Another Consumer Blogger Gets It!
Ah, it’s so good when you see member of the real estate industry who finally discovers that all is not good in HOA Amerika! I hope he continues his research. He’s going to be stunned!
You Rotten Canadians!
And here I thought Canadians were all so polite. Well, in my experience, they’re a heck of a lot more polite than your typical American.
Still, when people get involved in a Homeowners Association, on either side of the border, tempers can flare, guns get pulled, people get injured and are sometimes even shot to death. So far, all the HOA murders have happened on the American side.
But click this link below and look at the chaos that happens in a typical annual strata meeting (in Canada strata refers to high-rise condo associations). Canadians don’t have the same Bill of Rights protections that we do. But it doesn’t matter what side of the border you’re on, you really do recognize when you’re being robbed of your rights by the arrogant lawn Nazis.
No wonder I’ve been selling so many copies of my book, Neighbors At War, to Canadians!!!
(link to brouhaha in a Vancouver, Canada HOA)
HOA Justice Is Rare, But Sometimes Happens
Do HOAs ever find true justice when they’re ripped off by property managers? Well, not often. But once in a blue moon a crooked HOA manager is held to account. Well, kind of.
A couple of property managers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire were caught with their hands in several HOA cookie jars under their control. Over a two year period they stole more than a hundred thousand bucks.
“No contest! No contest at all!” Judges love to hear those words. It means they can dispose of a case quickly, make the bad guys promise to pay back a few bucks, and not have to bother about putting the bad guys behind bars.
Probation instead of jail?
The case linked below is a lot more complicated than that. But the bottom line is that innocent homeowners got screwed. The lawyers all made money. And the embezzlement suspects are walking away with smirks on their faces.
(link to Eagle Tribune story on weird restitution case in HOA embezzlement scheme)
This Embezzler Filled With Remorse
Gosh, how many times do we have to hear that line from these embezzlers? “Filled with remorse.” It’s such a load of horse puckey. If you’re going to make a bald-faced theft of 350,000 bucks from your neighbors, the only remorse you’re going to feel is that you didn’t steal enough.
Jill Rouse Boothby of Boothby Realty was a property manager for nearly a dozen Birmingham, Alabama condo associations. Plea agreements like hers are only made if she can plead guilty to a small fraction of the crimes she’s accused of. Halloween is over so we can’t really call her a witch. She’s worse. And with all the people she’s hurt, with all the elderly people who’ve been swindled out of their life savings, she deserves worse punishment than she’ll ever be given.
Embezzlers are monsters. A fine? A few weeks in jail? Restitution? That’ll never be paid. In days-of-old the phrase, “drawn and quartered,” might be used. For those who don’t know, that punishment involves four horses and four ropes. Even that is too good for an embezzler.
(link to news story in Birmingham about guilty plea by an HOA embezzler)
Another News Station ‘Gets It’ About HOAs
Have you noticed over the past couple of years how more and more news media outlets are doing HOA stories? It’s a trend that will continue growing as HOA boards and management companies become more abusive. In fact, when the HOA bubble bursts in the coming housing collapse, HOA homeowners are going to be screaming about their vanishing home equity. They can’t complain that we didn’t try to warn them.
The NBC affiliate in Atlanta is the latest station to become a little more aggressive. Here’s the link to their story.
(link to 11Alive story in Atlanta)
I would note, however, that they’ve been sucked in by the CAI lie that the vast majority of homeowners are satisfied with their Homeowners Association experience. Any random poll of people on the street would show a HUGE amount of dissatisfaction with the local lawn Nazis. Just stop people on the street and ask. There’s no poll-rigging on that survey!