Category Archives: Uncategorized
PENNSYLVANIA – Saxonburg, condominium association to share wetlands burden
After years of voicing concerns about wetlands encroaching on their houses, residents with the Saxonburg Village Condominium Association have some answers from the borough. The main concerns come from residents closest to the wetlands who have reported damage to their houses. “The foundations are starting to crack,” said Mary Papik, borough manager.
Papik and borough Superintendent Charles McGee met with representatives from the Department of Environmental Protection on July 10 to decide where the responsibility lies with maintaining the wetlands and drainage of an earthen dam associated with it. Because the water isn’t draining properly, the wetlands are expanding. The results lie somewhere in the middle, Papik told council at a meeting on Wednesday. Read more:
FLORIDA – Condo units in Florida battle developers seeking forced sale of their unit
A change to Florida law that makes it easier to change condo buildings to apartments has spurred litigation by owners who object to the forced sale of their units.
Developers in buildings where many units remain unsold are using the law to reclaim units and rent apartments, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Developers are taking advantage of the change partly because of the difficulties of making improvements to common areas that require approval and capital from condo owners.
The Florida law allowing condo owners to terminate their condo status was originally intended to allow for quick sale and rebuilding of condominium complexes damaged by hurricanes, the Wall Street Journal says. After a unanimous vote, condo units could be sold to developers who repaired and rented them. But a single holdout could block the change.
A 2007 amendment sought to battle the holdout problem by allowing termination of condo status with approval of only 80 percent of the condo owners, the story explains. Ten percent of the owners could block the change by objecting. The amendment also allowed termination of condo status for undamaged as well as damaged buildings. Read more:
CONNECTICUT – Deteriorating condo complex finally being fixed
FLORIDA – Property management company is under state review
State officials are looking into the alleged misdeeds of an Ocala property management company after members of several local homeowners groups sent them complaints.
The Office of General Counsel has reviewed an investigation of Property Management Consultants Inc. by the Division of Regulation and has thus far found probable cause concerning five cases against the Marion County firm, according to Beth Frady, deputy director of communications for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Frady said the department has served Property Management Consultants with an administrative complaint for each finding of probable cause and the company has requested a formal hearing for each.
Meanwhile, one other case is pending in the Office of General Counsel, another was still under investigation as of Friday and five have been closed with no probable cause found, she said. Read more:
NATIONAL – Homeowner Association IRS Ruling Highlights Schizophrenic Nature Of Associations
Gategate
Private Letter Rulings are redacted, so I get to make up a name for the HA. I’m going to call it Gategate, because it seems to be somewhat attached to gates. My inference from the ruling is that the HA is more of a vacation spot than a place where people live permanently, since it talks about having both campsites and mobile home sites. There are different deals on how the electric bills are handled. Read more:
MICHIGAN – Court gives consumers stronger protection from debt collectors
It began with a dispute between a Michigan condominium owner and the homeowners’ association (HOA) over an unpaid assessment. By the time it reached the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, it had become a case that may have significantly strengthened consumers’ rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act(FDCPA).
The homeowner, Camille Haddad, and a debt collector, Alexander, Zelmanski, Danner & Fioritto, had sued one another since 2008 over an unpaid HOA assessment – originally $55 – that over the years ballooned to well over $1,000.
Haddad expressed willingness to pay the debt but did not know what it was for, and demanded verification from the debt collector that the debt was real. Haddad cited the FDCPA in making this request, since the law specifically says the debt collector must provide verification of the legitimacy of the debt. the debt collector must provide verification of the legitimacy of the debt.
Defining terms
But what constitutes “verification?” Up until now the courts have been a bit hazy on this point, but have leaned toward giving the benefit of the doubt to the debt collector. In 1999, when the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals took up a similar case, it ruled:
“[V]erification of a debt involves nothing more than the debt collector confirming in writing that the amount being demanded is what the creditor is claiming is owed; the debt collector is not required to keep detailed files of the alleged debt.”
In other words, a debt collector could simply take the original creditor’s word that the debt was real. If the creditor put in writing that the debt was real, the collector had to provide no other proof. Read more:
NEW HAMPSHIRE – Hampton condo owners irate over cell antennas
HAMPTON — Residents of a large Hampton Beach condominium complex have filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office as part of an effort to block the installation of cell antennas on the building. Members of the Sea Spray Condominiums’ board of directors claim developers Green and Co. didn’t apprise them of plans to have AT&T install 12 multiband panel antennas when they signed the public offering statement for their units. The residents also claim the first time they learned of the antennas was after they closed on their units, which is when they say Green and Co. amended the public offering statement to include the first mentions of antennas on the 83 Ocean Blvd. property.
“They feel that they were duped,” said John Cronin, a Manchester attorney representing some of the condominium residents. Potential radiation generated by the structures also have the residents concerned for their health and property values. Read more:
PENNSYLVANIA – Bethlehem Township, Pa., condos illegal because they effectively forbid residents who use wheelchairs, lawsuit says
A federal lawsuit was filed today over claims a Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, condominium complex violates the U.S. Fair Housing Act because its design effectively forbids residents who use wheelchairs.
The 92-unit Bordeaux Lofts at the Vineyard at Wagner Farms violates the act because there are steps at the entrances to all 23 residential buildings, according to the lawsuit filed by The Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia and the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania. The complex’s interior doorways also don’t meet the 32-inch minimum width requirement and its mailboxes are inaccessible, the lawsuit claims.
“Access to housing for people with disabilities is a civil right,” Disability Rights Network attorney Rocco Iacullo said in a statement. “The failure to construct accessible housing as required by the Fair Housing Act denies people with disabilities equal access to housing opportunities and unnecessarily excludes them from their communities.” Read more:
FLORIDA – Man Sues Condo Association For Right To Keep Dog As Service Animal
A condominium association has been fighting it out in court for nearly one year with a homeowner who sued when the association moved to ban his dog. The dog’s breed and function are at the center of a lawsuit that pits countywide breed restrictions against Fair Housing Act protections for disabled residents with service animals. The plaintiff, Alexander Warren, asked Miami’s Del Vista Towers Condominium Association to overlook its “no-pet” policy to accommodate his dog, Amir—a service animal, according to Warren.
When the association refused, Warren filed suit in Southern District court, claiming failure to reasonably accommodate. But the condo association asked Judge Jose Martinez for a summary judgment and hinged its argument on the dog’s breed. It argued that Warren’s case was baseless, because his dog is a pit bull—a restricted breed under Miami-Dade regulations. Del Vista Towers figured Warren did not have a case because of Miami-Dade’s countywide ban on pit bulls. But Martinez didn’t think the case was so clear-cut. On Tuesday, he denied the condo association’s motion for summary judgment. Read more:
MISSOURI – Homeowners faced peculiar problem trying to build above-ground pool
PECULIAR, Mo. — A Missouri woman is in a dispute with city hall because it won’t give her a permit for a swimming pool. The city says the pool would violate the rules of her homeowners association. The problem is: There is no homeowners association. The developer went bankrupt before the homeowners association could be formed. But the city still wants to hold her to the rules the HOA would have enforced if it had actually ever been created.
Amanda Brooks and her husband are expanding their deck and have put in a fence, all in compliance with city codes and all in preparation for the pool they want to install in the backyard of their home. But when they went to apply for a pool permit, the city denied them, saying it would violate the rules of their HOA. “I said I don’t know what you are talking about. There’s no homeowners association,” Brooks said. Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 