Author Archives: Beanie
FLORIDA – Tenants caught in quagmire of homeowners association foreclosures
The move was part of an ongoing game of real estate keep-away. The company pays for a type of short-term ownership of the properties and quickly rents them out. It then shuffles properties between companies and uses bankruptcy court to keep banks and other creditors at bay. In the meantime, Haught and his associates could continue to collect thousands of dollars in rent each month.
RE-710, so new it didn’t have employees or furniture, “concedes to having filed this (case) for the sole purpose” of delaying foreclosure, the bankruptcy trustee wrote. He also accused the company’s management of “dishonesty, incompetence and gross mismanagement.” Read more:
TEXAS – Texas HOA Demolishes Home For Failing To Maintain; Self Help Is Not Always A Good Idea
The Texas Court of Appeals handed down a decision involving the Happy Hide-A–Way Civic Club HOA, where apparently not everyone is happy. The association was not happy with how one homeowner was failing to maintain their home. But rather than sue the owner or take other enforcement action, the association, relying on the language in its governing documents, decided that it was entitled to demolish the owner’s home, and proceeded to do just that. As a result, the owner was not so happy and sued. Read more:
NEVADA – New details emerge in construction boss’ role in HOA scheme
Federal prosecutors Friday provided new details in an elaborate conspiracy to fix homeowners association elections across the Las Vegas Valley. The revelations centered around the activities of former construction company boss Leon Benzer, the accused mastermind of the scheme to take over the HOA boards. In a plea agreement struck with prosecutors, Ricky Anderson, a 50-year-old Kung Fu grandmaster who is alleged to have served as an “enforcer” for Benzer, laid out for the first time Benzer’s critical role in the election rigging. Anderson, who is in federal custody, pleaded guilty Friday to one felony count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. U.S. District Judge James Mahan set a Jan 21 sentencing date.
Charles La Bella, a deputy chief of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section in Washington, praised the help Anderson has provided prosecutors since agreeing to change his plea. “Mr. Anderson has been very truthful and very cooperative with the government,” La Bella told Mahan. Read more:
FLORIDA – Hope turns to desperation at Orange’s Tymber Skan enclave
They called it Tymber Skan on the Lake, evoking a familiar picture-postcard Florida setting when it opened in the early 1970s on Lake Catherine. When Chuck Hankins’ mom moved there in 1979, her neighbors were snowbirds, retirees and working-class folks. But today, Tymber Skan conjures a different image: one of desperation, hardship and neglect.
What happened?
“Every social ill of the last 50 years has come home to roost in Tymber Skan,” said Robert Spivey, Orange County’s code-enforcement chief. Hurricanes. Crime. The Great Recession. Chronic unemployment. They all combined to wreak havoc on the Orange County condominium community that today is littered with broken and boarded-up windows, bashed-in doors and other units that have become playpens for vandals. Read more:
NORTH CAROLINA – Man charged with breaking into foreclosed Wake Forest home he bought
WRAL.com: Man charged with breaking into foreclosed Wake Forest home he bought
Wake Forest, N.C. — A Raleigh man said he plans to sue the Wake Forest Police Department after officers arrested him last month and charged him with trying to break into a house he had just purchased. Xavier Earquhart received the deed to 928 Coral Bell Drive on May 16 after buying the home at a foreclosure auction and immediately went to the home and started drilling out the lock on the front door to get inside.
“You see someone trying to break into the house, and one of our neighbors called police,” neighbor E.J. Stern said. When officers arrived, an irritated Earquhart ordered them to leave his property and refused to hand over his identification or his copy of the deed to prove his ownership of the house. “Mr. Earquhart said he was the owner of the property, but when we checked on the register of deeds (website), it did not indicate that he was the rightful owner,” said Bill Crabtree, Wake Forest police spokesman. “At that point, with Mr. Earquhart’s continued refusal to cooperate, they had no choice but to arrest him.” Read more:
TEXAS – Sharyland Homeowner at Odds With Owners Association
SHARYLAND – A homeowner is at odds with his property owners association over a minor improvement to his house. The association says it does not fit with the neighborhood and is threatening legal action. The man, Partha Ray, called 5 On Your Side for help. Ray said he just wanted some extra vines in the front of his house. He put up a lattice where the vines could grow. The Sharyland Residential Community Property Owners Association told him to take the lattice down. Now, they’re slapping him with a new fine every month. CHANNEL 5 NEWS found out Ray is not the only one at odds with the association.
“I said, ‘man it looks so nice. It looks beautiful,'” Ray said with a chuckle. Beauty, though, is in the eye of the beholder. According to the owners association the lattice is in violation of and not in conformance with community-wide standards. The lattice still hangs defiantly in front of Ray’s home. Ray has been getting violation letters from the association since he put up the lattice last year. “Right now, I was told it was $248 I owe in fines, which I am disregarding at this moment,” Ray said.
“Anyone that takes an opposing position or resists change or a direction is kind of put on a blacklist of a hit list or whatever,” homeowner Fran Ciancarelli said. Ciancarelli lives about half a mile away from Ray’s house. Ciancarelli has lived in his home for about seven years. Like every one else, he pays assessments and fees to the association. His bill comes to about $600 every three months. Read more:
New York – Homeowners want ‘crazy cat lady’ to quit feeding strays
N.Y. Daily News: MEOW NIX: Homeowners want ‘crazy cat lady’ to quit feeding strays
It’s a feline free-for-all in Fresh Meadows. Homeowners are fed up with a crazy cat lady and the cat colony she’s created behind a Jewish center and synagogue following years of feeding the feral critters. Wild packs of tabby and tuxedo cats, some just kitties, treat nearby lawns as litter boxes and claw open garbage bags left on the sidewalk, angry neighbors told The News.
“It has just exploded this year,” said Mary Lou James, who has witnessed clusters of up to 20 cats form daily for a 6 a.m. breakfast. “So many of them were pregnant. They’ve all popped. It’s kind of freaky. It’s a feral cat colony.” Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/meow-nix-homeowners-crazy-cat-lady-quit-feeding-strays-article-1.1824537
CALIFORNIA – Court-appointed receiver may be needed for homeowners association
Question: I’m in the military and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan only to come home and find people taking advantage of elderly owners who cannot defend themselves in my homeowners association. Recently all board directors resigned, and we have no board.
We’ve been demanding books and records inspections since 2007 but are denied. The HOA hasn’t had an audit in more than 11 years. The management company was fired in 2008, at which time the board decided to self-manage without an owner vote. Since then, there have been only three meetings, no elections and no annual reports. We’re a “suspended” HOA for not filing and paying state and federal taxes for several years. Read more:
FLORIDA – HOA issues parking tickets to Lake Mary Community with public-owned streets
LAKE MARY, Fla. — Some Lake Mary residents are crying foul against their homeowners association, after it started handing out parking tickets to people parked in front of homes. Roxanna Saap and her neighbors in the Timacuan Neighborhood said their HOA is slapping drivers with $25 fines for cars that are parked in the street for more than six hours or overnight.
FLORIDA – Condo Owners Fight to Keep Their Homes
Clearwater, Florida — Palm Harbor condo owners being forced to sell their units at a price determined by a multimillion dollar corporation are fighting back. They were in court on Monday, taking steps to try to prevent the forced sale.
This is all happening because of a loophole created by the Legislature that allows a group of investors who buy 80 percent the units in a condo complex to force a sale of everyone else in the complex, even if those owners don’t want to sell. Additionally, the investors in the corporation can buy the condos at a so-called “fair market” price, which for many people is below what they actually paid for their homes.
Stephanie Krasowski, who owns a condo at Madison Oakes in Palm Harbor says, “This affects anybody in Florida, and people who own condos out of the state who are unaware of what the bulk buyers are trying to do, by eliminating and terminating the condo associations. Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 