Homeowners association pulls plug on Waterford woman's Volt - WXYZ.com

Homeowners association pulls plug on Waterford woman's Volt - WXYZ.com: (WXYZ) - Natalie Forte is eco-friendly and loves her Chevy Volt.

But, her homeowners association doesn't share her enthusiasm.

The resident owns a condo along Elizabeth Lake Road in Waterford and says the homeowners association doesn't have rules against plug-in cars. But the HOA has cut-off power to Forte's garage.

Forte tells Action News starting in June she would charge up her new car in her detached garage. Electricity to the garages are under shared expenses residents pay as part of their monthly HOA fees.

After a few months, the association told Forte the expense was too much and wanted her to pay for the extra electricity.
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Add electric vehicles to the list of issues that generate bad press for Privatopia. Film at 10 on WXYZ, Detroit.

Election 2014--my interpretation

I look at elections by starting with the structural factors first.  Democrats had a difficult set of structural factors to overcome.  But they took a bad hand and did worse than expected. 

1.  Of the 36 Senate seats up for election, 21 were held by Democrats and 15 by Republicans, so the Democrats had more seats to defend and were more exposed to the risk of losing seats.  

2.  And 7 of those 21 Democratic senators were in states that Romney won just two years ago--what we call red states.  Democrats have a hard time winning in those states in the best of times.

3. Moreover, the whole class of senators was elected last in 2008, when Obama was elected, McCain took a drubbing, and the whole Republican brand was in the tank because they wrecked the economy and stuck us in two wars that we had obviously lost. That's why so many Democrats were elected in red states--they had Obama "hope and change" coattails, running nationally against a party in relative disrepute. 

That's all changed now. Twenty one Democratic candidates (well, 20 plus one independent) had to run in 2014 with no presidential coattails, with one-third of them in red states. In fact, Obama was widely seen as a drag on the ticket even though he wasn't on it.  The public has a short memory and independent voters in particular walk  in space a large part of the time, so they don't remember how Bush and his team wrecked the place. 

So everybody knew Republicans would win the Senate, just based on structural or fundamental factors.  But last night's results were worse than they should have been for Democrats, even given those realities.  Why?  I see two main reasons:

Money: I think when the FEC and other reports are in, it will turn out that Republicans outspend Democrats substantially. The "dark money" factor--independent spending by non-profits funded by right-wing plutocrats--looks at this point like it heavily favored Republicans. Independent voters, who for the most part just don't understand politics but think they do, are more easily swayed by 30 second ads that focus on candidate image. But we shall see.

Base voters: The Democratic party has lost its connection with the social groups that should be its base. Young people; working  and middle class people; black, latino, and asian people; seniors; women.  Instead, again and again Democrats, including most especially Obama, have tried to compete with Republicans for the love of the rich and powerful.  Banks, insurance companies, manufacturers, big pharma, and on and on.  They have benefited consistently.  But where was the relief for middle-class homeowners? How about students drowning in college loan debt? Why are we still wasting billions in pointless wars in the Middle East? 

But here's the quandary Democrats face: How tdo they get the money they need to compete against the Republicans--who gleefully sell out to the highest bidder--while serving the interests of people who are not in the top 1% or even the top 10%?  

The answer, I think, is that they have to take a big leap and transform themselves back into what they were from 1933 until Reagan came along: the party of working people, an economically populist party.  And they have, I think, a very short time to do that, because the 2016 election cycle is already underway.  Right now we have on offer a battle between the Republican Party and the Republican Lite Party. The result of such a race in 2016 will probably be a Republican president and congress.

Homeowner associations seen as mini-governments

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/henrico/homeowner-associations-seen-as-mini-governments/article_2827ee0d-376b-5fca-bff3-97f6b4b8bcac.html

"When homeowners associations make the news, it’s usually for some sort of dispute with a resident: a fight about a mailbox, a garden, a sign or a flag. But the associations are nearly ubiquitous for new residential housing in the Richmond area, embraced by developers as a way to handle long-term care of common amenities and by local officials as “mini-governments” that can help maintain order and property value."
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Nearly ubiquitous, indeed. And not only in the Richmond area.

Vegas HOA takeover case defense attorney moves for dismissal

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/hoa-case-lawyer-moves-dismiss-charging-prosecutor-misconduct

The claim: that the prosecution committed misconduct by not agreeing to keep secret the records of lead defendant Leon Belzer's failed plea negotiations, in which he said things that have made it obvious to anybody who can read how guilty these folks are.  Jeff German snarfed the docs during the two days when they were public and went to press in  the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Now defendants want to move the trial to the moon to avoid tainted public opinion.

Lawyers in HOA scheme request trial be moved from Las Vegas | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Lawyers in HOA scheme request trial be moved from Las Vegas | Las Vegas Review-Journal

See the story immediately below for what has prompted this motion. The Review-Journal just published a bombshell of a story:

"Lawyers for defendants charged in the scheme to take over Las Vegas-area homeowners associations want the high-profile Feb. 23 trial moved out of Las Vegas. In federal court papers filed late Thursday, lawyers for Las Vegas attorney Keith Gregory said he can’t get a fair trial because of the mass of ongoing “prejudicial” media coverage of the case, primarily from the Las Vegas Review-Journal."

Journalistic Bombshell: Target of Las Vegas HOA investigation detailed scheme, bribes in secret documents | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Target of Las Vegas HOA investigation detailed scheme, bribes in secret documents | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Benzer is the alleged "mastermind" of the whole scheme. This report is explosive and Benzer's attorneys went to court to stop the Las Vegas Review-Journal from publishing it.  Read it and see how ridiculously easy it is for somebody with money to take over an HOA board.

update: I read the motion Benzer's lawyer filed and this is how the timeline unfolded:

On August 5, one of the co-defendants, Benzer's former attorney Keith Gregory, filed a motion to sever his trial from Benzer's. Then on September 16, Gregory's attorneys filed this previously-secret document in support of the motion, consisting of a report of Benzer's confidential talks with the prosecution in which he explained how the scheme worked. The plea talks fell through, and the statements can't be used against Benzer, but they are very damaging to any defendant. For example,  here is how reporter Jeff German relates some statements about Keith Gregory:
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Benzer, 47, admitted he gave his personal lawyer, Keith Gregory, a $10,000 bribe for work on the HOA takeover at the Vistana condominium complex in southwest Las Vegas. Gregory is also under indictment. Benzer recalled paying Gregory from his personal account “as a ‘thank you’ for ‘working with us.’ “When questioned as to exactly what he meant by thank you and whether the payment was more accurately described as a bribe payment, Benzer advised that the term bribe was ‘your language’ and he didn’t like to use that term, but that the answer was ‘basically yes,’ ” reads one report.
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Gregory's attorney asked the court to keep the documents under seal and mistakenly also thought that the government would agree to keeping them secret, but instead the US Attorney's office opposed keeping them secret.

So, on September 17, the court unsealed the documents. The next day, Gregory's attorneys made a motion to withdraw the documents, and asked the court to seal them.  The court agreed on September 19, and sealed and struck them from the record.

But it was too late, because during the few days when the documents were in the record of the case, Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German obtained a copy.  German has been all over this story like a blanket.

On October 30, the defense attorneys learned that German was doing a story on the secret documents. They went to court that day and filed a motion (you can read it on the LVRJ story that I linked to--the whole motion is there) asking the court to stop the publication. A "prior restraint" on publication is almost never justified, so I don't think it would have been granted, but in any event it is too late for any court to stop the publication.  The story is out and you can read it for yourself.

Homeless women to stay in Frisco home for now after HOA loses motion | Dallas Morning News

Homeless women to stay in Frisco home for now after HOA loses motion | Dallas Morning News



"MCKINNEY — A transitional living program for homeless young women will be allowed for now to continue operating in a Frisco neighborhood. District Judge Jill Willis ruled Friday that a Frisco homeowners association failed to meet its burden for temporary injunctive relief. The PR2 Homeowners Association had sought to keep the nonprofit City House from moving more women into its home while a civil case is pending. Two women and one child live there now. The case filed by the HOA against City House continues. No trial date has been set. Chad Robinson, who represents the HOA board for the Plantation Resort 2 community, declined to comment after the ruling. He said he needed to consult with his clients. Robinson argued during Friday’s hearing that the HOA’s deed restrictions require that homes be used for single-family residential purposes only. He said single-family use means people who are related by blood or by law. Texas courts have also allowed other limited uses, such as nannies or an incidental renter. He argued that City House’s transitional living program for up to eight women was not a single-family residential use."

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So this looks like an HOA-flavored NIMBY dispute. The people who want to keep out the "undesirables" have CC&Rs to use as their legal lever.

Myrtle Beach area HOA owners complain

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2014/10/30/4571043/myrtle-beach-area-hoa-complaints.html

Guess what? There was another public meeting about possible legislation at which people living in HOAs and condos complained about developers and board members making their lives miserable.

If I am reading all this correctly, they can be assured that more legislative tinkering will take place at some point in the near future.  That is all.

Developer buys scores of Detroit's worst houses in $3.2million 'blight bundle'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2813166/The-blight-bundle-6-300-Detroit-s-worst-houses-real-estate-developer-just-bought-3-2million.html


"Anywhere else, a property developer who buys a bundle of foreclosed houses, abandoned factories and disused churches for a mere $500 a piece would be hailed as a genius.
But this is Detroit. And Herb Strather's $3.2million purchase of 6,350 homes is being called foolhardy.  To be sure, there are plenty of gems in the city's 'blight bundle.' A 170,00-square-foot factory that's still in good shape, a three-story brick home built in 1915 that most recently sold for $185,000, a lovely Tudor-style house that's ready to move into and a five-bedroom that simply needs a new roof.  But city officials tell the Detroit News that 2,000 of the properties are vacant lots. More than 3,000 will need to be torn down immediately...The city put strenuous rules on the buys of the 'blight bundle' requiring the buyer to either demolish and clean up all 6,350 properties within the next six months or offer a development plan. 'Now what we have to do is find out if indeed this group is serious about taking on such a task. And if they're willing to do so, we're willing to listen,' Wayne County Chief Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski told the Huffington Post. 
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And at an estimated cost of $10,000 for each demo, the development group could have to pay up to $30 million just to clear the ground--almost ten times their current investment. Is that how things will unfold, or is there a plan to cherry-pick the nicest properties and profit from them piecemeal?  The city is looking at major redevelopment, but private investors may well be thinking about making money off the good stuff.

Marin County HOA nixes solar panels. Because.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26758081/marin-resident-denied-solar-panels-by-homeowners-association

Same old story. The HOA has virtually unfettered discretion to say no.   They did.

Flagpole fight attracts attention of Hancock County prosecutor - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Flagpole fight attracts attention of Hancock County prosecutor - 13 WTHR Indianapolis: HANCOCK COUNTY - There's a new twist in a veteran's fight to keep his flagpole despite threats by his homeowners association. The homeowner says it stands for freedom, but the homeowners association says it violates policy.

The story generated hundreds of comments on WTHR's social media pages. Now it appears the prosecutor in Hancock County could join the front yard feud with a civil lawsuit.

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This is the first known instance of a local prosecutor jumping into an HOA flag flap amid the usual negative media attention and public comment directed at the HOA. According to the report, the prosecutor's office is giving the HOA until November 1st to back down.

Worst abuse of adhesion contracts ever?

http://www.citylab.com/work/2014/10/mapping-where-jimmy-johns-ex-employees-are-forbidden-to-make-sandwiches/381634/

Jimmy John's makes the kids who slap sandwiches together sign a non-competition agreement that effectively makes them unemployable in the  fast food industry for two years after they quit.

Armored vehicle helps collect civil judgment in small town

Armored vehicle helps collect civil judgment in small town

"When officials in the tiny Town of Stettin in Marathon County went to collect a civil judgment from 75-year-old Roger Hoeppner this month, they sent 24 armed officers. And an armored military vehicle."

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The police chief says that while Mr. Hoeppner was not known to be violent, he was "argumentative."  That's why the police are not apologetic for this ludicrous show of military force. The old police motto "To Protect and Serve" only makes sense these days if you realize that the police are protecting and serving themselves much of the time.

Overmyer v. Frick--new theory for HOA rights?

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=405&invol=174

The Democratic candidate for the US House of Representatives from the 11th District in Pennsylvania is a civil rights attorney named Andy Ostrowski.  He has a theory that HOAs violate a principle he sees in the US Supreme Court case of Overmyer v. Frick, which is linked above.  The issue in the case involved an Ohio law that allowed people--usually debtors trying to get one more chance from their creditor--to give up all their due process rights and confess judgment in advance, if they defaulted one more time.  This was legal under an old doctrine called "cognovit."  The Supreme Court ruled that  cognovit notes were not unconstitutional, provided that the waivers of due process were adequate.  Ostowski thinks that maybe HOAs and condos require inadequate notice and the agreements are unconstitutional.  Interesting theory, but I think it is far-fetched. The problem is that the court ultimately ruled in favor of cognovit.

Here is Ostrowski's statement of how he thinks this applies:
https://www.facebook.com/Floridiansact/posts/637732836340842


And here is the court's explanation for upholding the cognovit provision. You be the judge.

"Even if, for present purposes, we assume that the standard for waiver in a corporate-property-right case of this kind is the same standard applicable to waiver in a criminal proceeding, that is, that it be voluntary, knowing, and intelligently made, Brady v. United States, [405 U.S. 174, 186]   397 U.S. 742, 748 (1970); Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S., at 444 , or "an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege," Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464 (1938); Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S., at 439 , and even if, as the Court has said in the civil area, "[w]e do not presume acquiescence in the loss of fundamental rights," Ohio Bell Tel. Co. v. Public Utilities Comm'n, 301 U.S. 292, 307 (1937), that standard was fully satisfied here.

"Overmyer is a corporation. Its corporate structure is complicated. Its activities are widespread. As its counsel in the Ohio post-judgment proceeding stated, it has built many warehouses in many States and has been party to "tens of thousands of contracts with many contractors." This is not a case of unequal bargaining power or overreaching. The Overmyer-Frick agreement, from the start, was not a contract of adhesion. There was no refusal on Frick's part to deal with Overmyer unless Overmyer agreed to a cognovit. The initial contract between the two corporations contained no confession-of-judgment clause. When, later, the first installment note from Overmyer came into being, it, too, contained no provision of that kind. It was only after Frick's work was completed and accepted by Overmyer, and when Overmyer again became delinquent in its payments on the matured claim and asked for further relief, that the second note containing the clause was executed.

"Overmyer does not contend here that it or its counsel was not aware of the significance of the note and of the cognovit provision. Indeed, it could not do so in the light of the facts. Frick had suggested the provision in October 1966, but the first note, readjusting the progress payments, was executed without it. It appeared in the second note delivered by Overmyer's own counsel in return for substantial benefits and consideration to Overmyer. Particularly important, it would seem, was the [405 U.S. 174, 187]   release of Frick's mechanic's liens, but there were, in addition, the monetary relief as to amount, time, and interest rate.

"Overmyer may not have been able to predict with accuracy just how or when Frick would proceed under the confession clause if further default by Overmyer occurred, as it did, but this inability does not in itself militate against effective waiver. See Brady v. United States, 397 U.S., at 757 ; McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 772 -773 (1970).

"We therefore hold that Overmyer, in its execution and delivery to Frick of the second installment note containing the cognovit provision, voluntarily, intelligently, and knowingly waived the rights it otherwise possessed to prejudgment notice and hearing, and that it did so with full awareness of the legal consequences.

Insurance Co. v. Morse, 20 Wall. 445 (1874), affords no comfort to the petitioners. That case concerned the constitutional validity of a state statute that required a foreign insurance company, desiring to qualify in the State, to agree not to remove any suit against it to a federal court. The Court quite naturally struck down the statute, for it thwarted the authority vested by Congress in the federal courts and violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause."

Delaware ombudsman office getting started

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2014/10/20/ombudsman-weigh-homeowner-association-disputes/17639817/

This legislation is only a few months old. One more state goes the ombudsman route, giving unit owners someplace to turn other than the courts. It is a necessary reform, but not sufficient to address the unmet needs.

You need this condo pony

http://www.npr.org/2014/10/21/357816986/you-definitely-need-this-condo-pony-and-other-products-from-skymaul?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2045

And to think I never knew there was such a thing as a condo pony.

Property manager accused of stealing $180,000 from HOAs

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/chamblee-man-allegedly-stole-50000-homeowners-asso/nhpD3/?ref=cbTopWidget

"A Chamblee property management company owner is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from homeowner’s associations. 

So far, police in Dunwoody and Chamblee tell Channel 2 Action News reporter Mike Petchenik they’ve filed charges against Michael Sisson, and they say more charges are possible. Darwin Johnson told Petchenik his Midtown condo association hired Sisson a few years ago to manage their property near Piedmont Park."

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There have been so many such incidents around the country that I have  lost count. Industry representatives  invariably say these are "isolated incidents," which would be true if you stretch the meaning  of  "isolated" to include every state where you find a significant number of HOAs and/or condos.

Sarah Jessica angers homeowners association - Yahoo Maktoob News

Sarah Jessica angers homeowners association - Yahoo Maktoob News: Parker returned to the building earlier this month to stage a photoshoot for her footwear brand, placing the shoes on the steps and posting pictures of them on her Instagram.com page.

However, the stunt has infuriated the local homeowners association, who claim the actress failed to obtain proper permission to gain access to the steps, reports contactmusic.com.

Gerald Banu, president of the Perry Street Association, said: "I heard about the shoot. They didn't get the permission from the owner. The situation with 'SATC' visitors is still very intense.
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Sex, shoes and the HOA. Maybe this will lead to a Hollywood production. Been a while since the Falls at Arcadia X-Files episode.

Veteran not backing down after homeowners association says his flag pole must go | Fox 59

Veteran not backing down after homeowners association says his flag pole must go | Fox 59: “We do not tell anyone they cannot fly a flag. What we are having a problem with is the flag pole. Flag poles are not allowed in this association,” said Kaye Eckert, president of the Fieldstone HOA board.

Eckert said the association has tried to compromise.

In September, they sent a letter saying the couple could keep the flag pole, if they paid a $500 fine to cover legal costs. Bob Willits would not budge.

“That flag is very personal to me,” said Willits, “That means a lot to me.”

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More bad press for Privatopia, Indiana secktor. Film at 10 on Fox 59, Indianapolis.

HOA troubles? Legislators want to hear them : News : CarolinaLive.com

HOA troubles? Legislators want to hear them : News : CarolinaLive.com: Have any concerns, questions or issues with your homeowners' association?

The Horry County Legislative Delegation will host a public hearing on homeowners' association issues on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. in Horry Georgetown Technical College's Burroughs and Chapin Auditorium.

Connie Turner, administrative assistant for the delegation, said the format will be question and answer.
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Trouble in Privatopia, South Carolina sector? The Legislature wants to know.