Category Archives: Las Vegas HOA

Prominent Las Vegas HOA Figure Found Dead

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Nancy Quon, the attorney at the center of a Homeowner Association scandal in Las Vegas, has been found dead in her bathtub. Quon had been accused in an HOA construction defect litigation scandal that took in more than a hundred million dollars from insurance companies that represented Homeowner Associations in Nevada.

The FBI has been investigating up to a hundred Homeowner Associations in the Las Vegas area, and has staged several raids on the offices of HOAs and HOA management companies. The scandal has been in the hands of at least three federal grand juries over the past three years. At least ten prominent figures in the investigation have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges over the past five months.

Quon and her associates have been accused of arranging for ‘straw men’ to be elected to the boards of Nevada Homeowner Associations. Those newly elected board officers would then vote to file construction defect lawsuits against insurance companies. Those lawsuits were then funneled to construction companies affiliated with Quon’s law firm. The head of one of those construction companies is a prominent night club owner in Las Vegas who also runs a number of Nevada construction companies.

Police in Las Vegas say that foul play was not suspected in Quon’s death, and that she may have been drinking in her bathtub when she passed out.

A complicating factor, though, is that Quon and a Las Vegas police officer were accused of plotting to arrange her “suicide” more than a year ago, supposedly to collect insurance money for her children. The police officer allegedly arranged for the Las Vegas Police Department laboratory to manufacture a quantity of GHB, a drug frequently used at rave parties, to be used in her death. That officer’s conversation was recorded by a police informant and the officer is currently under indictment in connection with her attempted suicide last year.

During the alleged suicide attempt last year, Quon’s home caught fire and she was pulled from her burning home and revived by paramedics. She claimed at the time that she was not attempting suicide. Quon’s death will complicate the FBI’s investigation of the Homeowner Association scandal, since she was apparently the key target of the federal investigation.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Midwest Residents Latest to be Hit by Embezzlers

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People in Kansas and Missouri Homeowner Associations must have wondered why they weren’t being hit by embezzlers.  Were they just more honest, maybe luckier?  Maybe people in the Midwest just respect each other a little more?

But then, maybe not.  The feds in Las Vegas have learned how the corrupt HOA system is bleeding dollars away from homeowners across the nation. Now U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips theft has released info that should shock a lot more homeowners.

She has arrested the owner of a Kansas City business for stealing more than 750,000 dollars of money from his neighbors.  And he has pleaded guilty. Dozens of homeowners associations were hit while 53 year old Dale Palmar of Kansas City, Missouri just raked it in.

I’ve argued at length that wherever you look in this country, you’ll see the signs; homeowners being excessively fined for minor infractions, insurance money that’s supposedly paid, but just doesn’t quite lead to the expected repairs.

The message is crystal clear: the HOA movement is one of the most corrupt institutions this country has ever witnessed.  The loss of money through the HOA system is massive and almost unprecedented. When you sign those CC&Rs just remember you’re putting your retirement savings, your equity into the hands of all your neighbors.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Mob Mentality in Las Vegas HOAs

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We haven’t heard much lately about the Las Vegas Homeowner Association scandal and the federal investigation which has already obtained ten guilty pleas against public figures for corruption. But, we may as well do this blog to keep Las Vegas criminality in the headlines.

The Mountain’s Edge Homeowner Association is being sued by investors who tried to snatch up foreclosed homes in the Vegas area. In the mortgage collapse, investors have taken a huge risk in trying to buy up homes which were abandoned by bankrupted homeowners. Those investors are just about the only financial thread keeping entire neighborhoods from going under.

But investors are now filing complaints or suing dozens of HOAs which they claim are gouging them with inflated liens and excessive dues, fines and collection costs. The old wisdom is “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” Investors are pouring money into dying neighborhoods, but HOA boards are slamming them with fistfulls of phony fines.

The mortgage mess will take years to clear up. But many Las Vegas HOA boards don’t seem to “get it.”

Welcome the investors. Bring in the investors. Use their money to prop up your dessicated neighborhoods. But if you use your customary mob mentality against this new money, you’ll end up paying a high price.

The obvious message to investors is… “never buy a home in an HOA. Not in Las Vegas. Not anywhere.”

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

How D’ya Like Your HOA Re-sale Value Now, Bunky?

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Washington State is such a pretty place to live. They call it “The Evergreen State.”

And a boat-load of Homeowners Associations were all going to help protect and preserve property values for all those new owners. Well, it’s not working out so well for folks in the Hazel Dell Townhomes, part of the Timbers at Town Center HOA in Vancouver. About six years ago, crowds of real estate agents dragged their clients in to buy some of those ritzy new townhomes. Now, HOA dues are going unpaid, a lot of personal wealth has been shredded, common areas are uncommonly unkempt. At this point, a townhouse owner probably couldn’t unload his property in a bad poker game.

It’s an old, sad story. The developer went broke in 2006, leaving a bunch of homes unsold. He transferred his bankrupt company along with the CC&Rs to the neighborhood. One of those rules is that it takes a quorum of 50% of the community to elect a board, to hold a meeting or even to petition the courts for help.

Now the homeowners are whining to the State Legislature that it’s “just not fair.” Maybe the Legislature will help out, and maybe not. The problem isn’t the developer. The problem is that investing in covenant-controlled housing is a big fat “P.S.I.” (pretty stupid investment). It’s just another case of “the big lie” being told over and over again by every real estate agent in Kingdom Come.

They’ll call me a fibber for saying it, but the real truth is that, “No, the HOA does NOT protect your property values.

In the meantime, many homeowners in The Evergreen State could reasonably call it “The Ever-Broke State.”

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Do You Smell Something Rotting in the Air of Las Vegas?

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With several dozen Las Vegas Homeowner Associations mired in the muck of a federal corruption investigation, members of one association have learned they may be targeted by huge IRS assessments and fines.

Sun City Summerlin Community Association is not one of the Nevada HOAs where investigators have found corrupt cops and judges and lawyers. But this HOA’s accounting practices are attracting lots of federal attention.

The HOA operates several commercial golf courses and restaurants. So in addition to HOA dues, there’s a chunk of money coming into the coffers of the HOA from outside sources. Theoretically, taxes should be paid on that income. But Sun City Summerlin Association has been deferring millions of dollars on its annual tax forms. Homeowners don’t seem to be aware that their snowbird homes may end up as tax magnets instead of tax shelters.

Sun City Summerlin is a not-for-profit organization, so theoretically homeowners should have been given some rather large refunds. Instead, each homeowner may be given some rather large surprise tax assessments.

Other Homeowners Associations across the country area are closely watching what happens in Las Vegas. Elderly homeowners may suddenly discover a downside to investing their life savings in a retirement home in the Sun Belt.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association