Category Archives: Las Vegas HOA

How to Crash Property Values in an HOA!

What if your HOA suddenly passed a rule that no member could ever convert his home to a rental?
Homeowners rent out their homes for many legitimate reasons: to stall for time until sales values go back up; to bring in some money while Dad’s is relocating to a job out of state. Some parents invest in homes near a college so a child can decrease living expenses by taking in a roommate.

Poorly maintained rental property certainly brings down values of nearby homes. But well-maintained rentals harm no one.
So, what’s the harm in outlawing non-owner occupancies?

STOP THE PRESSES!!!

Well, at least it sounded cool, but I didn’t have the guts to say that to my publisher. I actually did want to hold off for a couple of weeks on my new book, Neighbors At War: the Creepy Case Against Your Homeowner Association. With all the embezzlements from HOAs, I’ve got a last minute update I’d like to make. I want to slip into Chapter 14 a $1000 challenge: a reward for the reader who can compile a verified list of the largest number of Homeowner Association embezzlements.

ANOTHER SUSPECT IN HOA CORRUPTION CASE INDICTED

Investigators of HOA corruption in Las Vegas have scored another bit hit. They have indicted a Bevery Hills man for felony embezzlement and theft.  The indicment accuses Massoud Aaron Yashouafar of stealing more than a million dollars from the Paradise Spa Homeowners Association. Yashouafar was the treasurer of the HOA.

In the past two years, two fires have erupted in the complex in Las Vegas. Insurance companies gave Yashouafar up to a million dollars to repair the damage.  But owners of units in the complex say they never received any insurance money, and to this day Paradise spa is marred by the two fires.

If it’s Tuesday, it must be another HOA Embezzlement

Millions of people move into Homeowner Associations, thinking they’re protecting the value of their home. They sign covenants promising to abide by a byzantine set of covenants that amount to a surrender of all Constitutional rights. They reason, “At least I’m protecting my investment.”

But in a massive number of Homeowner Associations, someone on the inside is embezzling staggering sums of money, all of which have to repaid by the homeowners. If the crook is caught, the judge generally orders restitution, but that’s just pro forma. It rarely happens. When homeowners are forced to make up for the stolen money, for all intents and purposes it’s a direct devaluation of every home in the neighborhood.

Jesus Christ, What Happened To Us?

One of the saddest stories out of Washington this Christmas is that Congressmen are forbidden from wishing their constituents “Merry Christmas” if they’re using Congressional franking privileges. In fact, the newest rules accept “Have a happy new year,” but do not permit “Happy New Year!”

It seems the PC crowd doesn’t want tax dollars used for anything that even hints at any connection to religion. The First Amendment doesn’t mandate that life in America be absolutely secular, it simply says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” But 200 years of Supreme Court rulings have decided that the First Amendment doesn’t say what our common sense tells us it does.