July 1, 2015

Osceola County, Fla. – A battle over amenities in the Cypress Woods neighborhood is brewing in Poinciana.

By Jessica DeLeon

July 8, 2015

MANATEE — The former manager of a Longboat Key condo association, convicted in 2013 of stealing more than $200,000 of Sand Cay Homeowners Association funds, was ordered Tuesday to begin serving a three-year prison sentence.Judy Paul, 51, was convicted in July 2013 on felony counts of grand theft in excess of $100,000 and scheming to defraud more than $50,000.

In September 2013, Paul was sentenced to three years prison followed by 10 years probation, and ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution to the Sand Cay Homeowners Association. She was allowed to remain out of jail pending appeal.

On June 3, the Second District Court of Appeals affirmed Paul’s conviction.

Paul was scheduled to surrender at a court hearing July 1, but she failed to appear and later claimed she had attempted suicide. When she didn’t show, Circuit Judge Susan Maulucci ordered a warrant for Paul’s arrest. Read more:

July 7, 2015

SILVERTHORNE, (CBS4) – A Silverthorne man is accused of stealing money from a homeowner’s association for the second time.

Deputies say Robert Polich, 63, stole more than $100,000 from the Hamilton Creek Metropolitan District HOA.

Polich worked for the HOA for the last 15 years.

In May Polich pleaded guilty to embezzling $160,000 from his former employer, the Enclave HOA. He was supposed to be sentenced in that case on Wednesday but that has been delayed.  Read story:

By Laura Mize

June 27, 2015

Like many other communities in South Florida, Lantana’s Sea Pines neighborhood is well kept with nicely manicured lawns and homes.

Unlike many of those other attractive communities, Sea Pines has no homeowners’ association to regulate property maintenance and appearance. There’s no professional landscaping troupe here to keep hedges perfectly trimmed or rotate in blooming flowers.

Still, Sea Pines stands out as one of Lantana’s prettiest neighborhoods.

“It’s a very beautiful neighborhood and fairly consistent, which is also unusual that you have that consistency and with no association, with no association fee attached to it,” said Diane Keane, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker who works in the neighborhood.

Keane says she finds true pride of ownership in the community, as well as a friendly feel.“The neighbors know each other,” she said. “There’s just a feeling of community there, which is very nice.” Read more:

Article and Video Courtesy of Channel 10 News By Bob Norman    Published June 23, 2015

June 29, 2015

By Jeff German

Benzer pleaded guilty in January, avoiding a trial that would have forced the government to make public much of the evidence in the wide-ranging scheme, which included prominent attorneys, police officers and others. He is to be sentenced Aug. 6.

U.S. Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr., who signed the protective orders, has set an Aug. 5 hearing to decide whether to recommend granting the Review-Journal’s request.

Prosecutors do not oppose the release of some three-dozen sealed documents filed in the case but don’t want to make public some six million pages of documents they had turned over to defense lawyers.

McLetchie said Monday that she’s pleased the government supports unsealing the handful of documents filed with the court.

But she added, “This case raises important questions of public policy. The public wants to know what the underlying facts are, and the government shouldn’t be able to cloak every single document in the case in secrecy.”  Read more:

By Matthew Gordon Lasner, OP-ED Contributor

 February 17, 2015

FROM New York to Miami, from South Padre Island, Tex., to Park City, Utah, the American condominium has become the hot new investment for global capital. In Manhattan, the trend is so pronounced that a whole new category of real estate has emerged around the southern edges of Central Park: supertall, ultraluxury buildings, with more than half of the homes being sold to anonymous buyers (some perhaps looking to stash ill-gotten gains) who rarely, if ever, occupy them. The city, meanwhile, struggles to produce sufficient housing for those who do live here.

As policy makers nationwide consider the consequences of this trend, they should keep in mind that it is a result not just of global market forces (and international crime), but also of deliberate local choices, especially about the operation and regulation of condominiums.

The condominium, America’s most common form of multifamily homeownership, was not always king. Ownership of individual apartments first appeared in the United States mainly in the form of co-ops (and other, long forgotten, legal arrangements). As surprising as it may seem today, such ownership began as a way to curb real estate excesses. In the 19th century, the market for apartments, which were all rentals, was turbulent and often predatory. A builder might spend lavishly on a building lobby to lure tenants, but cut corners upstairs. Read more:

By Ashleigh Holland

June 12, 2015

It’s neighborhood signs found at The Villas of Summerfield that are drawing disgust from some Hilton Head Island neighbors. They ban anyone from riding bicycles, skateboards, scooters, and rollerblading there. Otherwise, there can be costly fines. Neighbors say their children are trapped indoors without being able to play outside. Some call it child discrimination.

Some residents, like Keaton Coyne, feel they are singled-out.

“You know, like I wasn’t allowed to do something that we are publicly available to do here on a resort island that’s supposed to be bike and activity friendly,” he says.

Keaton Coyne and his family feels trapped by the rules recent posted signs enforce. Other neighbors have even threatened lawsuits against the Homeowner’s Association, claiming child discrimination.

“That seems to be the talk, I mean some people are saying why not just put a big red line and say no children allowed because they’re not allowed to bike, they’re not allowed to scooter, they’re not allowed to roller blade, they’re not allowed to through a ball, they’re not allowed to kick a ball, what are you supposed to do?” Keaton’s father, Keith Coyne, says.

There have been handwritten notes posted over the signs reading, “Never be afraid to raise your voice for those who cannot. Child discrimination will not be tolerated by those that care for our youth.”  Read more:

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

June 25, 2015

Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada issued an important ruling concerning the litigation over whether homeowners’ association foreclosures under Nevada’s super-priority lien statute (NRS 116.3116) can extinguish first deeds of trust when the underlying indebtedness is owned by a Government-Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) like Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Company (Freddie Mac).

In Skylights LLC v. Byron, Case No. 2:15-cv-00043-GMN-VCF, Chief Judge Gloria Navarro held that federal law prohibited a state-law HOA foreclosure from extinguishing a first deed of trust assigned to Fannie Mae. However, the Court’s decision included language indicating that its holding could be limited to the rare scenario where Fannie Mae (or Freddie Mac) is record beneficiary of the deed of trust at the time of the HOA’s foreclosure—a potential limitation that could greatly limit the extent of the Court’s ruling.

As discussed several times before on this blog, lenders and mortgage servicers doing business in Nevada have found themselves enmeshed in litigation over whether they still have a valid security interest securing loans for many of properties in the State following the Nevada Supreme Court’s opinion in September 2014 holding that a properly conducted HOA foreclosure under NRS 116.3116 would indeed extinguish all other security interests on the property—including purchase-money first deeds of trust recorded before the HOA even recorded its notice of default.  Read more:

By Cindy Huang

June 22, 2015

The Russett community in Laurel remains a community divided. Last week, homeowners took a vote to retain or remove the president and vice president of the community association, following a court hearing.The results still haven’t been made public, but the association has filed a lawsuit, arguing only one of the votes was valid because the proceeding violated open meeting rules.

“It’s not our fault they don’t have their house in order,” said George A. Perry, an attorney for the association.