Category Archives: QFCA

OK, I Admit It! HOAs Have A Purpose!

      4 Comments on OK, I Admit It! HOAs Have A Purpose!

Before you hire an assassin to take me out, please listen to my reasoning.

Next door ‘party houses’ are the bane of the existence of any homeowner. People buy the house, then start renting it out to party-throwing wild people who screw things up for the entire neighborhood. Certainly, Homeowner Associations can take these houses down. They assess fines, file liens and lawsuits and can shut these places down.

Still, if you have a strong zoning department they can shut these houses down much more quickly and without costing HOAs a ton of money in legal fees. And Zoning Departments have to follow Constitutional law. It doesn’t make them slower in enforcing reasonable standards, but it does make them more accountable.

As a property owner in an HOA, wouldn’t you rather deal with Zoning than with a bunch of slander-slinging neighbors? Wouldn’t you rather have your insurance and legal fees remain stable so you don’t get hit with special assessments to pay for legal fees? Wouldn’t you rather be in a position where the HOA insurance company doesn’t cancel the community policy because of an excess of Board lawsuits?

It’s all about peace and quiet enjoyment of property. Wouldn’t you rather have the county cracking the whip than your next-door neighbor, or your Nazi-minded board member?

It’s all about common sense, which apparently isn’t a factor in the national HOA scam.

(link to story on party houses)

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The American Flag is Offensive!

      No Comments on The American Flag is Offensive!

We’ve seen this over and over again. But keep in mind that when patriotism is banned we’ve reached the beginning of the end. Please, please, don’t think I’m exaggerating.

In North Carolina, a Homeowners Association (a trailer home association) has banned the flying of American flags. They want to ban all flags, which is probably understandable. But the American flag has special protections enacted by Congress and by many state legislatures. Banning American flags is on a par with banning any celebration of the 4th of July.

Multi-culturalism? I get it.

Diversity? I get it.

But any ‘government’ (and believe it, Homeowners Associations are governments) that begins banning displays of patriotism is on the road to destruction. Go back and look at dictators who killed millions and millions of people, Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao: They all began by burning books, outlawing freedom of expression, and banning displays of religion and patriotism.

Our Constitution is an extremely thin thread that holds our country out of the hands of such monsters.

Our Constitution was written and enacted by some of the greatest heroes in history. If we allow the collapse of our Constitution, we will ultimately be regarded as the greatest cowards in history. When your HOA nibbles away at your Constitutional rights, stand up and show your testosterone! Use it or lose it.

(link to story on banning the American flag)

(link to a list of the 25 most murderous dictators in history)

 

$50K Goal For GoFundMe And The Purple Playset

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

The blog I wrote about the Raintree Lake HOA in Lee’s Summit, Missouri on August 10th mentioned discussions of a GoFundMe account for the Stout family legal defense. They are standing up and fighting against the HOA to keep their daughters’ purple playset.

Sure enough, somebody took the bull by the horns and set it up. The donations are rolling in. And the comments from some of the donors are VERY interesting. Even a Realtor is making mention of people being afraid to buy in HOAs. How many times have we heard that before?

It’s so sickening to think all that money will go to fund the college funds of children of two HOA lawyers. Or maybe a second home in Breckenridge, Bozeman, or Bonaire. Or, possibly a yacht for the Lake of the Ozarks. No matter what the outcome of the lawsuit in the courtroom, the lawyers come out the winners. This is how the HOA legal game is played. Everybody loses except the lawyers. The pay off is determined by how long the lawyers can keep the battle raging.

When I sold yellow page advertising years ago, I had hundreds of attorneys as clients. When I asked what was the best case I could bring them they would tell me a nasty divorce. Naive me, I asked how do you know it’s a nasty divorce? With a chuckle from the attorneys I kept hearing, “you get them to call and we KNOW how to make it nasty!” Something tells me the days of the nasty divorces have been replaced with nasty HOA legal battles. Unfortunately, in that arena, I am not at all naive!

http://www.gofundme.com/hekvt8xm

 

Condo Owners vs. Rent-Controlled Apartment Dwellers

      2 Comments on Condo Owners vs. Rent-Controlled Apartment Dwellers
guest blog by Deborah Goonan

In the Los Angeles Bunker Hill community, condo owners and traditional apartment dwellers have been locked in a 3-year long legal battle over their once-shared pool and barbecue area, with no end in sight.

The two articles referenced below explain some of the details of how the dispute began, but, in short, there has been a disagreement over cost-sharing of recent improvements made to the pool area. A few years ago, the Bunker Hill Tower condo association dictated expensive changes, apparently without agreement from the apartment owner, Essex Property Trust. Essex objected, refusing to pay for the renovations. The owner of the 2 apartment buildings has been paying two-thirds of maintenance costs since the 1980s, following the condo conversion of one of the three original buildings.

As of today, the condo association has installed a fence around the pool to lock out the tenants. At the same time, the owner of the 2 rent-controlled apartment buildings (that were never converted to condos) is planning to build a separate pool and common space on the roof of the parking garage that serves tenants.

What I find intriguing about this situation: the conflict is between a Condo Association and non-members of the Association. Ironically, even if you’re the type of person that purposely avoids condominiums, because you don’t particularly like the fact that your neighbors can tell you what you can and cannot do, you cannot always escape the condo conflict madness that is encroaching upon residents in surrounding dwellings!

Sometimes an Association-Governed Residential Community Board over steps its authority and attempts to impose its rules or its ideas of aesthetic appeal on its neighbors. In this case, the Condo Association decided that everyone, including Essex Property Trust, should want to invest in a resort-style pool renovation. Perhaps a more basic facelift would have been sufficient, not to mention less costly. I’d be willing to bet some of the condo owners feel the same way, although they are all obligated to pay assessment increases to cover the cost.

Come to think of it, the behavior of Bunker Hill Tower Association toward Bunker Hill Apartment tenants reminds me of the bossy kid on the block, back when we were all in grade school. Whenever that annoying kid started telling me what to do, my favorite response was, “You’re not the boss of me!”

Apparently Essex Property Trust feels the same way, and is not interested in appeasing the Condo Association.

Source articles:

Bunker Hill Residents Have Been at Legal War For Three Years Over a Pool

The Battle on Bunker Hill

 

Light At The End Of The Quivira Falls Tunnel

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Today, I had lunch with one of the escapees from Quivira Falls Community Association. Sixteen years of his life was spent in this rotten hellhole. He finally walked away and let the place foreclose. Only to say today he wishes he had done it years ago.

He tried for years to see the financial records. Filing a pro se lawsuit produced no results. When it rained, the hillside between his and his neighbor’s front door washed mud all over his sidewalk. It was often times over an inch deep so walking to the door resulted in muddy shoes. The front door has big pieces of peeling paint to greet visitors.

A dead tree stood out front for a long time before somebody took a saw and cut it down leaving the stump to rot. His fence around the patio is falling down and missing pickets. The hillside behind it is all weeds.

This is the ‘quality’ of maintenance provided by Quivira Falls if you are one of the “pariahs” as a former board president called those she does not like in the community newsletter.

When this man tells the story about the “blow and go” paint jobs prior to my mistaken purchase into Quivira Falls, it’s hysterical. The board hired a painting company that sprayed the townhouses with paint; windows, screens, doors, and foundations included. One warm night after the “blow and go” he decided to open his second story bedroom window. One push and the entire window flew out and crashed onto the patio below. Fortunately, he had some carpentry skills and was able to install a replacement window.

After lunch we removed all of the new door knobs, light fixtures, tools, and other supplies from the garage. I will donate all of it to Habitat Restore tomorrow. At one time, he had plans to completely redecorate the inside of his unit, but finally accepted the fact it was a waste of time and energy. He stopped paying the HOA dues and mortgage payments. And gave up hope for better days in Quivira Falls. He set himself free of the insanity to live out the rest of his life in a rented apartment which he loves.

To help him walk away and never look back, I agreed to be the Power of Attorney and coordinate the foreclosure with the attorneys and mortgage company. Without any hassle, they were nice enough to give me a set of keys after they changed the locks. Imagine that: A foreclosure company is far more pleasant to work with than the Quivira Falls board members that are also neighbors! They asked me if they should expect the owner to protest the foreclosure and I said, “Oh no! That will never happen because he’s delighted that you are taking the place off of his hands!”

And the light at the end of the Quivira Falls tunnel is getting brighter for another escapee.