Author Archives: Beanie
NEVADA – 3 surrender community manager certificates to state panel
CARSON CITY — Three individuals doing business in Southern Nevada as Associated Community Management have surrendered their community manager certificates to a state panel that oversees Nevada’s homeowners associations.
The Nevada Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels on Tuesday accepted the certificates of Leslie White, Audra Collins and Ryon Collins after an investigation found numerous violations of state law.
In addition to the surrender of their certificates, the commission also imposed an administrative fine of $35,000 plus $6,000 for the cost of the investigation.
The Real Estate Division of the state Department of Business and Industry presented to the commission a stipulated agreement on behalf of the three accepting the state’s allegations that respondents knowingly and willfully violated multiple statutes of state law.
Under the terms of the agreement, White and Audra Collins will forfeit their supervisory community manager certificates for no less than 10 years. Ryon Collins agreed to surrender his community management certificate for no less than five years.
The division’s investigation was initiated after a review of the company’s annual registration forms filed by White and Audra Collins. The investigation initially set out to determine whether 21 associations managed by the company had board members. But it was expanded in scope after White and Collins failed to answer the division’s letter detailing alleged violations and failing to produce documentation as requested.
Upon subpoenaing bank records for 12 associations and the management company in January 2014, and subsequently the bank records of 16 additional associations, the division found hundreds of violations of law. Read more:
CALIFORNIA – $2.8M embezzled from HOA: After two-year investigation, former Woodlake manager charged, booked for theft; pleads not guilty
San Mateo – After a nearly two-year investigation, the former manager of the Woodlake Homeowners Association was booked into county jail Wednesday for allegedly embezzling nearly $2.8 million from the San Mateo residents’ group.
Susan Marie Lambert, a 64-year-old Fremont resident, has been charged with two felonies for conspiring to defraud the homeowners between Feb. 8, 2007, and September 2013, according to prosecutors.
Lambert’s alleged crimes were discovered after the 990-unit condominium association fired her and uncovered a stack of nearly 150 false invoices for construction work that was never completed, according to prosecutors.
Lambert pleaded not guilty after surrendering in court Wednesday morning and was booked on $1 million bail, according to prosecutors.
The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office filed charges Sept. 1 against Lambert and her alleged co-conspirator Michael Anthony Medeiros, a 58-year-old Fremont man, who has yet to be arrested.
Faced with multiple enhancements, including aggravated white-collar crime, the duo could face nearly six years in prison if convicted, according to prosecutors. Read more:
FLORIDA – Clay homeowner associations squawking over issue of residential backyard chickens
GREEN COVE SPRINGS | Some Clay County homeowner associations say they don’t object to residential backyard chickens per se, but just don’t want the fowl in their planned neighborhoods.
The associations voiced their objections through a spokesman to the Clay County Commission during a public hearing Sept. 8 about a proposed county ordinance that would allow residents to keep up to four hens, but no roosters, at a single-family home under certain conditions in residential unincorporated areas.
Residents would have to get a county permit to keep backyard chickens. Chickens would be allowed only for personal use. People couldn’t breed or sell chickens. Nor could they sell the eggs or chicken feces for fertilizer. The chickens would have to be within a fenced area during the day, and an enclosure at night, according to the measure.
The County Commission will hold a final public hearing, then could vote on the ordinance at its Sept. 22 meeting at the county Administration Building, 477 Houston St., Green Cove Springs.
About 25 residents have asked about the possibility of keeping backyard chickens in residential areas over the past few years, county staff previously told the Times-Union. Read more:
FLORIDA – Confusion continues over Orlando HOA question
ORLANDO, Fla. — Some Orlando residents whose homes are at risk gathered Wednesday night in hopes of finding out who’s running their homeowner’s association.
But following the meeting many of the Vista Lago residents said they still aren’t clear.
Residents said that over the years different entities have collected money from them.
Some people said they paid dues twice just to avoid losing their homes, while some said they were so confused they didn’t pay.
Forty-seven residents have liens on their homes and the question no one can answer whether the company who put the liens on the homes, One GMA, had the right to do so.
“They disagree on who is what and we’re not here tonight to determine that because we don’t have all the facts,” a representative with the city of Orlando’s neighborhood relations department. Read more:
NEW JERSEY – When condo owners fall behind on fees
Christine Haas has lived happily for two decades at Suburban Terrace, a tidy collection of 248 garden apartment condos in Hackensack. But lately, as president of the condominium association, she has dealt with a frustrating issue: Some of her neighbors aren’t paying their homeowner association fees.
It’s a problem most condo associations deal with at some point, and it intensified during the recession and housing crisis, as condo owners lost jobs and fell into foreclosure.
“It’s frustrating,” Haas said. “One person owes us $30,000, including legal fees.” Altogether, the association is owed almost $230,000 in unpaid homeowner’s fees, Haas said.
The problem became “much worse” during the economic downturn, according to Eric Frizzell, a Glen Rock lawyer who represents many condo associations
“Many associations had many more delinquent unit owners than normal,” he said. Though the problem started easing 12 to 18 months ago, he said, it’s still a concern in many condo communities.
In a recent survey by the Community Associations Institute, which provides education and information to community managers and leaders, 11 percent of associations said late or unpaid homeowners’ fees were an issue. Read more:
FLORIDA – Family wins right to put up fence after battle with HOA
| Article and Video Courtesy of Channel 6 News
By Louis Bolden Published September 12, 2015
|
A local family has been allowed to put up a fence for their son with Asperger’s syndrome, which is commonly associated with the autism spectrum, after a months-long battle with their homeowners association.
“To have this fence is a tremendous relief,” Shawn Seekings told News 6 investigator Louis Bolden. “Now our son has a place to play,” he said.
“He has a very real disability that you can not see and he can’t have the one thing he really needs,” Kristin Seekings told Local 6 in June with tears in her eyes. Esprit subdivision in St. Cloud does allow vinyl fences, in fact, they’re all over the neighborhood. However, the Seekings’ home backs up to a conservation area. The HOA would only allow a metal fence that the Seekings thought was not safe. Read more: |
TEXAS – The Hentschels’ Dinosaurs create community
NEVADA – Hundreds attend Silverstone HOA meeting
Hundreds packed a room Tuesday night to fight for the Silverstone Golf Course. Silverstone is embroiled in a legal battle to keep the course open.
Tom Ells says he and his wife retired in the Silverstone Ranch community near Rainbow Boulevard and Grand Teton for the golf course, which is now shut down.
“It’s sad that we won’t get to play here anymore,” he said. “A lot different than we had paid for and what we had hoped for.”
Residents say the clubhouse was locked and maintenance stopped at the course last week, after new owner Desert Lifestyles took over.
“From indications, the developer has done this before in southern California,” said Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross. “He’s got a track record of not treating neighbors very well, so we’re very cognizant as the City of Las Vegas about this.”
Councilman Ross attended the homeowners association board meeting Tuesday night.
“This is going to be a battle and an epic fight,” he said. Read more:
FLORIDA – Rep. Cortes to propose homeowner association overhaul
KISSIMMEE — State Rep. John Cortes has announced plans to attempt to overhaul state laws governing homeowner associations to clarify the law and to improve enforcement.
Efforts by Cortes, D-Kissimmee, are partly an outgrowth of the controversy involving disputes between some Poinciana residents and the Association of Poniciana Villages, the sprawling community’s homeowners association and partly in response to other complaints he has received from members of other HOAs.
The details of his proposal are not available yet because proposed legislation is still being drafted, according to an aide.
Cortes said in a statement last week that the legislation would “seek to end the statutory inefficiencies relating to homeowner association oversight by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.” Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 