Saturday, May 22, 2010

Homeowner won fight over HOA foreclosure

Homeowner won fight over HOA foreclosure

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So how much did property values in the Hidden Forest neighborhood drop after this?

Anonymous said...

If you want to see a copy of the jury verdict and a copy of the HOA attorney's contract, check out

http://www.woai.com/content/troubleshooters/story/Homeowner-beats-HOA-lawyer-in-court/Lqey4KBMpk2Mn1r5G3TgDw.cspx

Hern was awarded $22,000. $11,000 of it was to cover his own attorney fees. The HOA received $768 to cover three years worth of assessments.

Hern had offered more than that several years ago. For three years, however, the HOA attorney (Newton) prevented Hern from making payments by inserting himself between the board and the owner and prohibiting the HOA from accepting any payments without the attorney's consent. Newton thus screwed his client for three years in an attempt to extort a lot more from the owner.

From Newton's law firm website: Newton "has been on the Board of Directors of the San Antonio Chapter of Community Associations Institute for several years. He is currently both Past President and President Elect of that organization". Kinda sums it up, doesn't it?

Yes, I believe that "extortion" is the correct word and it is standard operating procedure for a certain HOA trade group.