Article Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times

By Susan Taylor Martin  

Published October 20, 2017

The Clearwater lawyer accused of tricking a bidder into paying $458,100 for a gulf-front condo now plans to contest a judge’s order tossing out the sale.

On Monday, attorney Roy C. Skelton’s company Deutsche Residential Mortgage filed a notice of appeal with the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland.

The action comes two months after Pinellas Circuit Judge Jack St. Arnold vacated the sale of a North Redington Beach condo on which Deutsche held a mortgage because of what the judge called an “unscrupulous” and “conniving” schemed to dupe bidders at a foreclosure auction.

In August during a hearing Sixth Judicial Circuit court Judge Jack St. Arnold at the Pinellas County Courthouse. The judge agreed with Houde’s allegation that he was duped by Skelton in thinking he bought a Redington Beach condo for $458,100 out of a foreclosure auction. Now Skelton is fighting back.

“While I respectfully disagreed with the judge’s decision,” Skelton said at the time, “I will respect it and not file an appeal.”

The convoluted and controversial saga of Unit 514 in the Ram-Sea II condominiums began two years ago when another of Skelton’s companies, Outbidya, Inc., paid $157,8000 for the condo at a homeowners association foreclosure auction. Last year, shortly after Wells Fargo began foreclosing on the first mortgage, Skelton created Deutsche — no relation to the giant German bank — and took back a second mortgage from Outbidya.  Read more:

It’s hard when people don’t follow the rules, but Oak Creek Estates Homeowner’s Association board president Ulyesses Wright takes it with grace. Wright is an active community member, focusing on keeping Oak Creek a pleasant neighborhood to live in. He’s active in his church, boy scouts and Hebron High School. A long time Carrollton resident, Wright knows how to connect with the community and neighbors.

1. What do you love about the Carrollton Community?

It is a small city, but it has everything you need. The location makes it easy to get to Dallas, Fort Worth, and a lot of places in North Texas/Oklahoma that I visit. It’s a nice, down-to-earth community to raise a family.

2. How long have you lived in Carrollton?

I have lived in the Dallas area since 1980, but I’ve lived in Carrollton for 25 years.

3. You’ve been active in the community in several different ways. What’s one of your favorite things to volunteer for?

I have volunteered in my neighborhood, at my church, for Boy Scouts, and at school. Most recently, my main focus is my neighborhood HOA as President and with Hebron booster clubs for football and basketball. I am in charge of Hebron football concessions, so you’ll see me there during home football games for middle school and high school.

4. Why is the HOA important to you?

An HOA was created by the developer. We are a mandatory HOA development. My home was one of the very first ones built in the neighborhood, and I want to make sure the neighborhood stays desirable and a great place for all the residents. I’m lucky to have great neighbors.

5. What’s the most challenging part of being president of a HOA?

For me, the most challenging part is just the few homes that won’t follow the basic rules to keep the neighborhood in good shape. When people move into our neighborhood, they know it’s a mandatory HOA neighborhood, but some do things without checking the bylaws. The board members are required by our restrictions, covenants and bylaws to enforce the rules, but I hate having to confront a neighbor. There’s always hurt feelings, and it’s not personal. We work with people that need a little bit of time to correct a violation. Our budget is tight. I think quite a few of our neighbors don’t realize what a value they get by us self-managing, as volunteers save them untold management fees. Our fees are a fraction of comparable mandatory HOA communities around the North Texas area.  Read more:

http://starlocalmedia.com/carrolltonleader/neighborhood-friend-hoa-president-desires-to-keep-neighborhood-a-great/article_321c20c0-b8f2-11e7-a120-97aa56df70ee.html

Most associations have member voting at least annually, and the process required by statute applies to all homeowners associations, whether two units in Redondo Beach or 3,000 units in Oakland. Avoid these mistakes which can doom HOA elections.

1. Ignore the procedure. Civil Code Sections 5100-5135 provide a process that must be followed on member votes regarding major assessments, governing document amendments, grants of exclusive use rights, and board elections. Many smaller homeowners associations either intentionally or ignorantly do not follow the process, leaving their elections open to challenge.

2. Don’t have election rules. Civil Code 5105 requires HOAs have written election rules in place. These rules help answer questions in advance, making for more organized and fairer elections.

3. Forget to appoint an inspector of elections. When setting an election, associations occasionally fail to appoint or hire an inspector to conduct the process. This appointment must occur in an open board meeting. Inspectors may be paid professional vendors or may be homeowner volunteers.

4. Allow proxies. Most developer-supplied original HOA bylaws allow for the use of proxies, by which members give to another member the right to vote on their behalf. California statutes provide little guidance as to what is a valid proxy, and proxy disputes (and sometimes chicanery) are a common problem in HOA elections. Proxies are unnecessary, since on most important HOA votes members receive ballots 30 days ahead of the election. HOAs are better served by, through member vote, amending governing documents to ban proxies except for the narrow purpose of achieving quorum.  Read more:

Article Courtesy of ABC Action News

By Adam Walser

Published October 14, 2017

Tampa – Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is taking action against a

Tampa company she says is taking advantage of financially distressed

Floridians. It involves a company that profited from home owners association foreclosure auctions and some of the same players ABC Action News exposed in an I-Team investigation.

The lawsuit alleges that HOA Problem Solutions, Inc. and a number of related companies have victimized homeowners, renters and homeowner associations for more than three years.

Michael Chancey is one of the principals named in the lawsuit, which says he and his business partners operate multiple HOA foreclosure businesses out of a Tampa strip mall storefront, which bears a sign indicating it is a sports marketing business.  Read more:

Through a myriad of companies, the duo has acquired scores of houses in the Tampa Bay and Jacksonville areas for as little as $10 apiece. They got some at foreclosure auctions, others directly from desperate homeowners like Tarsha Santiago of Gibsonton.

“She said they knocked on her door more than once, and she was facing a number of things that were weighing on her mind plus facing foreclosure,” said lawyer Pamela Jo Hatley, who later represented Santiago. “They kept coming by and telling her they could help her with an attorney, they would help her avoid foreclosure, she could stay in her home and they talked her into doing this deal with them.”

In exchange for a few hundred dollars, Santiago deeded her four-bedroom, two-bath house to a company connected to the Chanceys. Read more:

If you live in a community that’s managed by a homeowner association, you know that they often stifle the free speech rights of individual owners.

That’s because First Amendment constitutional speech protections apply to governmental restrictions on free speech, not to private corporations like those that control common interest developments.

This year, the legislature addressed that issue by unanimously passing Senate Bill 407, a law that’s aimed at restoring constitutional free speech rights to 12 million Californians who live in common interest developments. Gov. Brown signed SB 407 into law on Sept. 11, 2017.

Here are some of the issues that prompted that action by the legislature:

Homeowner’s Associations often incorporate provisions in their governing documents that restrict door-to-door solicitation. Those provisions can be so broadly written as to prohibit non-commercial free and political speech. For example, a common interest development resident in Alameda County was cited for going door-to-door with information about an elections bill that would have impacted homeowner voting rights; she was summoned to a disciplinary committee, fined, and ordered not to approach her neighbors again.

A Solano County common interest development issued a homeowner a cease and desist order for inviting neighbors to an event he was hosting for a mayoral candidate in an impending city election.  Read more: