Category Archives: Uncategorized
NEVADA – Woman says HOA issued violation for parked moving truck
NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) – Homeowners associations can tell you where and how to park a car, but one North Las Vegas woman says her HOA has taken their rules too far.
“It’s very stressful,” says Mary Fisher. “It feels like you’re living in a fishbowl.”
Fisher calls her homeowners association’s rules ridiculous. She and her family are moving out of the neighborhood, and using a moving truck to load up boxes.
“It’s not in a fire zone,” says Fisher.
On Tuesday, Fisher received a violation from her HOA, saying she needed to move her moving truck.
“We have nowhere else to park it,” says Fisher.
Fisher is loading the truck all by herself, and with rheumatoid arthritis, the packing has taken her a little bit longer than expected.
“It’s very frustrating, I’m trying my best to get moved, and on top of that, now I have to deal with this issue,” says Fisher.
She says her HOA has always been strict, but she just wants them to allow her to park the truck while she moves out. Read more:
TENNESSEE – One builder settles lawsuit in Thompson Station cable “monopoly” case
The lawsuit calls it a monopoly.
The settlement provides relief for a couple hundred homeowners who live in the Canterbury subdivision but homeowners in two more subdivisions are waiting for the day they can choose their own cable provider.
“We need to have a choice,” said Brian Stover, a homeowner in the Tollgate Subdivision.
“At the end of the day, all we really wanted in the neighborhood was options,” said Courtney Cates, a Canterbury subdivision homeowner.
It look a lawsuit for Cates to get a date that she can walk away from her cable provider : January 1, 2017. Read more:
NATIONAL – FHFA Vows to Keep Fighting HOA Super Priority Liens
DAILY DOSE: FHFA Vows to Keep Fighting HOA Super Priority Liens
By Brian Honea
May 10, 2016
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has reaffirmed its support of authorized servicer reliance on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008 in foreclosures involving homeowner associations (HOAs) and super-priority liens, saying it will “aggressively” fight any HOA that tries to extinguish a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac lien through foreclosure.
The super-priority lien issue has been a contentious one since it came to prominence following a decision by the Nevada State Supreme Court in September 2014 that allowed HOAs to use super-priority liens to foreclose on homes with delinquent HOA dues—without the permission of the mortgagee.
The FHFA responded in December 2014 with a warning to HOAs that loans with super-priority liens attached would not push mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the secondary position. In June 2015, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada ruled that HOAs could not foreclose non-judicially on GSE-owned mortgages using a super-priority lien.
In August 2015, FHFA stated its support of authorized servicers of GSE loans that rely on the HERA to prevent HOAs from foreclosing on loans insured by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The FHFA recently reiterated its position in support of the servicers. Read more:
http://www.dsnews.com/news/05-10-2016/fhfa-vows-to-keep-fighting-hoa-super-priority-liens
FLORIDA – Woman suspected of defrauding homeowners association
Article Courtesy of The Ocala Star Banner
By Austin L. Miller
Published May 3, 2016
A former bookkeeper is accused of defrauding the Kingsland Ocala Waterway Homeowners Association out of more than $11,000 over four years.
Debby Lee Underwood, 44, of Ocala, was arrested Wednesday on a fraud charge, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. She was booked into the jail at 5:13 p.m. and released at 12:35 a.m. Thursday on a $2,000 bond.
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FLORIDA – Fla. App. Court (3rd DCA) Upholds Limits on Amounts Due by Mortgagees for HOA Charges
Article Courtesy of Lexology
By Maurice Wutscher
Published May 2, 2016
The Third District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida recently affirmed final judgment in favor of a mortgagee that took title to real property as a result of a foreclosure, and against two homeowner associations, holding that the safe harbor provision of subsection 720.3085(2)(c), Florida Statutes applied, and therefore that the amounts recoverable by the homeowners associations were substantially limited.
A copy of the opinion is available at: Link to Opinion.
Husband and wife borrowers obtained a mortgage loan in 2005, which was assigned a little over one year later. The mortgagee filed a mortgage foreclosure action in 2011, naming, in addition to the borrowers, two homeowners associations (HOAs) as defendants. A foreclosure judgment was entered in February 2013 and a certificate of title was issued to the mortgagee in April 2013.
In December 2013, the HOAs provided estoppel letters to the mortgagee reflecting unpaid assessments, late charges, “violation charges, costs and attorney’s fees.”
The mortgagee filed a complaint seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, asserting the HOAs’ estoppel letters violated the “safe harbor” for first mortgagees contained in subsection 720.3085(2)(c), Florida Statutes by seeking to recover attorney’s fees, costs and other charges accruing before the mortgagee acquired title.
The HOAs raised as an affirmative defense “that section 720.3085 required them to apply any payments received from [the mortgagee] first to late charges and interest, and then to costs and attorney’s fees incurred in collection, and only then to assessments.” Read more:
Maryland – Man admits stealing $2.5M from homeowner associations
BALTIMORE — A man who prosecutors say financed a lifestyle of nightclubbing, NBA games, manicures and limousines by stealing $2.5 million from his clients has pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that 39-year-old William Francis of Elkridge entered the plea Wednesday in federal court in Baltimore.
Prosecutors say Francis owned two companies which managed HOA reserve funds, which were typically held in savings or money market accounts.
According to his plea agreement, Francis defrauded at least 51 of his company’s HOA clients by taking reserve funds.
Prosecutors say Francis spent the money on Washington Wizards games; adult entertainment venues and nightclubs; dog grooming services; a nail salon, and a limousine service. Read more:
FLORIDA – Documents meant to combat fraud in condo elections raise more questions
CCFJ.NET: Documents meant to combat fraud in condo elections raise more questions
Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald By Enrique Flor And Brenda Medina
Published April 26, 2016
The 15th of November must have been an exhausting day for notary public Carmen Aslan.
On that Sunday last year, Aslan notarized the signatures of 68 condominium owners at The Beach Club at Fontainebleau Park on affidavits certifying that the owners voted in the condo association’s elections at the end of that month, citing their ballot numbers as proof of their vote. She would have had to meet with every person who signed the affidavits.
Cops begin investigation of The Beach Club at Fontainebleau Park
That same day, Aslan appears to have had time to meet with an owner of a Los Sueños condo in Hialeah to notarize her affidavit for an association election in that complex.
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FLORIDA – Florida Appellate Court Bolsters Statutory HOA Safe Harbor
In Catalina West HOA and Old Cutler Lakes by the Bay Community Association v. Federal National Mortgage Association, borrowers entered into a mortgage loan with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) later purchased the borrowers’ loan and after the borrowers defaulted on their loan, Fannie Mae filed a judicial foreclosure action. On February 6, 2013, Fannie Mae obtained a Final Judgment of Foreclosure, and on April 2, 2013, Fannie Mae obtained a Certificate of Title. On December 19, 2013, the homeowners associations each provided estoppel letters to Fannie Mae that included violation charges, costs and attorney’s fees. Read more:
PENNSYLVANIA – Accused homeowner association embezzler placed on probation
A family allegedly at the center of a scheme to embezzle money from a Richland Township homeowner association have paid back the money – some of it anyway.
Dennis P. Michaels, 57, his wife, Julia S. Michaels, 62, and their daughter Julianna Theresa Zamias, 32, are accused of stealing more than $84,000 from Skyview Estate Homeowner Association from Jan. 1, 2007, through Dec. 31, 2013, while they were officers of the association.
Dennis Michaels appeared for an accelerated rehabilitative disposition hearing Wednesday before Cambria County Judge David Tulowitzki.
He paid $17,390 to the association before being placed on ARD for nine months for theft by deception, Assistant District Attorney Joseph Green said.
“He paid the full amount that was attributable to him and his wife,” Green said. Read more:
TEXAS – Mayor wants to cut trash subsidy to Houston HOAs
Mayor Sylvester Turner, working to close a $160 million budget deficit, has proposed scrapping payments that scores of Houston neighborhoods served by private trash haulers receive to help offset the cost of their waste contracts.
The idea when the program started in the 1970s was that residents should not have to pay property taxes for city trash services they were not receiving – particularly because they were already paying for waste pickup in their homeowner association dues. The city also came out ahead because the $6 monthly per-house subsidy was cheaper than the cost of the city serving each home itself, now estimated at $18 per home per month.
In scraping together a balanced budget for the fiscal year that starts in July, however, Turner felt the program was expendable. In many cases, the subsidies go to residents who have chosen to pay for more extensive services than those the city provides, such as having the trash picked up more frequently than once a week, or having workers walk up a resident’s driveway to retrieve the trash rather than the homeowner rolling a bin to the curb. Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 