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.
It looks like our side won a small but significant legal battle. A federal judge has ruled that a debt collector’s law firm can be held liable when it presents false information received from the client. The debt collector had inflated its claim against a homeowner by thousands of dollars, the same thing HOA debt collectors do all over the country. Finally! Finally, a law firm gets smacked for false representation!
Now we need a case where the HOA itself is also found liable for hiring crooked debt collectors who use crooked lawyers.
I’ve written about this before. But here’s another great column from the Aspen Times. Wages are so out-of-control in this Eastern Hollywood Town, that the City of Aspen is using taxpayers’ money to pay for the maintenance of Homeowners Associations where all the ‘low-income’ workers live. The whole system is warped in more ways than can be easily discussed. But the columnist linked below does a pretty good job.
Homeowners Associations are a national scandal waiting to burst. But making the taxpayer pay the cost of keeping this scam going is just stretching the imagination too far.
Many homeowners are dismayed when they start looking for a lawyer to represent them against a Homeowners Association. Such law firms are close to non-existent. Lawyers who align themselves with such organizations as Associa and CAI make a massive amount of money. But defending individual homeowners against HOA abuse is almost always a money-loser.
So I’m happy when I can pass along the name of a homeowners’ rights law firm. The Herb Milgrim Law Firm in Fort Lauderdale is a name you Florida homeowners should keep track of. They don’t blog often but their blogsite, linked below, is worth checking every so often. And I’m still collecting names of other good law firms around the country. If you run across a lawyer or law firm that stands for the rights of individual homeowners, please email me their names.
OK, OK, so I do occasionally go off on a wild goose chase. I admit it. Hopefully you’ll forgive me.
For the past two days I’ve been absolutely addicted to something on the web. Can’t take my eyes off of it. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has placed a high quality live camera right next to a nest of bald eagles, that grand symbol of America.
Just a couple days ago they hatched a chick. I think there are two more eggs in the nest but I can’t tell for sure. Dad is usually off hunting.
I do believe in celestial miracles and this is one of God’s greatest! Make sure you view it full screen!
I have enormous sympathy for people who buy into an HOA. Heck, I was dumb enough to do the same thing. Three times! But in retrospect, I was STOOPID! I was a lamb among the wolves. Never had a clue.
The biggest unreported financial crime in America is embezzlement from an HOA. The following story isn’t even extraordinary, it happens in city after city, day after day. But homeowners (like me) are just too witless to ‘get it.’ The HOA scam is beyond any reasonable explanation. If you’ve bought an HOA property you’ve just donated your life savings to a massive national criminal enterprise that the government will never investigate, expose, or end. Kiss your life savings, ‘Goodbye.’
If you live in a non-HOA neighborhood, fall in love with those boat trailers, the purple front doors, the obnoxious lawn ornaments. Your life savings are protected. Your investment will continue to grow. And feel a modicum of pity for the ritzy people on the other side of the street.
