This week a bunch of the 38 convicted criminals involved with the Las Vegas HOA takeover scheme are being sentenced. This one escaped prison. I'm going to do a summary of all this soon.
The message of this is obvious--HOAs and condo associations are fragile institutions that are totally dependent on the resources of their owners. By resources I mean money, time, loyalty, and expertise. With virtually no governmental oversight and most residents not paying attention, it is easy for associations to be taken over by groups of people who don't have the community's best interest in mind. Some are just petty neighborhood dictators, some are looking to engage in self-dealing to help themselves and their friends, and some are fraudsters.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/bribe-figure-avoids-prison-hoa-takeover-scheme#st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/MUnfZTwjSV
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"Federal officials estimate the potential loss so far within 11 HOAs investigated is $76 million." (June 03, 2012)
Nevada has over 3,000 H.O.A. corporations.
Here in Colorado there are around 9,000 registered H.O.A. corporations (The Community Associations Institute...estimates there are between 12,000 and 15,000 associations in the state).
Nationwide, there are over 335,000 H.O.A. corporations.
67 million Americans live in H.O.A.-burdened properties. The total "value" of H.O.A.-burdened property is about $5 trillion (with a "t"). The owners of these properties pay $70 billion (with a "b") per year in H.O.A. assessments, in exchange for the "privilege" of corporate governance of their domestic lives ("Who wants to live at work?"). Given the industry's sleazy accounting practices, that $70 billion figure probably includes disputed fines and fees.
Doing some very rough back-of-the-envelope style calculations, I estimate that every H.O.A.-burdened household is "double-taxed" $2,000 per year to subsidize 4 non-H.O.A.-burdened households at $500 each.
If 0.003% of the H.O.A. corporations in this country can cause $76 million worth of economic damage....well, do the math.
The privatization of local government is another economic crisis just waiting to happen (and has already been happening for who-knows-how-many-people, as readers of this blog are well aware). I warned my congressman, Jared Polis (D), about this 3 years ago. Like most politicians, he doesn't give a ****.
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