By James L. Rosica

September 8, 2014

TALLAHASSEE — Condo owners say a 7-year-old change in state law now is forcing them from their homes as investors convert their buildings into rentals.

The Florida Condominium Act once required agreement from all owners before a condominium pact could be dissolved. In 2007, lawmakers lowered that threshold to 80 percent — even after then-Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed the change a year before.

The change was approved by the first-year governor at the time, Charlie Crist, then a Republican and now the Democrat challenging incumbent GOP Gov. Rick Scott this year.

Now, some condo owners say they’re being pressured to sell as investment groups slowly take over whole complexes, often by snapping up foreclosed units. Their goal is to sell the properties at a profit.  Read more:

By Michael Booth

September 9, 2014

The New Jersey Supreme Court is considering whether the board of directors of a massive co-op can prohibit leafleting by dissident residents who want to seek election to the board.

The court heard arguments Sept. 8 in a case where the board of directors of a co-op in Fort Lee, N.J., is seeking to overturn an appeals court’s ruling that said it violated a tenant’s free-speech rights when it prohibited him from passing out leaflets to other residents, even though the board itself regularly passed out leaflets touting its accomplishments and attacking its critics.

In Dublirer v. 200 Linwood Avenue Owners, the Supreme Court is set to determine whether the board violated the tenant’s rights under Article I, Paragraph 6 of the state constitution.

The board’s attorney, Natalie Mantell, said during arguments that the board has the right to restrict speech because the co-op is private property. The board is exempt from its own rule because it is required to communicate with the residents, Mantell added. Read more:

By Joe Little

September 9, 2014

A job transfer brought the Logans here from Chicago. Good schools for their two young daughters and the promise of a swimming pool within walking distance attracted them to Canyon Lakes West in Cypress, one of the area’s ubiquitous master-planned communities.

Three years later, the two-acre site they were told was set aside for the pool, playground and other recreational features in the Grove section where they live remains untouched. A sign detailing where the pool and cabana, basketball pavilion and a splash pad water playground would be built was recently taken down and replaced with something less specific and, to the Logans and their neighbors, disconcerting.  Read more:

Since taking office in 2011, Moore said, he’s received at least 3,000 complaints from state residents complaining about homeowners associations.

Residents fed up with their homeowners association will have a chance Sept. 16 to learn about pending legislation in the N.C. General Assembly that might change how associations conduct business.Homeowners for Education, Advocacy and Rights will host a meeting 6-8 p.m. at the Morrison Regional Library near SouthPark mall to discuss homeowner association rights.

Al Ripley, director of the consumer and housing project at the N.C. Justice Center, will be the main speaker. Ole Madsen, founder of HEAR4nc, also is expected to give a presentation, on pending homeowners association laws.

House Bill 883, for instance, would require that new HOA board members receive four hours of training on HOA laws within 60 days of starting their position. The N.C. Senate passed that bill out of the rules committee; it now is sitting in the Senate judiciary Subcommittee B.

“I think it would help them be better decision-makers as they serve on those boards,” said N.C. Rep. Rodney Moore, D-District 99, who co-sponsored the bill. “A lot of times you have people who serve on these boards and they really don’t understand that the fiduciary responsibilities are not only to that board but to their neighbors and their community.”

Moore said he’s hopeful that bill will pass.  Read more:

By Diana Olick, CNBC

August 28, 2014

Florida condominium owners in danger of losing their homes are making a final desperate plea, hoping that Gov. Rick Scott will intervene. 

These owners are not in foreclosure, nor are they behind on their mortgages. Instead they are being threatened by a group of developers, Madison Oaks Partners, who are using a Florida state law originally designed to protect homeowners from natural disaster, to terminate the condominium agreement and force them to sell their units. Read more:

http://privatopia.blogspot.com/ : Condo president buys car, pays himself, with association funds

By Donie Vanitzian JD

September 3, 2014

Human Capital is used to supply ALL the homeowner association’s cash flow. Without the board’s statutory mandate to assess at-will, the association could not operate, the entire engine would die, stop running. Other than a pat on the back, if lucky, titleholders producing said Capital get nothing in return. Most especially, they get nothing from stockpiling money in bogus money pits otherwise labeled “Reserve Accounts.” While the statutes talk a good game, owners have no real quantifiable statutory assurances that said money will be spent on items for which it was collected. If the owner sells and moves, that money is left behind, it is effectively “donated” to the association, the seller-owner cannot even write it off. If the Capital is stockpiled at the time the owner sells and moves away, and the seller did not realize the benefit of his accumulated money that was stockpiled, the money is still left behind. If the homeowner association is a debtor and a creditor suffers a loss, because the homeowner association is a corporation, in the name of “nonprofit mutual benefit corporation” that creditor’s losses become the debtor association’s reorganization process. Of course, the oxymoron of “mutual benefit” is not to be missed. This may answer the question as to why gardeners now contract with homeowner associations so that a breach or failure to pay may then be remedied in court by an order to assess the Human Capital.  Read more:

Updated: 09/02/2014 10:39 PM | Created: 09/02/2014 8:56 PM
By: Erica Zucco, KOB Eyewitness News 4 RIO RANCHO — For weeks, Rio Rancho police have investigated a business they say embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from property owners and homeowners associations. Meanwhile, associations are dealing with the consequences of reportedly mismanaged funds.

Money paid to homeowners associations is typically supposed to be for special touches.

“They keep the exterior of the neighborhood looking good,” homeowner Ryan Swanson said. “A lot of it has to do with the walls; we had some walls [needing] to be replaced, some of the watering that goes on…we have a pathway that connects parts of the neighborhood to keep it looking nice.”

But a letter sent to people in the Seven Bar North Homeowners Association says their money was instead mismanaged by Double R Realty.  Read more:

By Jennifer Medina

September 1, 2014

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The spray-paint nozzle was aimed carefully at the edge as the painter stood back a few inches from the flat metal shovel meant to protect other surfaces. After laying down a couple of thin coats, he stepped back to admire his work.

The patch of grass had gone from a flat, yellowing green to a Wizard of Oz shade of emerald.

There are few people who see an upside to the record-setting drought in California, but Drew McClellan sees a path to business. Earlier this summer, when a friend began complaining about his browning front lawn, Mr. McClellan thought back to his childhood in Florida, where he often spotted golf courses using sprays to dye their greens. When a brief Internet search failed to show any local business offering a similar service, Mr. McClellan decided it was a prime opportunity.  Read more: