Category Archives: Uncategorized
FLORIDA – Mother, son plead guilty to stealing nearly $123,000 from Lakeland homeowners’ association
Article Courtesy of The Ledger
By Suzie Schottelkotte
Published January 24, 2017
Martha Beard, 60, and her son, Matthew Beard, 33, each face up to 30 years in prison on charges they stole an estimated $122,780 from their community’s homeowners’ association over an 11-year span.
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NEVADA – The Super-Priority Saga Continues – Nevada Supreme Court Holds That NRS 116’s Notice Provisions Are Constitutional
JDSUPRA BUSINESS ADVISOR: The Super-Priority Saga Continues – Nevada Supreme Court Holds That NRS 116’s Notice Provisions Are Constitutional
By Aaron Chastain, J. Hunter Robinson – Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
January 27, 2017
The Ninth Circuit sent shockwaves through the mortgage industry when it held that NRS 116—the statute allowing an HOA to impose a nominal super-priority lien that can extinguish a senior deed of trust when foreclosed—was facially unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause in Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. In Bourne Valley (see our previous blog posts on this decisionhere and here), the Ninth Circuit held that NRS 116’s notice scheme did not mandate that mortgagees receive actual notice of these HOA super-priority lien foreclosures, but instead required that mortgagees request such notice from the HOA in advance of the HOA’s foreclosure sale. The Ninth Circuit determined this “opt-in” notice scheme violated the Due Process Clause’s requirement that statutes authorizing the extinguishment of junior liens mandate that junior lienholders receive actual notice of the foreclosure sales that can extinguish their liens.
Importantly, the Ninth Circuit held that an HOA’s foreclosure under NRS 116 constituted state action, a threshold determination in Due Process Clause challenges, as the Due Process Clause only applies to state actions. Specifically, the Ninth Circuit held that NRS 116 foreclosures constitute state action because HOA liens are purely statutory, rather than contractual, like deeds of trust. Because an HOA could not impose and foreclose on its super-priority lien absent the statutory authority granted to it through NRS 116, an HOA’s super-priority lien foreclosure constitutes state action under Bourne Valley. Read more:
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-super-priority-saga-continues-52444/
NEW JERSEY – Perth Amboy condo owners take on Kushners in court
Nation’s first son-in-law, Jared Kushner, could be called to testify if lawsuit goes to trial
NEW BRUNSWICK – With settlement talks underway, a Middlesex County Superior Court judge asked to speak with residents of the Landings at Harborside condominium complex and their attorney, who have brought a consumer fraud suit against Kushner Companies — the company formerly run by President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
And if a settlement is not reached, Kushner and his father, Charles, could be subpeonaed to testify about why the company did not deliver on the $600 million project as promised.
About 32 condo owners at the Landings at Harborside in Perth Amboy have bought a civil suit against Kushner Companies, it’s subsidiary, Westminister Company, and others in connection with being misled into “purchasing high priced luxury condominiums based on misrepresentation and false promises made by the defendants,” according to the lawsuit. Read more:
OREGON – Judge rules for family in suit against Keizer HOA
A federal judge has ruled that a Keizer homeowners’ association violated state and federal fair housing laws by not accommodating a family of former residents of McNary Estates, whose daughter has multiple disabilities.
Gary and Renee Kuhn bought a home in the Keizer neighborhood in 2005. Five years later, their daughter, Khrizma, 34, began living with the couple full time. The Kuhns are the legal guardians for their daughter, who has Down syndrome and autism, uses a wheelchair outside the home and suffers from severe bowel incontinence.
Her incontinence problems worsened in 2014. Because she needs to be near a toilet at all times, the Kuhns and their medical providers decided in March 2015 that a motor home would be the best way for Khrizma to travel. She could always be near a restroom and use the motor home’s shower in case she soiled herself.
The Kuhns asked the McNary Estates Homeowner’s Association for an exception to a rule preventing parking a motor home in their driveway, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. Read more:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a community of million-dollar homes, a fight over a $500 mailbox ends in court
The $35 wooden mailbox Keith Strong bought in 2009 seemed charming and functional for the home he shared with his wife in a posh golf community in the suburbs of Washington. It was a newer version of the mailbox the homeowners association previously approved and had sat at the end of their driveway since the couple moved to their Bowie-area home four years earlier.
But no more than two months after Strong installed his new mailbox, he received an order to dump it — for a $500 mailbox upgrade.
The board of the homeowners association voted to require all residents in the Woodmore golf community to buy metal mailboxes, monogrammed with the letter “W” and mounted on a decorative post.
The $500 mailbox mandate angered Strong and others in the community, launching him into a seven-year fight that finally ended this month when a Prince George’s County judge signed, sealed and delivered a ruling that the board of the Pleasant Prospect Home Owners’ Association overstepped its bounds with its postal pronouncements. Read more:
ILLINOIS – What If Your Condo’s Special Assessment Was $80,000? It Could Happen Here
CHICAGO – OLD TOWN TRIANGLE — And you thought your condo’s special assessment was big.
An Old Town condominium building is facing an estimated $18 million repair bill — leaving some residents on the hook for one-time payments of as much as $80,000.
Bruce Theobald, a condo owner at the Kennelly Square condominium at 1749 N. Wells St., said the more than 260 unit owners had been told that estimated repairs were $18 million, requiring a special assessment.
According to Theobald, that would mean “rough numbers” of about $30,000 for a studio, $50,000 for a one-bedroom and as much as $80,000 for a two-bedroom.
“This problem has been developing literally for decades,” Theobald said, adding that repairs were put off too long. Read more:
CALIFORNIA – Trump’s swift mortgage move angers real estate industry
Donald Trump may have made his fortune in real estate, but one of his administration’s first moves has upset the state and national Realtors associations.
NATIONAL – CAI finally admits to being a business 501(c)6 trade organization
CAI finally admits to being a business trade tax-exempt organization.
Community Associations Institute (CAI) is a national nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization founded in 1973 to foster competent, responsive community associations through research, training and education. […] We work to identify and meet the evolving needs of the professionals and volunteers who serve associations, by being a trusted forum for the collaborative exchange of knowledge and information, and by helping our members learn, achieve and excel.[1]
In my 17 years as a HOA reform activist this is a landmark first! This is a personal achievement. There was very little support from other reform advocates and homeowners regarding misrepresentation by CAI.[2] As a result of my repeated criticisms and exposes, CAI had to apparently fess up.
Over its 44 years in existence CAI has mislead its viewers, members, the public and legislators as to its legal tax-exempt status. It news releases, websites, Common Ground magazine, communications with state and federal elected officials, and court filings that refer to representing homeowners and HOAs.[3] CAI is not allowed to have HOAs as members![4] Example, CAI’s current web page reads,
CAI provides information, education and resources to the homeowner volunteers who govern communities and the professionals who support them. CAI members include association board members and other homeowner leaders, community managers, association management firms and other professionals who provide products and services to associations.
CAI serves community associations and homeowners . .
Read more:
ILLINOIS – Condo, HOA owners dissatisfied with ‘carefree’ life
A new national survey by the Coalition for Community Housing Policy in the Public Interest has found that 81 percent of community association residents surveyed feel that “lack of transparency” and “poor communication” are major problems of HOA and condo life.
65.9 percent are “very dissatisfied” and 15.1 percent are “dissatisfied” because of transparency and communication issues.
A whopping 72.6 percent of condo and HOA owners surveyed said they were generally “very dissatisfied” (51.2 percent) or “dissatisfied” (21.4 percent) with the whole concept of community association living. And, 60.8 percent of survey respondents urged that community associations should have more government oversight and regulation.
Chicago currently has about 12,235 condo and homeowner associations containing approximately 305,000 residential units, according to a comprehensive directory, the 2016 Association Evaluation Report on Illinois Condominiums and Homeowner Associations. Association Evaluation, LLC, is a Chicago-based real estate technology firm that rates the livability and stability of condo and homeowner associations. Read more:
NEW JERSEY – Regency at Monroe Hires Cole Schotz P.C. to Work on HOA Claims With Toll Brothers
The Regency at Monroe Home Owners Association (HOA) announced today the hiring of Cole Schotz P.C., a New Jersey-Hackensack headquartered law firm with a highly regarded construction law and litigation practice, to represent the HOA in negotiations regarding the transition of community control from the developer Toll Brothers.
“The process of Transition is a complex matter,” said Stuart Z. Goldstein, lead Board of Trustee member handling the negotiations. “Wherein the HOA must assert any and all claims regarding construction deficiencies and defects found in the common areas of the community, absent which it will fall to the homeowners to absorb these costs.” Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 