years of being robbed blind by their volunteer HOA board member neighbors and paid property managers?

The more HOAs that are built in America should reduce the number of bank robberies, I would think. One comes with time in the federal penitentiary, the other with best wishes kisses from the judge.

(read it and weep, another embezzlement case)