FORT MILL, S.C. – The Cole Creek Homeowner’s Association in Fort Mill is one of five in South Carolina that’s now the target of a federal lawsuit.

The HOA is being sued after foreclosing on a home because the homeowner didn’t pay dues. Lawyers for the plaintiffs claim in the suit that HOAs don’t have that power. The result of the lawsuit could have an impact across the state concerning the legal authority of HOAs.

Brian Gambrell, the lawyer from Columbia who represents the families suing, talked to Channel 9 on Thursday.

“It’s only been the law in the state since the founding of it, that you can’t do a foreclosure that’s not a mortgage,” Gambrell said.

The lawsuit, filed in Charleston Tuesday, seeks to show that even though a homeowner agrees to abide by neighborhood covenants when buying a home, state law doesn’t give a nonprofit corporation such as an HOA the power to take out a lien over unpaid dues or assessments, and doesn’t allow foreclosures either.

However, Gambrell said that’s what’s happening around the state. The suit also names several law firms as defendants, as well as property management companies. Gambrell said homeowners are being evicted, yet still must pay their mortgage.  Read more:

For more than 16 years in her Sunday Los Angeles Times column, Donie Vanitzian helped frazzled homeowners navigate the minefield that can be living within a homeowners association.

The columns often focused on alleged wrongdoing by board members, management companies and other people in positions of power.

A pugnacious advocate for homeowners, she would contact legislators on HOA-related bills and even respond to readers seeking guidance, regardless of whether she wrote about their experiences in print, one colleague said.

“She had quite the following,” said her sister Alysia Vanitzian. “She would get tons of email and mail from people living in HOAs wanting to send her gifts and money, because she was so helpful.”

Vanitzian, 67, died Dec. 28 at her house in Del Rey, the victim of an alleged homicide.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has charged Vanitzian’s husband of 35 years, Thomas Foster, with one count of murder.

Los Angeles Police Lt. John Radtke said Foster, 75, left a note detailing his plans to kill Vanitzian and then commit suicide. Foster was found at the home nearly unconscious, authorities said.

Radtke said some evidence has emerged that Foster had a degree of mental illness.

He pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

“It’s a tragic situation,” said Michael Krieger, a friend and occasional co-author of the Times column.  Read more:

There are a lot of reasons to rag on homeowner’s associations. When they’re not making you get rid of your World War II Sherman tank, they’re forcing you to keep your garage doors open all day in a bizarre quest to root out illegal tenants. Ah, the peace and quiet of the suburbs.

Fox 40 reports that the residents of Auburn Greens in Placer County, California were shocked to find notices taped to their doors informing them that their garage doors must be kept open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, effective immediately. The punishment for violating the rule is a $200 fine and an administrative hearing.

The unwanted open door policy reportedly came about after the homeowner’s association discovered a neighbor was letting tenants live in their garage. Obviously, many residents have security-related concerns about the new rule, which offers no alternative means of protecting their belongings during the day. Some are ignoring the edict in protest, while others are getting proroactive.  Read more:

http://www.thedrive.com/news/17496/homeowners-association-enacts-insane-policy-forcing-residents-to-keep-garage-doors-open

Dave Gingerich is battling the homeowner’s association in the Copperfield subdivision. At issue — the ice rink in his backyard.

Gingeirch is from Canada, and said he’s always wanted to give back to his kids and open up a rink to the community. So, he and some other neighbors built the rink, and they had hoped to get the blessings of the homeowner’s association.

“We had provided them a picture of it and given them specific dimensions of what it was going to be to open up a discussion that if it going to be accepted as it is, what modifications do you require and they verbally came back and said it was rejected and didn’t have any discussion whatsoever,” Gingerich said. Read more:

Article and Video Courtesy of Channel 8 News

By Jeff Patterson

Published December 17, 2017

When you drive through the Kings Lake subdivision in southern Hillsborough County, you may notice nice homes, well-kept yard and cars parked at odd angles across driveways.  The strangely parked cars are the result of an ongoing battle between residents and the Homeowners Association.

“The community is saying that parking on county roads that we live on is illegal, that according to our bylaws that they have amended, that you are not allowed. That you are not allowed to park on the county street,” said LeRoy Vanek, who lives in Kings Lake.

Vanek contends his HOA has no right to enforce parking regulations on county streets.

“We are not a gated community. These roads, we do not have a CDD, these roads are owned by the county. They are maintained by the county and governed by the county,” said Vanek.  Read more:

  
A 58-year-old Bryceville woman is guilty of organized fraud after $1.5 million was diverted from homeowners associations for her and her family’s personal use, according the State Attorney’s Office.

Lauren Eileen Carr, arrested Jan. 27 on that and a charge of grand theft, was found guilty by a jury and faces up to 30 years in Florida State Prison at her Jan. 16 sentencing hearing, according to the State Attorney’s Office.

Carr owned Stazac Management Co., which managed several homeowner associations between 2008 and 2015, prosecutors said. During that seven-year period, Carr diverted money from those associations to pay off debt and be used by her and her family, the State Attorney’s Office said.

A whistleblower discovered the fraud at the family-owned small business and alerted alerted police.    Read:

Many people were outraged after signs telling photographers they could not shoot in the park and esplanades of Broadacres were posted throughout the community.

Houston Public Works responded to the public in a press release confirming that the esplanade and streets are in the public right-of-way.

The public right-of-way is the area owned by the city which includes: streets sidewalks, drainage ditches, and esplanades.

The press release stated that public ROW is available for anyone in the community for use of legal activities including personal photography. Read more:

VENICE, FL (WWSB) – Save Hamilton, he’s not a swine.  That’s the main message behind a new change.org petition that is calling for people to support the pig in a battle between the Woodmere Lakes Homeowners Association and the owners of Potbellied pig.

The pig’s owners say their homeowner’s association is finding them in violation for keeping a swine on their property. But, they say that’s all wrong because “Hamilton is a purebred Miniature

Potbellied Pig and as such a common household pet and not a swine.”

The petition also cites a Sarasota County Ordinance that exludes “Purebred miniature potbellied pigs” from being considered as farm animals if they are not being raised for food or as a product.  Read more: