Category Archives: Uncategorized
TEXAS – Windgate homeowner feels threatened by HOA over Christmas lights
KENS5: Windgate homeowner feels threatened by HOA over Christmas lights
Karen Grace
December 9, 2015
SAN ANTONIO — KENS 5 first introduced you to the Johnson family, and their dubstep Christmas light display, last week.
The story is being picked up across the country. With the increased attention comes increased traffic for their neighborhood.
Most of the Johnson family’s neighbors said they don’t mind, but the homeowner said he’s getting grief.
When Matt Johnson decorates for Christmas, he said he goes big.
“I do it because it brings joy to people,” said Johnson. He not only electrifies his home on Burtons Oak with lighted sequences and music, he even asks spectators to donate to help save lives in Africa through providing clean drinking water.
He’s been putting on this show since 2013, but recently got a letter from his homeowners association that is giving him cold feet.
“There have been a couple people in the neighborhood who have complained about the traffic,” Johnson said.
“Who’s complaining?” asked Crystal Vrzal, who lives right across the street. Read more:
NEW MEXICO – Family fighting HOA fears worsening battle
KOB 4: Family fighting HOA fears worsening battle
12/08/2015
Ryan Luby, KOB Eyewitness News 4
A Los Lunas family should find rest and relaxation inside their backyard cabana, but it’s generating anxiety and animus toward their homeowners association instead.
“It’s extremely frustrating that our quality of life is being hindered, and we’re not even comfortable living here anymore because of the stress that this has caused,” Brenda Stubbs said Tuesday.
The cabana trouble began earlier this year. The Stubbs’s homeowners association management company, HOAMCO, which represents the Huning Ranch subdivision, ordered them to tear down the cabana six years after it was constructed.
HOAMCO also began to issue fines.
“Right out of the blue,” Robert Stubbs said in February.
He said he has ample proof to show the HOA approved of the cabana even before he bought his home in 2009. He said he wouldn’t have purchased the home without proper approval.
The family modified the cabana by giving it a shingle roof, smaller footprint and concrete slab — everything Stubbs said the HOA wanted.
That’s why, nearly a year after 4 Investigates first reported on the saga, the family is so confused. Read more:
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3986314.shtml#.Vmgo1nDnZp9
CALIFORNIA – This HOA speech-chilling anti-harassment rule is fraught with problems
Los Angeles Times: This HOA speech-chilling anti-harassment rule is fraught with problems
By Donie Vanitzian
December 5, 2015
Question: Our 121-unit condo complex successfully removed the past board of directors. Before their removal, they adopted a draconian and subjective anti-harassment rule. The rule states: “Homeowners and residents are prohibited from screaming at, following, emailing and stalking directors, committee members, vendors, etc. Any violation of this regulation will result in a $200 fine per infraction.”
No board meeting minutes document adoption of the rule. A manager posted, then instantly removed from a clubhouse window, an announcement of the board’s majority vote for the new rule but did not define “harassment.” Immediately fines were issued to people the board or manager disliked. It feels like a prison, residents are afraid to say hello to anyone. Are the fines and the rule legal?
Answer: To be enforceable, rules should be clear and concise and based on objective standards that are rationally related to a legitimate association function. For the rule to be legitimate, the minutes must document the motion and vote, then proper notice must be sent to all titleholders pursuant to legal requirements before the rule is implemented and effective. Read more:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-associations-20151206-story.html
FLORIDA – Condo owners angry town-home problems aren’t being fixed
CCFJ.NET: Condo owners angry town-home problems aren’t being fixed
Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel
By Mary Shanklin
Published December 1, 2015
Nicely landscaped town homes at Berkshire Park near Windermere are less than a decade old but show signs of spider-web cracking and water damage — and owners see no fixes in sight.
Problems came to a head in the summer when homeowner association President Jeff Tepper tried to hire painters to freshen up the buildings, but the contractors declined the job. They were concerned the paint job would quickly ruin because of underlying cracks and discoloration.”These are only 4 years old, and the wood is rotted out,” Tepper said. “The stucco on them is too thin. Water is getting in the walls.”
Structural Engineering and Inspections Inc. tested half of the community’s 140 town homes in July and found roofing was nailed incorrectly, which allowed water intrusion, black mold, structural damage and signs of moisture creeping into some second-floor floorboards, records show. Read more:
FLORIDA – Century Villagers sue investor for trying to rewrite rules
CCFJ.NET: Century Villagers sue investor for trying to rewrite rules
Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
By Tony Doris
Published December 3, 2015
Nine unit owners in a Century Village condo building have sued another owner who they say has tried to wrest control of the building, change its rules and bring in renters, including youngsters not eligible to live in the retirement community.
The unit owners are backed by the 80-something developer of the complex, H. Irwin Levy, who promised in July that he would use his resources to protect them from Palm Beach Gardens investor Donald Kelly, who bought most of the units in their Sheffield O building and gained the voting power to preside over its association.
The kicker: Kelly, as association president, might have his legal expenses covered by Century Village’s officers and directors liability insurance.
“So we in effect are defending the black knight,” said David Israel, president of United Civic Organization, which oversees the sprawling, 600-building development. “It makes my skin crawl.”
Kelly previously declined comment on the dispute. His attorney, Richard S. Cohen, could not be reached for comment. Read more:
GEORGIA – HOA Community Tries to Oust President
FOX5Atlanta.com: HOA Community Tries to Oust President
November 25 2015
AUSTELL, Ga. – “Why don’t you show up to the meetings with all the people? We’re trying to vote you off,” yelled a homeowner to the HOA president.
And that right there sums up the friction between the Cobblestone Community’s homeowners and their association president Blake Kenya.
“We have had practically no voice, and we want to bring everything back to the community,”
homeowner Merinda Hutchings Donovan told her neighbors.
It was a common complaint from the nearly 50 neighbors who gathered on a Saturday morning to say that their homeowner association president, Mr. Kenya, won’t allow new elections and wanted $100 to make copies of the homeowners’ association books.
“It’s not a dictator situation; we all have something to say,” piped in another neighbor.
At the association’s recent annual meeting, Merinda Hutchings Donovan, one of the neighbors in this well-kept, middle class, Austell neighborhood, says homeowners asked for new board member elections. Read more:
IDAHO – Sometimes, The Good Guy Wins
NEIGHBORS AT WAR: Sometimes, The Good Guy Wins
By Ward Lucas
November 27, 2015
A few days ago, I wrote of a Homeowners Association in Hayden, Idaho that threatened to sue a homeowner who put up excessive Christmas lights and decorations. HOA officials were upset because the display attracted lots of traffic to the neighborhood.
But isn’t that what we all do at Christmas? We drive around looking for the most beautiful light displays. It’s a time when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. I know plenty of Jews, atheists and agnostics who drive around admiring all the wonderful decorations. “Peace on Earth, good will to men,” is how the song goes. And that message resounds through all religious barriers. Read more:
FLORIDA – Police Bust Weekly Mahjong Game Played By Elderly Women
CBS Tampa Bay: Police Bust Weekly Mahjong Game Played By Elderly Women
November 24, 2015
Heritage Florida
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. (CBS Tampa) — Police in Florida busted a game of mahjong in Florida at a condominium clubhouse. The group accused of the crime: four women between the ages of 87 and 95.
Heritage Florida reports that police came to shut down the friendly game played by Lee Delnick, Bernice Diamond, Helen Greenspan and Zelda King.
King says word spread about their weekly gathering and that a “troublemaker” in the community called the police citing a law that prohibits playing the game for money. Police closed the clubhouse.
The women were sent a formal notice from condominium management stating that there would be no more mahjong, bingo, or poker played in the location until further notice. Police reportedly stopped by several times later that week to make sure the games weren’t being played. Read more:
http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2015/11/24/police-bust-weekly-mahjong-game-played-by-elderly-women/
FLORIDA – Condo lawyer mum on flower spat
CCFJ.NET: Condo lawyer mum on flower spat
Article Courtesy of The Herald-Tribune
By Tom Lyons
Published November 18, 2015
Driving down Rum Cay Circle, I could see that condo homes all look very much alike.
The small front yards are not spectacularly landscaped, but they are neat and uniform. Order is the theme. Each home has exactly one tree out front, usually a smallish, well-pruned one cut to the same cone-shape as the others.
But wait. What’s that I see?
There’s a problem in front of Janet Morgan’s home. See her tree?
It’s fine, actually. The tree itself is OK.
But look beneath it.
Better call the condo board!
You might have missed it if you’re your eye wasn’t caught by the flash of colors, but once you see what’s there you can’t help but be aware that Morgan, a retired high school teacher, has done something there that is, well, different. And pretty.
But no need to alert board members. They are on it. They have sent Morgan a series of threatening letters — the last one from a lawyer — demanding action. They tell her she is in violation of the rules of Center Gate Estates Condominium Association, Section 1. The alleged violation:
She planted flowers. Read more:
FLORIDA – Former Palm Beach Hotel condo employee files whistleblower lawsuit
Palm Beach Daily News: Former Palm Beach Hotel condo employee files whistleblower lawsuit
By David Rogers
November 16, 2015
A former Palm Beach Hotel condominium employee claims he was fired because he would not conceal alleged mold problems and “structural defects” at the building, a town landmark at 235 Sunrise Ave.In a whistleblower complaint filed last week in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, Charles Barone claims he was fired by condominium President Shay Pallas after bringing up those alleged issues.
Attorney Brian Buckstein states in the suit that Barone complained to Pallas “multiple times” about the alleged problems. Pallas told Barone to conceal evidence of mold and structural issues, according to the complaint, which also alleges Pallas refused to change the property to improve accessibility for the disabled as agreed upon as part of a settlement agreement. Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 