By Teresa Rochester

September 9, 2013

An Agoura Hills woman was out on $20,000 bail after pleading not guilty Monday to charges that her employer and she embezzled nearly $1 million from a Simi Valley homeowners association. Melissa Hoff-Solomon-Ramsey, 37, was arraigned on charges of grand theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft, according to Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Howard Weiss. Hoff-Solomon-Ramsey was initially booked in lieu of $500,000 bail, but Superior Court Judge Kevin McGee reduced it to $20,000 at Monday’s hearing. She and her boss, Kristin Davis, 44, the owner and CEO of Paradigm Management Group, were arrested last weekend after a years-long investigation. Hoff-Solomon-Ramsey was the company’s chief financial officer, authorities said. Read more:

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/sep/09/owner-cfo-of-homeowner-association-management-of/?partner=yahoo_feeds

By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX — Concluding state legislators likely violated the Arizona Constitution, the Attorney General’s Office has agreed not to enforce some new laws governing homeowner associations. In an agreement filed Friday, the state agreed to accept a court order that eight separate provisions of SB1454 were enacted illegally and are void. These include language that was designed to prohibit cities and counties from requiring developers to established planned communities as a condition of getting the necessary zoning or permits. It also knocks out another section that would have limited the ability of associations from demanding that homeowners furnish them with certain information about those to whom they rent their units. Also gone are various changes in things like casting absentee ballots in HOA issues.  Read more:

By Susan Shroder

September 6, 2013

SAN DIEGO — A man was stabbed Friday during a dispute between the president of an Otay Mesa homeowners association and a worker, San Diego police said. The 59-year-old HOA officer got into an argument with the 39-year-old man about work that was done for the association, police Officer David Stafford said. The incident was reported about 3:50 p.m. on Madden Avenue, near Coronado Avenue. Read more:

By Shannon Behnken

August 31, 2013

PALM HARBOR, FL – Three years ago, Stephanie Vandenbroeke, a single mother of two, poured her life savings into a condominium at the Madison Oaks in Palm Harbor. She works two jobs and pays her mortgage. But now, a development group from Miami says she and 42 other families have to sell their homes – for tens of thousands less than they paid when they bought at the height of Florida’s real estate market.  The development group wants to terminate the condominium. “You just can’t do this to Americans that have families and work hard,” Vandenbroeke said. “It’s just not right.” This seems impossible, forcing people out of their homes, but this development group claims in documents that the law is on their side. No one representing this group returned phone calls for comment.  Read more:

mypalmbeachpost.com:  Boynton condo owners fear corporate takeover as their homes revert to apartments

By Kimberly Miller

August 31, 2013

The serene, if average, Via Lugano condominium began life as an apartment complex. It was converted to condos during the heady days of real estate when two-bedroom units were selling for upward of $300,000. Now, with Via Lugano values down as much as 75 percent, the Newton, Mass-based Northland Investment Corp. owns the majority of units, turning the community back into apartments. Remaining owners, many who are desperately under water on their mortgages, said they are being nudged out.

“Don’t be the last one to sell,” is what owner Jordan Greenfield said he was told one day during a visit to the main office on an unrelated matter. “They told me Northland is buying up everything, and I should act fast to get out,” said Greenfield, who is tens of thousands of dollars underwater. If they don’t sell, the remaining owners fear they will be forced out in a legal maneuver that would give them only fair-market value for their homes if 80 percent of owners agree to terminate the condominium.  Read more:

By Darcy Spears

September 6, 2013

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) – To plant or not to plant? That was the question. Now, Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears has the answer in this HOA Hall of Shame update. It’s status quo for Louis Washington, and that’s just the way he wants it. “If it hadn’t been for channel 13, I truly believe they would have made me put the trees in.”  In the Spring, the Southern Highlands HOA began sending Louis letters saying he was in violation for not having trees in his front yard. “My house has more greenery than any house you wanna go around and look at, and they’re saying I still need a tree, which I do not agree with that.” They told him he had to put two trees in, despite the fact that he bought the home brand new from builder Pulte Homes, who installed the landscape in 2002. Read more:

September 5, 2013

PHOENIX — The right of state lawmakers to allow homeowners to post “for sale’’ signs trumps any deed restrictions that ban them, the Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled. In a unanimous ruling Tuesday, the judges rebuffed arguments by a planned community that its pre-existing ban on such signs remains valid despite a 2009 law to the contrary. Potentially more significant, the appellate judges rejected the contention that the 2009 law unconstitutionally interfered with the contracts previously signed by all property owners agreeing to the restriction. Judge Peter Swann, writing for the court, said there may be situations in which the ability of legislators to overturn existing covenants, conditions and restrictions — CC&Rs, as they are known in the business — is limited.  Read more:

Miami New Times: Little Havana Condo Residents Endure Weeks Without Power

Carlos spent his first week of kindergarten sleeping in a hotel and then in a hallway. He lives with his dad, hulking King of Diamonds employee Alex Velasquez, in the Altos de Miami condo building in Little Havana, near Flagler Street and SW 22nd Avenue. His unit is one of 47 that’s been without power since August 7.

At first, the building put Velasquez and his family up in a $120-a-night hotel. It wasn’t the Ritz-Carlton, but it wasn’t a Motel 6 either. All in all, it wasn’t so bad. On August 15, a note came under the door that said it was time to pack up and head home. Read more:

August 28, 2013

By Denise Dillon, Fox 5 reporter

GRIFFIN, Ga. – A Georgia veteran has lost his fight to fly two flags outside his home.  Captain Jim Lowe was battling to fly both the American flag and the Marine Corps colors at his Griffin home.  Now, Lowe says he and his wife have no choice but to pack up and move. The issue was put to a vote at Lowe’s retirement community, and though nearly half of the residents who voted backed Lowe’s display, it didn’t meet the community’s standards.  Read more:

 August 29, 2013

By Andra Lim

Armed with pastel chalk, children in one Buda neighborhood colored their sidewalks last weekend with flowers, rainbows, hearts, back-to-school well-wishes — and one defiant message.