By Samantha Weigel

September 17, 2015

San Mateo – After a nearly two-year investigation, the former manager of the Woodlake Homeowners Association was booked into county jail Wednesday for allegedly embezzling nearly $2.8 million from the San Mateo residents’ group.

Susan Marie Lambert, a 64-year-old Fremont resident, has been charged with two felonies for conspiring to defraud the homeowners between Feb. 8, 2007, and September 2013, according to prosecutors.

Lambert’s alleged crimes were discovered after the 990-unit condominium association fired her and uncovered a stack of nearly 150 false invoices for construction work that was never completed, according to prosecutors.

Lambert pleaded not guilty after surrendering in court Wednesday morning and was booked on $1 million bail, according to prosecutors.

The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office filed charges Sept. 1 against Lambert and her alleged co-conspirator Michael Anthony Medeiros, a 58-year-old Fremont man, who has yet to be arrested.

Faced with multiple enhancements, including aggravated white-collar crime, the duo could face nearly six years in prison if convicted, according to prosecutors.  Read more:

By Teresa Stepzinski

September 16, 2015

GREEN COVE SPRINGS | Some Clay County homeowner associations say they don’t object to residential backyard chickens per se, but just don’t want the fowl in their planned neighborhoods.

The associations voiced their objections through a spokesman to the Clay County Commission during a public hearing Sept. 8 about a proposed county ordinance that would allow residents to keep up to four hens, but no roosters, at a single-family home under certain conditions in residential unincorporated areas.

Residents would have to get a county permit to keep backyard chickens. Chickens would be allowed only for personal use. People couldn’t breed or sell chickens. Nor could they sell the eggs or chicken feces for fertilizer. The chickens would have to be within a fenced area during the day, and an enclosure at night, according to the measure.

The County Commission will hold a final public hearing, then could vote on the ordinance at its Sept. 22 meeting at the county Administration Building, 477 Houston St., Green Cove Springs.

About 25 residents have asked about the possibility of keeping backyard chickens in residential areas over the past few years, county staff previously told the Times-Union.  Read more:

By Janine Reyes

September 9, 2015

ORLANDO, Fla. — Some Orlando residents whose homes are at risk gathered Wednesday night in hopes of finding out who’s running their homeowner’s association.

But following the meeting many of the Vista Lago residents said they still aren’t clear.

Residents said that over the years different entities have collected money from them.

Some people said they paid dues twice just to avoid losing their homes, while some said they were so confused they didn’t pay.

Forty-seven residents have liens on their homes and the question no one can answer whether the company who put the liens on the homes, One GMA, had the right to do so.

“They disagree on who is what and we’re not here tonight to determine that because we don’t have all the facts,” a representative with the city of Orlando’s neighborhood relations department. Read more:

By Kathleen Lynn

September 13, 2015

Christine Haas has lived happily for two decades at Suburban Terrace, a tidy collection of 248 garden apartment condos in Hackensack. But lately, as president of the condominium association, she has dealt with a frustrating issue: Some of her neighbors aren’t paying their homeowner association fees.

It’s a problem most condo associations deal with at some point, and it intensified during the recession and housing crisis, as condo owners lost jobs and fell into foreclosure.

“It’s frustrating,” Haas said. “One person owes us $30,000, including legal fees.” Altogether, the association is owed almost $230,000 in unpaid homeowner’s fees, Haas said.

The problem became “much worse” during the economic downturn, according to Eric Frizzell, a Glen Rock lawyer who represents many condo associations

“Many associations had many more delinquent unit owners than normal,” he said. Though the problem started easing 12 to 18 months ago, he said, it’s still a concern in many condo communities.

In a recent survey by the Community Associations Institute, which provides education and information to community managers and leaders, 11 percent of associations said late or unpaid homeowners’ fees were an issue.  Read more:

Article and Video Courtesy of Channel 6 News By Louis Bolden Published September 12, 2015

A local family has been allowed to put up a fence for their son with Asperger’s syndrome, which is commonly associated with the autism spectrum, after a months-long battle with their homeowners association.

“To have this fence is a tremendous relief,” Shawn Seekings told News 6 investigator Louis Bolden. “Now our son has a place to play,” he said.

    

The HOA denied the original request. “He has a very real disability that you can not see and he can’t have the one thing he really needs,” Kristin Seekings told Local 6 in June with tears in her eyes. Esprit subdivision in St. Cloud does allow vinyl fences, in fact, they’re all over the neighborhood. However, the Seekings’ home backs up to a conservation area. The HOA would only allow a metal fence that the Seekings thought was not safe.  Read more:

By Vanessa Murphy

September 8, 2015

LAS VEGAS

Hundreds packed a room Tuesday night to fight for the Silverstone Golf Course. Silverstone is embroiled in a legal battle to keep the course open.

Tom Ells says he and his wife retired in the Silverstone Ranch community near Rainbow Boulevard and Grand Teton for the golf course, which is now shut down.

“It’s sad that we won’t get to play here anymore,” he said. “A lot different than we had paid for and what we had hoped for.”

Residents say the clubhouse was locked and maintenance stopped at the course last week, after new owner Desert Lifestyles took over.

“From indications, the developer has done this before in southern California,” said Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross. “He’s got a track record of not treating neighbors very well, so we’re very cognizant as the City of Las Vegas about this.”

Councilman Ross attended the homeowners association board meeting Tuesday night.

“This is going to be a battle and an epic fight,” he said.  Read more:

By Tom Palmer

The Ledger

September 8, 2015

KISSIMMEE — State Rep. John Cortes has announced plans to attempt to overhaul state laws governing homeowner associations to clarify the law and to improve enforcement.

By Susan Taylor Martin

September 7, 2015

If someone forces you to sell your property, shouldn’t they be required to give you at least as much as you paid for it? • That’s what Nadia and Tyson Le Monte thought when they learned they would have to sell their St. Petersburg condo — bought in 2006 for $254,900 — because the complex is being converted to rentals. • The couple were stunned, therefore, when told they would get just $127,000. That is $70,000 less than what it would take to pay off the mortgage. • Now Le Monte, a former Marine and government contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, fears he may have to drop out of college and go back to work even though he is under treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. • Says his wife, a pharmacist at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center: • “This is such an awful situation to be in.” • The Le Montes are among the hundreds of Florida condo owners discovering that a new law designed to increase their rights in condo-to-apartment conversions won’t help them nearly as much as they hoped.  Read more:

By George Lurie

September 4, 2015

A dispute between residents and their homeowners association is making waves at The Lakes in Visalia, one of the South Valley’s most elite addresses.A number of irate homeowners at the 20-acre gated development claim the HOA has imposed an illegal levy for a controversial road-repair project that carries a price tag of nearly $700,000.

Earlier this summer, property owners at the exclusive enclave, which features nine acres of manmade waterways, received letters dated June 11 from Armstrong Property Management, which manages The Lakes for the HOA. The letters informed residents an emergency assessment was necessary to help fund the repair of the development’s streets, which were described in the letter as “crumbling in several areas” and “very unsightly.”

The letters explained that a portion of road repair project’s cost — $400,000 — would be paid by the HOA’s reserve fund but The Lakes property owners would be charged a special assessment totaling $350,000 to cover the rest, with each property owner paying a minimum of $2,333.34 above and beyond their $310 monthly dues to bankroll the emergency project.

For property owners with two or three lots, the assessment would be doubled or tripled. Read more: