Category Archives: Uncategorized
FLORIDA – HOA asks military-decorated SUV to be removed from neighborhood
Article Courtesy of News 4 Jacksonville
By Josh Williams
Published June 14, 2017
MIDDLEBURG – Controversy has erupted in a Middleburg neighborhood over an SUV decorated with military decorations.
“We feel that a vehicle designed to create awareness for support for our troops could never be deemed a nuisance,” SUV owner Kathy Signorile said.
Signorile said she doesn’t understand why she got a letter in which the HOA requests her to remove the vehicle from the neighborhood or put it in the garage, implying that it’s “too large” or a “nuisance.”
“At this point, we still have a letter saying, ‘Park it in the garage,’ and I’m not going to park it in the garage,” Kathy’s husband Jim Signorile said.
The Signoriles are standing by their decision.
“When they’re on the line, and here pushing back for me, they don’t stop,” Kathy said. “We had the vehicle wrapped, and when we came home yesterday afternoon, in the mailbox was a letter stating we couldn’t have our vehicle in our driveway because it was a nuisance.”
The Signoriles said they took to Facebook to post about the letter they’d received from the HOA.
Their freshly-wrapped SUV advertises for a nonprofit military support group the couple started back in 2010 — St. Michael’s Soldiers — that delivers care packages and hosts “Welcome Home” events. It’s an organization that has 150 volunteers. They said they’ll continue to advertise it no matter who pushes back. Read more:
NATIONAL – Beyond Blades of Grass
The other night, mowing my lawn for the first time this spring, I was instantly transported back to my childhood. “I love that smell,” I later said to my fiancée, and didn’t have to explain; we were two suburban-raised Minnesota kids for whom the scent of freshly cut grass has long confirmed winter’s end. Like many an American teenager, I had a monopoly on mowing my neighborhood’s lawns, coming home most summer days with inch-long clippings clinging to socks and grass-stained shoes. I learned to see the perfect lawn as a lush monochrome carpet of Kentucky bluegrass, trimmed and deep green.
I see the perfect lawn differently now. I still see the wide expanses of green, but I also see the high cost of keeping these nonnative monocultures growing: the wasted water, the overuse of fossil-fuel fertilizers, the threats to human and environmental health, even to the health of our dogs. Most of all, I see untapped opportunity.
TEXAS – Lake Conroe homeowner says HOA caused huge sinkhole
Sue Horne moved to a home next to Lake Conroe in 2002, a peaceful escape from Houston city life.
Horne said the sinkhole saga started in 2015, that her pool lines broke, her patio foundation cracked and her yard sunk by about 9 inches.
She said she contacted the Grand Harbor Property Owners Association and that they found the 24-inch drainage pipe next to her home had burst. She said they tried to cut corners in repairing it.
No sturdy fencing blocks the sinkhole. Short metal stakes in the ground and orange plastic surround the area instead.
“I can’t imagine a child or animal falling in there,” Horne said.
Greg Holloway, the attorney representing Grand Harbor Property Owners Association, declined an interview with Eyewitness News because of the pending litigation. Read at:
FLORIDA – Ex-Boynton Beach HOA treasurer admits to embezzling over $50,000
CCFJ.NET: Ex-Boynton Beach HOA treasurer admits to embezzling over $50,000
Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
By Conner Mitchell
Published June 10, 2017
A former treasurer of a Boynton Beach homeowner’s association admitted Tuesday that he embezzled over $50,000 from the HOA, court records show.
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FLORIDA – Owners face losing condos in Kissimmee
ccfj.net: Owners face losing condos in Kissimmee
Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel
By Mary Shanklin
Published June 2, 2017
Polk County resident Laurel Harris and a handful of Legacy Grand condo owners — including a few full-time residents — have been put on notice by their association that the Kissimmee property is becoming a hotel.
The main reason the condo association at Legacy Grand is able to transition the condo property into a hotel, against the wishes of some owners, is that an ownership group holds more than 80 percent of the units and controls the association.
The “takeover,” as Harris and her attorney call it, is a new twist on something that has been happening in Florida for years: Investors bought apartments at the height of the real estate market and tried to sell them as condos. But the real estate market crashed and left the buildings largely empty. Throughout the state, investors who accumulated large shares of units have been able to pressure the few remaining owners into selling so they could control the entire property. Read more:
OKLAHOMA – Former OKC Neighborhood Association Treasurer Accused of Embezzling $200,000
An arrest warrant was issued this week for 65-year-old Ralph Mann.
Police said the district attorney accepted the charges for the embezzlement of more than $200,000 from Summit Place Homeowners Association.
Derek Colvin, the new Vice President of the HOA, said he was part of the committee that investigated the embezzlement. Colvin said it took months of digging. Police said the crimes span at least nine years.
Mann, was treasurer of the HOA for 14 years, but documents only trace back to 2007. Colvin said Mann quit when an audit was demanded.
Throughout the investigation, Colvin said they discovered Mann used HOA money to buy a car, fund his trips to Hawaii and Colorado, buy a $1,400 printer, and even a laptop. There were multiple pages of checks and wires written to himself. Often times, the suspect would cover it up as reimbursement, according to Colvin. Read more:
FLORIDA – Judge ends receivership that cost a Miami Gardens condo millions
CCFJ.NET: Judge ends receivership that cost a Miami Gardens condo millions
Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By Brenda Medina
Published May 27, 2017
A Miami-Dade civil court judge put an end to the receivership of a former judge who billed millions to a condominium in Miami Gardens for two years of work.
During a hearing Friday, Judge Jorge Cueto ended the appointment of Jorge J. Pérez in the case of the Mirassou Condominium.
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FLORIDA – Clearwater attorney disbarred for misappropriating funds
Article Courtesy of The Florida Record
By Olivia Olsen
Published May 25, 2017
Nicole Mae Frost, an attorney from Clearwater, has been disbarred by the Supreme Court of Florida after an investigation found the attorney culpable in mishandling and misappropriating client funds in two matters.
In both matters, Frost was the representative for two homeowners’ associations, Countryway Homeowners Association Inc. (Countryway) and The Greens of Countryway Homeowners Association Inc. (Greens). In July 2013, Frost received a check from a home sale for $403.63 to be dispersed to Countryway. She also received two checks on May 7, 2014, in the amounts of $313.41 and $1,518.45. In total, Frost held $2,235.49 in her client trust account for Countryway. However, at no time did Frost transfer the funds to the homeowners’ association, and in November 2013, her client trust account dropped to $829.41, according to court documents.
In addition, Frost was asked to provide an estoppel letter for Greens in 2013. The attorney failed to create the document despite numerous requests, and as a result, a homeowner filed a suit against Greens in July 2014. The complaint against Greens was filed directly to Frost on July 28, but she failed to inform the homeowners’ association. A default was entered against Greens on Aug. 6, 2014, and the motion was approved on Aug. 28. Read more:
GEORGIA – ‘Don’t Mess With My Flag’: Vets Outraged After HOA Limits When American Flags Can Be Displayed
Residents in a Georgia neighborhood are outraged after their homeowners association said they can only display American flags outside their homes 23 days out of the year.
Tom Wilder is a U.S. Navy veteran who proudly flies a flag outside his home in the Village at Towne Lake in Cherokee County.
“You don’t mess with my flag,” Wilder said.
Recently, Wilder and every other resident in the community received an email from their HOA limiting the number of days the American flag can be flown outside their homes, in order to “maintain the aesthetic and architectural theme of the community.”
“They are giving us 23 days to display it,” Wilder told Fox 5. “Now we won’t be able to even put it in the ground. It has to be in a flag holder attached to our houses.”
According to Wilder, the 23 days the HOA chose are mostly holidays.
“We should be able to put up the flag anytime we want,” Wilder said.
Neighbor Pete Rockett, also a veteran, agreed.
“To me, you’re basically saying it’s a Christmas decoration,” Rockett said.
Wilder was asked if he plans on obeying the HOA and taking his flag down.
“When I’m dead,” Wilder replied. Read:
FLORIDA – Seminole County residents resist homeowners’ association demands to re-sod yards during drought
CCFJ.NET: Seminole County residents resist homeowners’ association demands to re-sod yards during drought
Article Courtesy of WFTV Channel 9, Orlando
By Angela Jacobs
Published May 19, 2017
A group of Seminole County residents are crying foul after their homeowners’ association has demanded they re-sod their browning yards during the worst drought Central Florida has seen in 100 years.
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Current water restrictions are a big part of the problem, as Ingvolstad said he can only water his yard twice a week.
The Ekana West homeowners’ association has given Ingvolstad three weeks to rectify his yard situation, but since the retiree will be doing the work himself, he’s concerned for his health.
“I can’t replace my health if I collapse with heat stroke, and I would think that would be a consideration,” he said.
Seminole County does allow people with new sod to water it for the first month, but the cost can make it prohibitive, Involstad said.
“Once you start watering, you double and triple your water bill,” he said. “It goes from $75 (a month) to $150, easily.” Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 