Category Archives: Uncategorized
NATIONAL – HOAs Behaving Badly – and How Homeowners Can Fight Back
CCFJ.NET: HOAs Behaving Badly – and How Homeowners Can Fight Back
Article Courtesy of FOX NEWS
Published February 9, 2016
If you own your home, you may be king or queen of your domain. However, if it’s part of a planned community or complex, you’ll probably need to kowtow to a homeowners association. And you may wind up feeling a bit more like a serf.
The HOA, which enforces community rules and maintains common areas, can be quite useful — but sometimes it can come across more like Big Brother. Read about HOAs that put neighborliness aside all in the name of rules, and how you can cope if yours does the same.
Changing its tune on a change of paint color The color blue is supposed to be calming, but in October 2015 it got some neighbors seeing red. According to news site KHOU.com, newlyweds Keely and Peter Dubrova had decided to paint their home in Atascocita, TX, a vivid shade of teal — with permission from their HOA. A week and a half later, the same board demanded the Dubrovas repaint after an online photo of their so-called Smurf house sparked an uproar, and even threats to “to hang them.”
Expert advice: “The HOA cannot legally revoke approval after the homeowners have relied on the approval and spent money on it,” says Mike Hunter, an attorney with Horack Talley in Charlotte, NC, who focuses on community and condominium law. So, the Dubrovas should stand their ground; but if they’re open to repainting, the HOA should foot the bill. Read more:
FLORIDA – Gulf Gate homeowners want golf course to remain
Article Courtesy of The Herald-Tribune
By Josh Salman
Published January 3, 2016
Steve Kern bought his home in Gulf Gate in 2009, in part for the views of the manicured golf course directly behind his backyard.
But now, one of the state’s most politically influential developers has come forward with plans to dig up those bunkers and putting greens to make way for more new homes.
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FLORIDA – Former HOA president accused of defrauding neighbors
Article Courtesy of WESH-2 News
Published February 5, 2016
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FLORIDA – Action 9 helps local family get their home back after HOA foreclosure
They lost their home after failing to pay just $1,900 in association fees.
The couple’s attorney had filed a motion to vacate the sale as a long shot.
But after Action 9’s story aired, the HOA and the new buyers offered to settle outside the courtroom.
“It’s not right, it’s disgusting, it’s not right,” said Katelyn Annis.
Two days after our story aired there was a dramatic turnaround for Annis and her family.
The investors who bought their Port Orange home at the HOA foreclosure auction is now willing to sell it back to them for $15,000.
It’s a costly penalty for failing to pay just $1,900 in association fees. But far better than being evicted and losing $100,000 in equity since they had owned the home outright.
“We just want to make things right,” said Annis. She and her husband lost jobs and say that’s why HOA fees weren’t paid and they never realized an association could foreclose to collect.
Consumer advocates say an HOA legally can but that doesn’t mean they always should.
“To foreclose on small amounts is pretty ridiculous. It costs the association thousands of dollars.” Attorney Barbara Stage has represented many HOA’s and says foreclosure should be a last resort and association boards should consider payment plans early on. “There is a better way, I mean work with the homeowner,” said Stage.
Annis told Action 9 her association never offered a payment plan. But she also admits there were two legal notices the couple should have responded to sooner and that won’t ever happen again.
“That’s where we made the mistake,” said Annis.
Their losses with legal fees, will come close to $20,000. Some say that punishment fits the violation far better than foreclosure and a $100,000 loss. Read:
NATIONAL – CAI flexes its muscle in Congress arguing constitutional law and judicial review
PVTGOV.WORDPRESS.COM: CAI flexes its muscle in Congress arguing constitutional law and judicial review
By George K. Staropoli
February 3, 2016
With respect to the federal Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015, S 1685/HR 1301 (HAM operators), the national lobbying organization, Community Association Institute (CAI), seeks to assert that the private contractual HOA CC&Rs are constitutionally protected from government contract infringement. CAI CEO Skiba argues that there is no compelling government interest to allow contract infringement and that the province for HOA regulation lies at the state level.[1] This is a first for CAI!
It shows that it understands what I’ve been writing about: that the surrender and waiver of constitutional rights in HOA-Land must pass judicial scrutiny although the courts have gotten around this legal requirement.[2] Here, for the first time that I’m aware, CAI argues that the Amateur Radio Act fails to pass judicial scrutiny because there is no compelling and necessary government interest for the law.[3] Read more:
ARIZONA – Residents at odds with HOA
Coolidge Examiner: Residents at odds with HOA
By Robby Gak
February 3, 2016
At the Carter Ranch monthly home owners association meeting, attendees were shocked when two attorneys and a security guard accompanied the HOA’s Board of Directors.
The meeting held Jan. 26, is typically attended by 15-20 homeowners, according to homeowner Tom Van Dan Elzen. But that number more than doubled as homeowners believed they weren’t having their voices heard in regards to violations and HOA guidelines.
There was absolutely no reason for this as the homeowners, although angry at some of the illegal actions taken by the HOA Board, were quite well relaxed and professional,” Van Dan Elzen said. “All they wanted was their right to be heard. Normally the annual meeting for Carter Ranch is attended by 15-20 homeowners. This year the room was packed to standing room only and some actually out the door in the hallway.”
Van Dan Elzen explained that some homewoners were angry because the Board has “subrogated their responsibilities to an outside management company that is only interested in making money”.
He went on to say that specific things not regulated in the past were now being enforced at Carter Ranch. Read more:
RHODE ISLAND – Rhode Island Supreme Court Rules That Condominium Assessment Liens Could Extinguish First-Priority Mortgages
JDSUPRA BUSINESS ADVISOR: Rhode Island Supreme Court Rules That Condominium Assessment Liens Could Extinguish First-Priority Mortgages
By Cale Keable, Santiago Posas Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP
January 28, 2016
First mortgage holders in Rhode Island beware: in a 4-1 decision handed down on December 4, 2015, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled that pursuant to the Rhode Island Condominium Act, RIGL § 34-36.1-1.01 et seq., liens for six months of unpaid common fees prior to the foreclosure have super-priority status, and can extinguish first-priority mortgages under certain circumstances. In Twenty-Eleven, LLC v. Michael J. Botelho, et al., the Court, interpreting § 34-36.1-3.16 of the Rhode Island General Laws, held that a first mortgage had been extinguished where the holder failed to either (i) pay the assessments, or (ii) exercise its right of redemption pursuant to § 34-36.1-3.21(c). Read more:
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/rhode-island-supreme-court-rules-that-53378/
COLORADO – City Wants $16 Million for HOAs
AspenPublicRadio.org: City Wants $16 Million for HOAs
By Alycin Bektesh
January 26, 2016
City officials are contemplating a sixteen million dollar investment in the affordable housing program as a stop-gap for dwindling reserve accounts and deteriorating structures.
The city is proposing to create an account for all 1600 deed-restricted units and juice it with ten thousand dollars a piece. It’s like a capital-reserve starter kit… one that, in total, will require sixteen million dollars of taxpayer money to fund.
Assistant City Manager Barry Crook says it’s all about rational economics: what normal people do to keep money in their pocket.
“Nobody, deed-restricted or non deed-restricted, likes to spend money they don’t think they have to spend.”
In the free market, the reason homeowners might put money into an expensive long-term item such as a new roof is because it adds value to their home when they go to sell it. But in the Aspen deed-restricted housing market, there is a cap on the sales price of a home, and no shortage of people waiting in line to pay that price, regardless of the condition.
“In the deed restricted market… you almost always get the maximum price whether the unit is well kept or not”
The way big ticket items are purchased in a Homeowners Association set-up like those that the affordable housing units are part of, is through collecting dues monthly that get set aside in capital reserves. This is on top of the monthly dues that go to standard HOA expenses like snow removal and lawn maintenance. Read more:
http://aspenpublicradio.org/post/city-wants-16-million-hoas#stream/0
TEXAS – Frisco homeowners in fight over disappearing backyard
DallasNews.com: Frisco homeowners in fight over disappearing backyard
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH
Staff Writer
21 January 2016 06:32 PM
A Frisco family finds itself caught in the middle of a dispute between their homeowners association and their developer.
As the dispute drags on, Brian and Natalie Woodward fear their dream home is in imminent danger from a collapsed slope that now claws at their backyard fence.
“I look out my backyard and see significant failure,” Brian Woodward told the Frisco City Council during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting. “I’m looking for answers.”
Shaddock Developers Ltd. is listed on county appraisal records as the owner of the more than 6 acres that make up the common area behind the Woodwards’ home in west Frisco. But the Lone Star Ranch Homeowners Association has for years been handling all of the maintenance on the land.
The question is who is responsible for the repairs.
Woodward said the first signs of erosion behind his house appeared May 27 after all the heavy rains. It was a minor slope failure back then, but he alerted his HOA. Read more:
FLORIDA – HOA attorney fees a homeowner’s nightmare
FOX 13 Investigates: HOA attorney fees a homeowner’s nightmare
By Tina Jensen
January 20, 2016
TAMPA (FOX 13) – The past few years haven’t been easy for 61-year-old Joe Mosby. He says finances became tight after he was diagnosed with leukemia. Soon after that, he lost the job he’d held for 18 years.
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“For a long time, I was upside down on my house and sold most of my possessions to pay my bills,” Mosby said. When his quarterly homeowner’s association payment was due in October 2014, it was a $75 bill he couldn’t afford.
“It wasn’t malicious on my part, but I simply didn’t have the money to pay them,” he explained.
What do you think?
Two months later, an attorney hired by the Heather Lakes HOA sent Mosby a notice that he now owed the $75, plus a few dollars in interest. Then there was a $160 charge for “attorney’s fees” charged to Mosby for the letter. The total due was now more than $250. “There are laws for debt collection: American Express, the water company, the phone company,” he said. “These guys play by a different set of rules altogether.” Read more:
http://www.fox13news.com/news/fox-13-investigates/77892305-story
HOA Reform Coalition 