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Ward Lucas is a longtime investigative journalist and television news anchor. He has won more than 70 national and regional awards for Excellence in Journalism, Creative Writing and community involvement. His new book, "Neighbors At War: the Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association," is now available for purchase. In it, he discusses the American homeowners association movement, from its racist origins, to its transformation into a lucrative money machine for the nation's legal industry. From scams to outright violence to foreclosures and neighborhood collapses across the country, the reader will find this book enormously compelling and a necessary read for every homeowner. Knowledge is self-defense. No homeowner contemplating life in an HOA should neglect reading this book. No HOA board officer should overlook this examination of the pitfalls in HOA management. And no lawyer representing either side in an HOA dispute should gloss over what homeowners are saying or believing about the lawsuit industry.

Another Crook Embezzles from Neighbors

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I wonder if it’s hard for these people to sleep at night. Stealing from neighbors? The ones you say “hi” to on the street each day? Maybe it’s just me, but I could never get used to the guilt. Your neighbors are trying hard to pay their bills, to put the kids through college, some of them even struggling to pay HOA dues. Other neighbors have lost jobs in this economy, and are wondering where the next bag of groceries are coming from?

Then some runny-nosed, gambling-addicted, coke-head of an HOA treasurer grabs all the neighborhood’s money for a quick run to Vegas.

The latest case involves a Homeowners Association treasurer from the Parkwood HOA In Durham, North Carolina. This yahoo only stole $150,000 to $200,000. This kind of theft doesn’t just happen because the crook is arrogant. It happens because the crook thinks you, the homeowner, are stupid. You’re too dumb to read the annual report. You’re too stupid to suspect a crime. You’ll deny to the bitter end that you were the one who was robbed.

But just try selling your home, Bunky, to another buyer. It’s required by law that you disclose all defects in a property, including whether the HOA treasurer had a blank check to transfer money from your Homeowners Association to the casinos.

That should do something for the offer price on the home you’re selling. After revealing that the HOA is now totally out of money, prepare to lower the asking price of your home by 20 or 30,000 dollars.

You’re a sucker. A sucker for living in a Homeowners Association where trust is the only promise you really get. A sucker for not realizing that governing covenants across the land are so poorly written that thousands of Homeowners Associations are in the same sad shape. Yep, Buddy. Welcome to HOA life. You’re a sucker.

Source: http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/16485899/article-Parkwood-president–Embezzler-took-at-least–150K-from-HOA-?instance=homethirdleft

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

Dream Home Gone Bad | The Ultimate HOA Nightmare

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Sometimes people get to own their dream home, complete with fine furnishings, a swimming pool, and a well-guarded community, where they believe they will live forever.  Unfortunately, neighborhood squabbles can make those dreams vanish. All too often, that moment of horror is delivered on a silver platter by a homeowners association.

Technically, a homeowners association is an organization of homeowners that looks out for the common good of all neighbors. But sometimes, the interpretation of “common good” turns into a nightmare. And a new resident finds the community is not so neighborly after all.

A.J. Vizzi bought his “dream home” in the Eagles Homeowners Asso0ciation near Odessa, Florida. Vizzi owned a brand new Ford F-350 pickup truck. But The Eagles deed-restrictions don’t allow pickup trucks of any kind. Had Vizzi purchased a Cadillac Escalade or a Hummer it would have been allowed. But his F-350 had to stay out of sight, inside his garage.  The truck, Vizzi said, was too large for the garage. Beginning in 2001, the HOA began ticketing Vizzi, saying his truck was in violation and had to go.  The tickets kept coming, the fines kept growing.

Finally, The Eagles filed a lawsuit against Vizzi. He stood his ground. The case wound its way through the lower courts and then the Court of Appeals.

In March of 2010, nine years after the fight began, the court not only ruled that the F-150 was legal in the community, but Vizzi’s neighbors now have to pick up the tab for all court costs. It awarded more than $187,000 in legal bills to Vizzi. Presumably, the Eagles also has to pay its own legal bills. So a mindless fight over a pristine, new pickup truck kept the protagonists awake for nine long years, and cost the HOA nearly a half million dollars. The attorneys all got paid, of course, but the neighborhood lost a half million.

The case should give pause to any prospective homeowner looking for a dream home. The Eagles looks like an unhappy place to start chasing that dream.

Vizzi and his family decided to move away from the petty viciousness of The Eagles. They now live on acreage away from the nightmare of Homeowners Associations.

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

FBI INVESTIGATES BEATING OF SUSPECT IN HOA FRAUD CASE

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Leave it to the Las Vegas crowd to figure out a way to intimidate a police informant!

David Amesbury, a lawyer, is one of ten suspects who’ve pleaded guilty in the Las Vegas HOA corruption case. His guilty plea means he’s going to be a star witness against a massive scheme to rig elections in Las Vegas Homeowners Associations, and steer hundreds of millions of dollars in construction defect litigation to certain attornies and building contractors.

But this week, Amesbury was found severly beaten and bleeding on a street in Henderson, Nevada. The FBI denies Amesbury was beaten because of the federal investigation. Still, they’re taking a close look at it. If there’s a connection, the feds say they’ll take it very seriously.

With one to two dozen more suspects slated to fork over guilty pleas in exchange for their testimony against the real criminal bigwigs, one has to wonder if a message is being sent “Las Vegas style.”

The FBI is aggressively investigating cops, lawyers, judges, businessmen and other unnamed officials in its massive Homeowners Association corruption investigation.

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

Tenth Las Vegas HOA Crook Takes Guilty Plea

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The FBI’s HOA investigation continues to fall into place with a tenth guilty plea. Denise Keser is the first suspect to publicly implicate two well-known targets of the federal investigation, attorney Nancy Quon and businessman Leon Benzer who runs a popular nightclub and several construction companies.

Keser pleaded guilty to one county of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. She admitted in federal court that she took part in s scheme to illegally gain control of HOA boards by rigging elections. The phony Homeowners Association boards would then steer construction defect litigation to attorney Quon, who would in turn steer construction work to Benzer’s construction companies.

The FBI investigation is targeting lawyers, judges, cops and more than a dozen Homeowners Associations.

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

Banning the Boy Scouts! (keep the snot-nosed little beggers out of MY HOA neighborhood!)

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You stupid, stupid board members at the West Melbourn Homeowners Association in Florida. You know what you’ve done. You’ve told 4000 Boy Scouts that they may not collect for food donations at Brevard County Homes. for the less fortunate.
The Boy Scouts have collected these donations for years. Now you’ve apparently decided you’re just too good.  You’re just too special, too high class to have to stoop to help those less fortunate.
Shame on you, West Melbourn Homeownes Association.  It’s not just that you’re refusing help feed those with real needs.  It’s that you’re depriving a group of the most wonderful, gentlemenly, most decent young men in America from trying to do their part.  Organizations like the Boy Scouts represent the few good people this country has left. These are the young men who, years from now, will be your doctors, your lawyers, your advisers, your counselors, your friends! They will be the ones defending your country in the military.
I don’t care if you don’t want to donate. That’s your business and I have no criticism for that. But how dare you say the Boy Scouts may not collect emergency relief rations in your Homeowners Association? Are you really that arrogant that you just can’t allow someone to help other people less fortunate than you?
Frank Brunn, President of Hammock Lakes East and West, aren’t you a little ashamed when you turn out the lights at night? Aren’t you just a little conflicted? In your new position of power, you get to start unilaterally throwing scumbags out of the neighborhood, scumbags who just want to take advantage of the wealthy? But Mr. Brunn, the Boy Scouts?  Were you never a Scout? Were you never taught the Boy Scout Motto and the code of ethics?
Mr. Brunn, you’ve demonstrated to your neighbors that you’re not up to the job of making your neighborhood a better place than it was when you took office. That’s sad. But you can still fulfill your moral responsibility by just stepping aside, resigning, and letting some man or woman with a more compassionate heart teach you what the word ‘neighbor’ really is.  It’s actually not really a word. It’s a concept.  It’s a lifestyle.