Article Courtesy of The Alachua County Today

By C. Walker

Published February 24, 2016

 

ALACHUA – Charges of embezzlement from 11 homeowner associations (HOA) in Alachua and Gainesville led to combined charges and a conviction of racketeering for an employee of a Gainesville-based HOA management company. Sally Ann Wilson, 53, who lived in High Springs, and worked for Sun Lu Properties, Inc., will receive a 10-year state prison sentence, minus 379 days for time served, and additional penalties after being found guilty of racketeering.

Wilson pled no contest to multiple charges leading to a combined charge of racketeering after it was found that she used her affiliation with Sun Lu Properties to embezzle funds from the HOAs she managed. Judge Stanley Griffis found Wilson guilty after she entered her plea.

On Jan. 28 the State Attorney’s Office notified Alachua’s Meadowglen Property Owners association that Wilson will receive a 10-year state prison sentence, minus time served, and additional penalties after being found guilty. Other penalties include $250,000 restitution over 20-year probation to HOAs and 20 years supervised probation after serving her 10-year prison sentence.  Read more:

 

TBO.com staff

February 19, 2016

A Lakeland woman and her son were arrested Friday after an investigation revealed they stole more than $122,000 from the Cimarron Homeowners Association from 2004 through 2015, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said. Martha Beard, 59, and her son, Matthew Beard, 32, were booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with one count each of grand theft and fraud. They remain on $30,000 bond ($15,000 bond for each charge). According to their affidavits, Martha Beard was appointed treasurer of the Cimarron HOA in 2003. She had sole custody of the HOA’s debit card and checks its bank account and was responsible for making payments to various businesses on behalf of the HOA. In 2015 she was dismissed as treasurer, after the other board members discovered a $27,000 deficit to the HOA lawn care provider, and responded to TD Bank and found there was less than $50.00 in the Cimarron HOA account, deputies said. The deficit was previously undiscovered because Martha had falsified documents showing payments to various businesses. The board members were alerted to the deficit by the lawn care provider and contacted the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Read more:

By Deborah Goonan

February 23, 2016

This is a story you must pass onto your family and friends who do not live in an HOA – and don’t plan to – and who believe they are immune to abuse and legal action by an overzealous homeowner’s association board.

Bill Peters, Bel Air, MD, just spent $50,000 over the past 4 years fighting Emerald Hills Homeowners’ Association – even though Peters does not reside in the Association-Governed Community.

The HOA sued Peters because, it insisted, a 2 foot patch of his new concrete driveway encroached onto HOA land. However, the small parcel of land had been granted an easement, according to the attorney hired by Peters to defend his case against the HOA. The court recently decided the case in favor of Peters.

In this case, then, HOA members are stuck paying for a wasteful lawsuit and a homeowner not legally obligated to be a member of  the HOA had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to defend his property rights.  Read more:

By Jason Barry

February 22,2016

El Mirage, AZ (KPHO/KTVK) -Some West Valley residents are speaking out against their homeowners association, claiming the HOA has “gone too far” by requiring hundreds of people paint their houses.

“I think it is a blatant abuse of power,” she said. “Once again, an HOA is overstepping its bounds. That’s not what they’re here for.”

The West Valley mom is one of 700 homeowners in the Rancho El Mirage community put on notice recently to paint their houses within 14 days or face possible fines.

The letter cites the HOA’s rules and regulations, that each owner is solely responsible for maintaining his or her property.

Heusted, however, claims that her house looks great with no signs of any paint cracking or discoloring.

So, why then does she need to spend $2,000 on a new paint job?

“I don’t need somebody bullying me around and telling me what to do because their opinion is it’s time,” Heusted said.

State Senator Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, has heard from a number of other homeowners who feel the same way.

“I think the HOA has gone crazy on this,” Lesko said.

Lesko said that telling homeowners to spend a lot of money on something they don’t need is not right. Read more:

Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel

By Mary Shanklin

Published February 17, 2016

 

KB Home reached a settlement with the Florida Attorney General’s Office involving construction defects, failure to disclosure problems to buyers and denial of home-warranty claims for 1,688 houses across the state.

At the core of the state’s three-year investigation were construction defects that led to water intrusion, which leads to mold, wood rot and even structural failure, according to the state. In some cases, the builder made the appropriate fixes but in others it ignored problems and failed to inform buyers — all in violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

As a result, one of Central Florida’s leading builders must repair houses that are up to 10 years old and qualify under the terms of the settlement. In addition, the Los Angeles-based builder must provide the Attorney General’s office with $6.5 million, which will help repay homeowners who had to pay for their own repairs. In addition, the company must invest $17 million improving its building methods, training its work crews and using improved building materials.

The builders’ acts and practices constituted “unconscionable acts or unfair or deceptive acts and trade practices,” according to the complaint filed by the attorney general in Tallahassee Circuit Court on Feb. 10. The settlement was announced the next day.  Read more:

Article Courtesy of The Daytona Beach News-Journal

By Frank Fernandez

Published February 15, 2016

 

It is a neighborhood quarrel unlike any other, pitting some pilots’ love of flying against some of their Spruce Creek Fly-In neighbors whose allegiance is rooted in the ground.

Melvin Stanley, a pilot and homeowner at the plane-centric community with a private runway, has filed a lawsuit against the Spruce Creek Property Owners Association to force it to do what the suit claims its obligated to do: trim and cut trees that create a hazard for pilots flying in and out of the community.

Stanley and his lawsuit said the trees have grown dangerously tall near the end of the Runway 5. But the association has voted against going Paul Bunyan on the oaks and pines even though the timber triggered the FAA to strip the airport of its night GPS approach. “There are folk who are more interested in a tree farm than they are an airport,” Stanley said in an interview.  Read more:

By Bart Bedsole

February 11, 2016

CORPUS CHRISTI –  A lot of money is missing from a local homeowners association account, and residents there met Thursday night to get some answers.The neighborhood involved is the “Lakes Northwest” near the intersection of FM 624 and FM 1889 in Calallen. The association is still working to figure out the exact amount missing, but sources say it’s definitely in the tens of thousands of dollars.

This money is collected every month from those who live there, and is intended for things like improving the landscaping in common areas. The emergency meeting for residents drew a large turnout. It was intended to inform them of the findings so far and where they go from here.

The current leaders of the association didn’t name any names, but sources tell KRIS 6 a person who recently held a leadership position with the HOA and had access to the bank account is accused of making several withdrawals over a period of at least several weeks.  Read more:

By Ward Lucas

February 14, 2016

Transfer fees are among the biggest scams in the housing business. North Carolina outlawed them a couple of years ago. Colorado is trying. New Mexico is trying. Transfer fees are a ‘little’ item on your paperwork that pops up when you try to sell your home. If you live in a Homeowners Association of any kind you’re likely to learn that you have to pay the fee before you can sell to a buyer. Transfer fee. That means some property manager had to photocopy the HOA covenants, probably a hundred or so pages. But you don’t photocopy them one page at a time. No, they’re on his computer. Push one button and the printer spits them all out in a couple of minutes.

So, what do transfer fees cost? Well they can cost the buyer anywhere from 150 to 4000 bucks. For photocopies! And many a house sale has fallen through because someone in the transaction has to come up with that extra money.  Read more:

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By Monique O. Madan  

Published February 8, 2016

Unit owners at Briarwinds Condominiums in Southwest Dade are fuming that association board members quietly negotiated to lease their private swimming pool to the local YMCA.

The unit owners say board president Dan Suarez — who leases out his own unit and doesn’t live there — didn’t have the right to make a deal with the South Dade YMCA, which is building a new pool and needs a place for members to swim for an undisclosed length of time.

“I don’t understand why owners don’t have a say in this. This is a direct violation of the bylaws,” said unit owner Franklin Longest at a Jan. 13 condo association meeting, where many residents said they first got official word of the YMCA deal. Another Briarwinds unit owner, John Chiarenza, said Suarez and four other board members didn’t tell residents of the plan and that condo meeting notices never mentioned it.  Read more: