Category Archives: Uncategorized
FLORIDA – Developer in prison, but Clearwater condo owners still paying the price
Article Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times
By Tracy McManus
Published December 6, 2016
CLEARWATER — When Wayne Chase retired from his nuclear plant job in 2012 and bought a waterfront condo overlooking Tampa Bay, he knew he’d pay the typical fees that come with gated community living.
But when he got his tax bill that year for his two-bedroom unit in Grand Venezia off U.S. 19 and Belleair Road, he was surprised to see $1,600 in assessments on top of the $1,000 in property taxes.
It wasn’t until he started asking neighbors that he discovered most of that $1,600 bill was an assessment to pay off a debt run up by a convicted felon who ran the development as a Ponzi scheme years before Chase settled there.
Although the mastermind of the failed Grand Venezia luxury resort project in the Clearwater Cay Development District is serving a 40-year federal sentence for fraud, residents of the 336-unit complex are still paying for his crime. Former developer Dave Clark’s company took out a $30 million note for his promised resort in Clearwater, one of 14 Cay Clubs from Las Vegas to the Keys, but a decade after the plan crumbled, residents are still paying back the debt through assessments.
The bonds were issued to build a water park, high-end retail, a spa, canals with gondoliers and other amenities around the existing apartments that were converted into condos — but the infrastructure was never built. And likely never will be. Read more:
FLORIDA – Man Concerned About Parking Citation Issued by HOA
Article Courtesy of MyPanhandle.com
By Maggie Solomon
Published December 1, 2016
WALTON COUNTY –– A Southport man is concerned about a parking ticket he found on his vehicle during a recent
visit to South Walton.
“When you look at the wording, they try to word it in a way to make it look like it was issued by the Walton County
Sheriff’s Office,” said Brandon Waldrip. “And, in fact it wasn’t.”
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TEXAS – Legislature May Address HOA Foreclosure Issues in Upcoming Session
The Texas Legislature may make another run in the 2017 session at curbing the powers of homeowner associations. The likely focus: restricting the ability of associations to hit homeowners who commit even minor violations of community rules with attorney fees that can reach the tens of thousands of dollars and potentially lead to foreclosures.
State Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, the chairman of the House Committee on Business and Industry, said his committee began looking into homeowner association issues this past summer at the request of Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.
Oliveira said in an email to Reporting Texas that in the past several sessions, the committee “has debated many bills where people felt homeowners associations had overstepped their bounds. For example, people complained when some HOAs banned political signs in people’s yards. They complained when some HOAs banned flying the American flag in front a houses. They complained when some HOAs would not permit solar panels to be put on houses. The list goes on and on.” Read more:
CALIFORNIA – California Homeowner Association Tells Wife of Deployed Marine to Stop Flying American Flag
FLORIDA – Former Lantana HOA president accused of stealing more than $300,000
Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
By Julius Whigham II
Published November 22, 2016
LANTANA — The former president of a Lantana homeowners association was arrested Wednesday for allegedly misappropriating more than $300,000 from its accounts to pay his personal expenses.
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FLORIDA – Condo rip-off: Tenant sues association over high fees
CCFJ.NET: Condo rip-off: Tenant sues association over high fees
Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By Nicholas Nehamas
Published November26 , 2016
A tenant is suing a Miami condo association over its excessive application and move-in fees,
saying they violate state law.
The lawsuit is the first of several class-actions that attorneys say they plan to file against condo
associations over high fees. In June, the Miami Herald reported that condo boards routinely
charge consumers hundreds of dollars more than state law allows. Florida statute caps the
amount condos can charge to apply and move in at $100 per person.
In a suit filed Friday in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, August Lasseter says he was billed $625 in non-refundable fees when he signed a lease for a unit at one of the two high-rise towers at Quantum on the Bay last year. The charges broke down to $100 for a background check, $175 for “administrative review,” $125 for registration and $225 for move-in.
“I questioned it at the time, but it’s not like you really have a choice,” said Lasseter, 37, who runs a modeling agency. “They say you pay it or you don’t move in.”
Attorneys for the board, which was highlighted in the Herald’s initial story as the condo with the highest fees, said they had not yet been served and couldn’t comment.
The Florida Condominium Actprohibits condo associations from charging fees of more than $100 per applicant “in connection with the sale, mortgage, lease, sublease, or other transfer of a unit.” (Married couples are considered one person and children are exempt.)
Such fees are known as “transfer” fees because they concern the transfer of a unit from one owner or tenant to another.
TEXAS – Schertz neighborhood threatens lawsuit against developer over high HOA fees
Residents don’t see where the money has gone — their drainage ditches are inadequate, causing streets and backyards to flood during storms, they say. A small park is poorly maintained, with rocks tumbling off a water fountain that hasn’t worked for years.The residents, many of whom are elderly or exmilitary,
say the higher fees have hurt their property values and caused them to cut back on groceries and visits to their grandchildren. “I’m having to actually take money every paycheck to make sure I have money to pay my HOA, which is not what I expected to do,” said Patty Cullum, who has lived in Sedona since it opened in 2009. “I don’t understand why that’s happening. Show me why I have to pay all this.”
Price, a 30year veteran of the real estate industry who has developed masterplanned
communities in Austin and El Paso, said in an emailed statement that his company recently hired a new management company for the homeowners association and has asked it to be more transparent with residents. “We are committed to creating a harmonious masterplanned community that is inclusive of our neighbors,” Price said in the statement. “We have worked together with Sedona for many years to integrate their established community with a vision for a larger, connected neighborhood.”
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, a nonprofit that offers legal services to homeowners, has accused Price and his partners of breaking state HOA laws. The nonprofit sent a letter to Price’s attorney this week offering to open negotiations for a settlement, according to Legal Aid attorney Molly Rogers.
The residents want control of the HOA, a reduction in their fees, a limit on future increases and the return of some of their previous payments. If the negotiations fail, Legal Aid plans to help the residents take Price to court. Read more:
FLORIDA – PBSO employee and husband accused of fraud, grand theft from HOA
Article Courtesy of CBS 12 News
Published November 19, 2016
LAKE WORTH — A husband and wife from Lake Worth, who are former leaders of the Lantana Homes Homeowner’s Association, are accused of using HOA money for their personal bills.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office arrested Darlene Jeannette Cox and her husband William Cox.Both are facing charges of organized scheme to defraud of $50,000 and grand theft over $100,000.
Witnesses told investigators Darlene Cox worked as the treasurer of the Lantana Homes HOA. William Cox worked as its president for over 10 years. Read more:
TEXAS – Texas court upholds ruling against short-term rentals
Houston Chronicle: Texas court upholds ruling against short-term rentals
…opinion …conflicts with the ruling of a similar case in Austin…
By Nancy Sarnoff
November 17, 2016
Thinking about leasing your home during Super Bowl LI? You might want to check your neighborhood’s deed restrictions first.
This week, an appeals court in San Antonio ruled in favor of a homeowners association that argued a homeowner was violating deed restrictions by renting out his house for short-term stays.
The judge’s opinion, which conflicts with the ruling of a similar case in Austin, puts the legality of residential rentals of all sorts into question, said J. Patrick Sutton, the Austin-based attorney who argued for the homeowners in both cases.
In the San Antonio case, Kenneth Tarr began renting out his house after his employer transferred him to Houston in 2014. He advertised it online and rented it 31 times that year, according to a court document.
ILLINOIS – Man charged with stealing $150K from Edgewater condo association
A property manager is facing federal charges for allegedly pocketing more than $150,000 in illegal fees from a condominium association in the North Side Edgewater neighborhood.
Alan P. Gold, 65, was arrested Nov. 9 and charged with one count of mail fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Gold, owner and operator of A.P. Gold Realty & Management Inc., had authority over the condo association’s bank accounts, prosecutors said. He was supposed to draw a monthly $650 fee for management services such as collecting special assessments and paying utility providers.
Prosecutors said Gold over-billed the association by withdrawing multiple $650 checks in the same month and tapping into the association’s reserve fund to write “substantially higher” checks to himself. He is accused of stealing $154,271 from the association between 2010 and 2014.
He also tried to conceal the fraud by providing fraudulent monthly statements to the association that showed their account balances higher than they actually were, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 