Nevada state legislator proposes to repeal all HOA and condo laws

Ira Hansen, a far-right Nevada state legislator, has introduced a bill through his control of the judiciary committee that would repeal all the Nevada statutes that regulate common interest housing. This article explains that the intent is to somehow magically have somebody else do this, because the state legislature can't be bothered.  This proposal is so dumb that only somebody of Hansen's caliber could have produced it.  Nevada has a fairly comprehensive set of laws on HOAs and condos, and all of it was put in place to deal with real problems.  Now Hansen wants to scrap the whole thing.

http://www.scrippsmedia.com/ktnv/news/Nevada-lawmakers-aim-to-delegate-HOA-disputes-to-lower-level-298479291.html

You can read up on Hansen at Wikipedia. He's a piece of work. Former right wing radio talk show host and columnist.  Here's a taste:
"In his columns, Hansen has written that the Oklahoma City bombing was a false flag operation orchestrated by the administration of President Clinton, that women do not belong in the United States Armed Forces, that President Obama is a "negro", that he owns and flies a Confederate battle flag, that gays are disproportionally prone to engaging in child abuse, that a "grossly disproportionate" number of crimes are committed by Latinos, and that the relationship between "Negroes and Democrats" is that of a "master-slave relationship with the benevolent master knowing what’s best for his simple minded darkies."

Mandatory water restrictions for California

HOA boards take heed. You will allow your inmates to let their lawns turn brown. You will allow lawns to be turned into drought resistant landscape and even hardscape. At least until California makes up its 11 trillion gallon water deficit. And yes, you read that right.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/01/us/california-water-restrictions-drought/

Drones present opportunity, challenge for community associations - Chicago Tribune

Drones present opportunity, challenge for community associations - Chicago Tribune



Drones in the hands of condo and HOA boards?  What could possibly go wrong?



"In the not-too-distant future, community associations could launch camera-equipped, unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones, for many routine tasks. They will be able to examine buildings for leaks and damage, check on the performances of contractors and find illegal barbecue grills on upper balconies."

TEPCO not paying for Fukushima cleanup

This is how capitalism works.  Corporations make profits and get to keep them.   Corporations generate huge "externalities," meaning massive costs that hurt others, but those costs get socialized.  In this case, the gigantic utility company that caused the Fukushima catastrophe--which is far from over--has fobbed off the cleanup cost onto  local governments.

"TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. has only shouldered 2 percent of the 76.1 billion yen ($638.8 million) spent on radiation decontamination operations conducted by municipality offices since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, Environment Ministry officials said Sunday. The operator of the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has effectively refused to cover the costs of removing radioactive soil and other waste incurred by local governments in areas affected by the disaster, saying it is confirming whether such payments are required by law."

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150330p2g00m0dm031000c.html

Homeowners face HOA fines for children playing in driveway and on sidewalk

No, really.  It's true.  Having solved all other problems, this HOA has decided to prevent children from playing.  Why would anybody, with children or not, live in a place like this?


 "Some Chula Vista homeowners contacted Team 10, furious that their homeowners association is fining them if their children are caught playing outside on the driveway or sidewalk. Under the Agave and Saguaro HOA's rules, there are no wheeled toys -- including, but not limited to, bicycles, scooters, rollerblades, skateboards or roller skates -- allowed to be ridden in the HOA's common areas. Common areas include driveways, sidewalks and streets in the complex. According to the property manager, it's for safety reasons, but resident Karen Deviolini said, "You're fined because you live in a place where kids can't be kids."

http://www.10news.com/news/investigations/chula-vista-homeowners-face-hoa-fines-for-children-playing-on-driveway-sidewalk

Is suburban sprawl stifling the US economy?

This Vox article references a number of studies that suggest the answer may be "yes."


http://www.vox.com/2015/3/26/8291889/suburban-sprawl-economy

What is the most private city in the world?

London?  Dubai?  The new cities in the US that are comprised of private, gated communities?

"The word “private” is derived from the ancient Greek word idiotes, which means somebody who does not participate in public life. In ancient Greece, private life was confined to the home; the public, democratic life of citizens took place in the polis or city, and in the agora or assembly. The contemporary gated community, which focuses on privatising the experience of home as much as possible, fits well within this classical definition of private. There are literally millions of people living in gated communities: they have become the model of choice in the many societies around the world that are subject to extreme wealth inequalities."



http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/26/what-most-private-city-world

How Wall Street used swaps to get rich at the expense of cities

Thanks to a helpful correspondent for flagging this.  Since the late 1970s cities have been trying to find ways to compensate for lost revenue sources.  The property tax revolt, suburbanization, loss of federal grants in aid, globalization of the economy, and other forces have left many cities in  precarious condition. CIDs are one of those compensation strategies.  And here is another one:  cities are getting hooked up with Wall Street investment banks that promise to create gains by engaging in interest rate swaps.  For example,  a city has outstanding fixed rate municipal bonds, and an investment bank--Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, or another one of these financial vampires--proposes to swap them for variable rate bonds that are linked to LIBOR or some other index, that pays the bond holders a lower interest rate.  Sounds good, right?  Except that local governments have been known to lose  a fortune doing it.  Chicago, led by former Wall Streeter and now Mayor Rahm Emanuel,  is in deep on these swaps.  Emanuel thinks he's smarter than everybody. But the swaps aren't turing out  to be such a good deal. Here's a detailed article taking the whole thing apart. 

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/03/getting-rich-expense-cities.html#comments

And for the worst case scenario, consider Jefferson County, Alabama.   After a series of swaps orchestrated by J. P. Morgan to pay for a new sewer system, they went bankrupt.   Until Detroit, it  was the largest local government bankruptcy in US history.

Condo requiring DNA samples of all pets so they can test their poop!

"The Rotunda, a condominium building in Tyson's Corner, Virginia has implemented a policy in which all new pet owners who are moving into the building will be required to have their animal's mouths swabbed in the presence of a building authority. If pet waste is discovered outside of the building, the waste will then be tested and matched up to the guilty animal's DNA."
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Actually this nonsense has been going on for some time.  Obviously people should clean up after their dogs, but somehow in my HOA-free neighborhood everybody nearly always does.  Now there are companies peddling this silly service and of course all the costs end up falling on the owner of the miscreant dog.  Increasingly life for the American middle class is one boondoggle after another--red light cameras, usurious loans, grifting cable TV companies, fake calls threatening IRS suits, and of course chiseling condo associations and HOAs.

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/apartment-building-require-dna-samples-all-pets#tmhmdj:pDFL

Garden City movement aims at accreditation

The Garden City movement was the inspiration for common interest housing. Ebenezer Howard, a 19th century utopian thinker, wanted to build new, self-sufficient cities on undeveloped land that would allow people to have  the best of city and country living in one place under a benevolent managerial government.. Two of these cities, Letchworth and Welwyn, were built, and the idea came to the US, where real estate developers took it in a differert direction. I tell that story in my first book on HOAs.  But the Garden City Movement still exists, as evidenced by this artcle concerning an attempt to create accreditation for "real" Garden Cities.  They even have a Letchworth Declaration that lays out the governing principles.

http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/david-thorpe/1057256/new-alliance-aims-set-accreditation-standards-garden-cities?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=hootsuite_tweets

Colorado Lawmakers Debate Construction Defects Bill CBS Denver

Colorado Lawmakers Debate Construction Defects Bill  CBS Denver

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The quest for the waterproof condo continues. Hint: solutions aren't likely to be found in state legislatures.

4 found guilty in Las Vegas homeowner association fraud trial - www.ktnv.com

4 found guilty in Las Vegas homeowner association fraud trial - www.ktnv.com: LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A federal jury found a Las Vegas lawyer and three co-defendants guilty of conspiracy and wire fraud in a sweeping scheme to fraudulently control homeowners' associations and steer business to favored contractors and attorneys.
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Breaking news in Las Vegas HOA corruption scandal. Film and perp walk at 10. Cuff 'em, Danno.

HOA Rules - Why is it Necessary in Home Buying

HOA Rules - Why is it Necessary in Home Buying

A couple of people flagged this recently, from a 2010 on line article in the International Business Times that extols the virtues of HOAs:



"Each homeowners association has covenants, conditions and restrictions or also known as CCR. They are normally related to deed restrictions or restrictive covenants. All things pointed out in the agreement will firmly be imposed to homeowners in order to maintain the property as well as the value of the community. It restricts the building materials to be utilized in constructing homes and the kind of home upgrades allowed. Moreover, they set the allowable number of occupants per house, the kind of pets that are permitted and the race of persons who can stay in the community." [my emphasis]

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In my first book on HOAs I devoted considerable effort to documenting the close connection between HOAs and enforcement of race restrictive covenants from about 1900 to 1950.  Whenever industry advocates recount the glorious history of HOAs they jump straight from Athenian Democracy, the "golden hills of Rome" and the New England town meeting to the present, and somehow manage to leave out the fact that for decades in the US, one of the main purposes of HOAs was to keep African-Americans from moving into white neighborhoods.

Welcome to 'Libertarian Island': Inside the Frightening Economic Dreams of Silicon Valley's Super Rich

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/welcome-libertarian-island-inside-frightening-economic-dreams-silicon-valleys

"...there is currently a similar movement happening in real life, and it is being funded by another rather eccentric businessman, the Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel. As some may already know, Thiel has teamed up with the grandson of libertarian icon Milton Friedman, Patri Friedman, to try and develop a “seastead,” or a permanent and autonomous dwelling at sea. Friedman formed the “Seasteading Institute” in 2008, and Thiel has donated more than a million dollars to fund its creation. It is all very utopian, to say the least. But on the website, they claim a floating city could be just years away. The real trick is finding a proper location to build this twenty-first century atlantis. Currently, they are attempting to find a host nation that will allow the floating city somewhat close to land, for the calm waters and ability to easily travel to and from the seastead."
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These people are free to shower our elected officials with money in order to protect themselves against taxation and regulation.  This starves governments of the money they need to provide essential services and infrastructure. At the same time, these libertarian gazillionaires are planning on fleeing the society they are currently wrecking.

South Carolina grapples with HOA complaints

http://www.blufftontoday.com/bluffton-news/2015-03-15/sc-grapples-homeowner-association-complaints#.VQeEs2yCOrW

"COLUMBIA — Neighborhood Nazi. Condo Commando. Bullies. The dictatorship.

Those were some of the terms property owners and officials used to describe bad actors in South Carolina’s thousands of community associations on Thursday, as lawmakers debate how to regulate them.

“It has become my worst nightmare,” said Nadine Zacharie of Edgefield County’s Lake Trenton. She used to live in Augusta’s historic Hill section, but has spent the last 10 years in Lake Trenton, calling it “10 years of roughshod bullying.”

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Yet another state moves toward increased regulation of CIDs. 

Police say naked man standing in doorway is not breaking law, ne - wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina

Police say naked man standing in doorway is not breaking law, ne - wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina: This week, neighbors were able to capture pictures and video of the man standing at his door. They are hoping with these images the Homeowners Association can file some type of nuisance complaint.
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Call the HOA!

Private police, coming to a subdivision near you

Since the early 1980s, this country has been in the grip of the ideology of privatism, which is the moral conviction that anything "private" is better than anything "public."  In practice, that usually means handing over government functions to private corporations, and we call that privatization.  But in other cases, it means that government just abdicates its responsibilities on the assumption that somehow non-governmental actors will take over the function that government is no longer performing.  That's what has been going on with the HOA/condo revolution--local governments and developers set up private associations that everybody assumes will just happily carry out all sorts of government functions, with little or no oversight, training, or other institutional support.  However, in reality there are a lot of problems with that assumption, and the hands-off, out of sight, out of mind attitude toward HOAs and condo associations is being questioned because many associations are disorganized, out of control, underfunded, understaffed, and subject to takeover and manipulation (take a look at all my previous posts on the huge HOA takeover/fraud ring in Las Vegas for only one example). That's why so many state legislatures have been creating oversight frameworks for private governments, including regulation of associations' internal processes, ombudsman offices, and public education.  It's not much, but it does amount to a recognition that a lot of associations are struggling and even failing.

Probably the most dangerous aspect of this HOA takeover of government functions is the rise of private policing in these associations.  Ward Lucas has a post on this referencing this article from  he Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/private-police-carry-guns-and-make-arrests-and-their-ranks-are-swelling/2015/02/28/29f6e02e-8f79-11e4-a900-9960214d4cd7_story.html

Here in Illinois, in 2013 the state Supreme Court made a truly bizarre decision (Poris v. Lake Holiday POA) that allows HOA private police to make traffic stops and issue citations.  The decision is remarkable for its ignorance.  I wrote a post on it at the time.  The court never  even mentioned the Illinois statutes that govern HOAs, never referenced any of the major cases from all across the nation on the limits of CID private government, and refused even to consider what the limits are of this power. For example, what are the rights of citizens to resist these private security guards?  What force can the citizen and the pseudo-cop  use against each other?

I think nobody learned much from George Zimmerman killing  Trayvon Martin.  Zimmerman was a "neighborhood watch" volunteer that the HOA told people to call.  He was also armed and, we now know, prone to nasty encounters with other people, especially his significant others.  What better example can there be of the risks involved  in these encounters?  Self-appointed vigilantes and untrained security guards--the bottom of the law enforcement food chain--are running around stopping people.  Couple that with the fact that many civilians are carrying concealed weapons. This is a bad mix.

The problem would be solved if  local governments would reclaim their basic responsibility to enforce the law in their jurisdictions.  But law enforcement costs money, and if people don't want to pay taxes to  support public local government, they will get what they are paying for: the George Zimmermans of the world, coming to a subdivision near you.

Nevada Supreme Court justices deny tipping HOA conspirator to FBI raid

The trial judge prevented a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter from asking a defense attorney who the justice was...but six of the seven have said it wasn't them. 

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/state-supreme-court-justices-deny-tipping-hoa-conspirator-fbi-raids

"The identity of the Nevada Supreme Court justice alleged to have tipped off a construction defect lawyer to the federal homeowners association investigation in 2008 remained a secret Tuesday. This came as six of the seven justices on the high court when the late Nancy Quon was thought to have received the tip denied speaking to Quon about the high-profile investigation.

Witness: Nevada Supreme Court justice warned HOA conspirators of raid

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/nevada-justice-warned-hoa-conspirators-police-raids-witness-says

I've been wondering why this entire case has stayed out of the national news media.  How about this, journalists?  Is this enough to get your attention?  A witness testified that a justice of the Nevada Supreme Court tipped off attorney Nancy Quon (who later committed suicide) of the pending FBI raid aimed at the Las Vegas HOA fraud ring.

Nevada justice warned HOA conspirators of police raids, witness says | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada justice warned HOA conspirators of police raids, witness says | Las Vegas Review-Journal: A witness in the trial of four defendants charged in the massive scheme to take over and defraud homeowners associations testified Monday that she was told a Nevada Supreme Court justice tipped off the late attorney Nancy Quon to the FBI investigation.

Deborah Genato, who pleaded guilty in the scheme, testified she learned that Quon was alerted beforehand to FBI-led raids across the valley in September 2008. Quon’s law office was among the many sites agents searched.

Genato said her boss, Lisa Kim, who ran a company that managed several HOAs linked to the multimillion-dollar scheme, told her about the tip. Kim, who also pleaded guilty, is on the government’s witness list, but has not been called to testify for prosecutors, who plan to wrap up their case as early as Tuesday.

Four remaining defendants, including longtime attorney Keith Gregory, are standing trial on conspiracy and fraud charges in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge James Mahan.

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This years-long tawdry tale of corruption in Privatopia, Nevada sector, is worthy of a House of Cards-like series.