Woman charged with stealing $35,000 from homeowner's association | BlueRidgeNow.com | Times-News Online | Hendersonville, NC: "Heather Pettit Barnette, 31, of 14 Shadowbrook Drive, Flat Rock, was charged with obtaining property by false pretenses by allegedly taking $35,544 from the Shadowbrook Property Owner’s Association, according to court records."
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It seems to me that these charges are popping up with greater frequency.
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... and actually being reported by the press.
The "isolated instance" propaganda exposes the promulgators of such hype for the fraudsters that they are. To dissuade the press from reporting these events, the industry reps will have to switch positions and note that embezzlement in HOAs is so common that it is not newsworthy. Won't that be ugly after years of representing just the opposite. This of course will be turned into legislation mandating that homeowners will be obligated to undergo criminal background checks prior to serving on an HOA board. Of course the management companies will offer this as a service, but ultimately the checks will be performed by the same board. Also, the industry will oppose any criminal background checks on the management companies - which have been associated with numerous large embezzlement cases.
Indeed for an organization that claims to have a standard of professional ethics, the standard appears to be "we really mean just the opposite of what we say". After all, has a single CAI management company ever been "disciplined" or sanctioned per their alleged code of professional ethics? Looking at the attorneys inducted into CAI's College of Community Association Lawyers, It would seem that CAI "honors" attorneys for engaging in unethical or unlawful conduct. Certainly several of the attorneys listed were found liable to the homeowners they preyed upon through violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Others engaged in conduct like threatening to cut off a homeowners water unless the homeowner paid "dismissal charges" off the books of the HOA to the HOA attorney. These are the types of "professionals" that CAI honors. Thank goodness for a more reliable source of information like the news.
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