Category Archives: Uncategorized
NEW MEXICO – Albuquerque realtors look to cap processing fee statewide
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – An unexpected fee has been hitting homeowners looking to sell their homes, and it’s not cheap. It’s something the city of Albuquerque has cracked down on.
It’s often called a processing fee, charged by homeowners associations to get a document needed to sell a house. However, the fee can get out of control.
“I’m fighting for my clients. This is a customer service industry, and sometimes they don’t have anybody to speak for them,” said John Lucero, a realtor.
Over the past few years, Lucero has seen homeowners association management companies take advantage of his clients looking to sell their homes. These companies will charge homeowners anywhere from $100 to $1000 for a disclosure statement — a document that has to be provided to a buyer. Read more:
National – “Debt Collecting” under FDCPA and FCCPA
NATIONAL – 2017 CHPPI Homeowner Survey
The Coalition for Community Housing Policy in the Public Interest (CHPPI.org) is a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization that consists of a nationwide consortium of homeowners, housing advocates, real estate professionals, investors, public relations specialists, attorneys, and policy makers.
CHPPI is conducting its second annual housing survey for people living in association-governed communities including homeowners associations, cooperatives, and condominium associations.
CHPPI is proud to report the results of the 2015 survey were recently featured in an exhaustive HOA expose. In August of 2016, nearly 30 daily newspapers across the country with a circulation of 2.4 million readers read about CHPPI’s ground-breaking survey. See: “HOAs From Hell: Homes associations torment residents they’re supposed to support” by veteran award-winning journalist, Judy Thomas.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/hoa/
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article93434422.html
In our first survey in 2015, more than 330 HOA homeowners participated. Visit www.CHPPI.org to see the results. Read more:
FLORIDA – Bonita Springs mother evicted despite paying full rent
Article Courtesy of WINK NEWS
Published November 12 , 2016
BONITA SPRINGS — Confusion over the ownership of a Bonita Springs condo led to the sudden eviction of the mother who had just given birth to premature twins.
Michelle Turner said U.S. marshals knocked on her door without warning to serve her an eviction notice. She had no clue that the owner of her home at The Tides at Pelican Landing had forfeited it to the federal government as part of an agreement in a health care fraud case.
|
ARIZONA – Run rabbits run – First Service Residential bolts
Arizonahoa.blogspot.com: Run rabbits run – First Service Residential bolts
By John Sellers
November 10, 2016
Dear AHF
First Service Residential, the country’s largest HOA Management Company, represents 80% of First Service Corporation (“FSV”) which is a public company quoted on the NASDAQ.
We presented their Directors charged under Sarbanes Oxley with certain facts and questions related to the notion that they may be operating more as a bank than a landscaping manager. Sarbanes Oxley was corporate legislation passed in the wake of Enron. Just Google it.
These issues cover:
- “Round-tripping”by FirstService in conjunction with US Bank whereby as much as $1billion of HOA deposits may end up being lent back to them or others. Who knows?
- Failure to follow the Patriot Act anti-Money laundering rules.
- Worst case catastrophic risks to the ACH direct debit money transfer system.
- Whether they and the HOA’s they supposedly manage would not all be lumped together if FSV or an HOA declared bankruptcy.
- Homeowners being in default on their mortgages even if current on payments. Read more:
TEXAS – Memorial residents allegedly uncover HOA holding secret elections after ‘willfully deceiving’ notification practices
Chron.com: Memorial residents allegedly uncover HOA holding secret elections after ‘willfully deceiving’ notification practices
By Jaimy Jones
November 7, 2016
The Clayton Woods Homeowners Association was supposed to hold its annual meeting and board member elections Wednesday evening, but at noon that day an email was sent notifying a handful of parties that the election and meeting was cancelled.
Only it wasn’t.
The email from property management company, Elite Association Management said, “Please be advised that the meeting for Clayton Woods will not be held for an election this evening. Once the Board of Directors has informed me of a date a notice will be sent accordingly. I ask that you please inform your client.”
The email was addressed to Cweren Law Firm, the attorneys representing Sally S. Solomon, resident and member of the Clayton Woods Homeowners Association.
Solomon and her husband, Tedros Teame, would have interpreted that message to mean what most would: That no meeting would take place, nor an election.
But having been involved with this HOA for more than a decade, they knew it was possible that the board was going to conduct some type of business in which they did not want to include the members, or at the very least Solomon and Teame, as that cancellation notice was the only one sent to anyone in the neighborhood.
ARIZONA – Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!
FLORIDA – Lakeland senior living community in trouble over refusing 27-year-old resident
Article Courtesy of Bay News 9
By Erin Maloney
Published November 2, 2016
LAKELAND — A senior community was found to be in violation of the Fair Housing Act after failing to allow a disabled person to live in the park, even though the person was under the set age limit
.
|
FLORIDA – Hammocks Community Association Employees Charged in Thefts
Article Courtesy of The Office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle
Published November 1, 2016
Hammocks Community Association (HCA) employee Angie Rose Lantigua and former employee Leslie Navarro have both been charged after an investigation revealed that they had diverted $148,050.17 of HCA funds into accounts that they personally controlled. Angie Rose Lantigua was employed by HCA as the Accounts Receivable clerk between 2010 and late 2015. Leslie Navarro was employed as the Accounts Payable Clerk by HCA between 2008 and late 2015.
By creating a bank account utilizing the name “Hammocks Community Association Properties, LLC”, Leslie Navarro was able to redirect HCA funds ($148,050.17) to an account over which she had sole control. The investigation of this bank account revealed that $54, 500 was later wire-transferred to Ms. Lantigua’s personal bank account. Read more:
CALIFORNIA – San Francisco Files Lawsuit Against Sinking Millennium Tower
SAN FRANCISCO — Five years ago, when Frank Jernigan, a retired Google software engineer, and his husband bought a 50th-floor apartment in downtown San Francisco for $4 million, they felt on top of the world. And judging by the commanding view of San Francisco Bay from the plate glass windows of their living room, they were.
“We were feeling pretty good about our investment here,” Mr. Jernigan said, looking out at the view from his home on Thursday afternoon.
But their 58-story luxury condominium building, the Millennium Tower, which has sunk 16 inches into the soft soils of reclaimed land and is tilting, is now derided as the leaning tower of San Francisco. A dispute over the building’s construction is fast shaping into a huge legal battle involving the developer, the city and owners, and one with stakes befitting Silicon Valley.
San Francisco’s city attorney, Dennis Herrera, announced on Thursday that he was filing a lawsuit against the developer of the building for failing to inform buyers that it was sinking “much faster than expected.” The developer, Mission Street Development, reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in sales from the more than 400 units in the building, which was completed in 2008.
HOA Reform Coalition 