ROCKLIN (CBS13) – A Rocklin resident has asked the City Council to consider a ban on smoking that some say goes way too far.
The Rocklin City Council was asked to consider making it against the law for smokers to smoke anywhere outside on their property.
Rocklin City Manager Rick Horst said the city has “no intention of considering the matter.”
One homeowner complained about smoke coming from a neighbors’ backyard, saying it caused health problems for their kids.
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At last. A city official with common sense. There is hope.
Palmer owned and operated Home Owner Association Services, which provided management services and managed accounts for homeowner associations in Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Illinois.
Prosecutors say when Palmer closed the company's Kansas City office in March 2011, $751,302 was missing from the accounts of 32 homeowner associations.
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Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link to yet another of the dozens and dozens of HOA/condo manager frauds that have taken place in recent years. But remember: all of them are isolated instances that do not point to the need for government oversight of this industry.
A report this week showing rampant foreclosure abuse in San Francisco reflects similar levels of lender fraud and faulty documentation across the United States, say experts and officials who have done studies in other parts of the country.
The audit of almost 400 foreclosures in San Francisco found that 84 percent of them appeared to be illegal, according to the study released by the California city on Wednesday.
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Incredible, isn't it? Where are the criminal prosecutions of these people?
"As the Act's sunset date of July 1, 2012 approaches, liability concerns relating to statutory warranties on units and common elements, unfunded reserves, past due assessments or deficit funding obligations, the acts and/or omissions of the prior developer's board of directors, and the like, are likely to increase and to add downward pressures on the still distressed condominium market."
With gas prices hitting record highs the past few years, long commutes into city centers are becoming pricier, and current and future homeowners are thinking more about proximity to work and play when looking for housing. There's a new emphasis on smaller, better located homes, Morici says, prompting more construction of multi-family residences closer to cities.
The legacy of the housing bubble and the still-unsteady jobs market has also played a role. "Many young workers may need to move to stay employed and are wary of being tied to a house they may not be able to sell," Morici says. "Hence, more young families are opting to rent."
All of this adds up to more challenges for the housing market when it comes to selling through the enormous overhang of supply, and calls into the question the dynamics of the housing market going forward. After all, rental housing tends to be concentrated in urban areas, not the suburbs.
So does a new preference (and in some cases necessity) to rent mean an end to suburbs and a revival of downtown, city living?
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Thanks to Fred Pilot for sending this link. James Howard Kunstler has been making this point for years now, but in much more scathing terms. He thinks that instead of our young people learning how to make cities more livable they should be learning how to take care of the mules they will soon be riding.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Title 33, chapter 16, article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 33-1817, to read:
33-1817. Community authority over public roadways; exemption
A. Notwithstanding any provision in the community documents, after the period of declarant control, an association has no authority over and shall not regulate any roadway for which the ownership has been dedicated to or is otherwise held by a governmental entity.
B. This section does not apply to a planned community located in an unincorporated area of a county.WASHINGTON - Scammers are trying to take advantage of the multi-state mortgage service settlement announced last week.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said the calls and emails about scams began very soon after the settlement was announced. The scammers try and convince consumers that, for a fee, they can get some of that money announced in the settlement with major banks.
"It's unbelievable how scammers prey on people who are vulnerable and have already been hurt," said Cuccinelli's spokesman, Brian Gottstein. "These people have no souls."
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Well, you would have a hard time finding a soul in anybody throughout this entire process, from the mortgage originators to the investment banks that created the garbage mortgage backed securities, and on to the ratings agencies that called it AAA and right through the whole line of policy makers who deregulated the industry and left consumers completely vulnerable to predators, and then on to the phony "mortgage rescue" fraudsters, the mortgage foreclosure mills with their sleazy robosigners, and on and on. It is no surprise that yet another bunch of con artists are preying on people.
Top law enforcement officials in several states are signaling they will pressure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to correct what is widely seen as one of the biggest deficiencies of the $25 billion mortgage settlement announced on Thursday: It simply doesn't help that many homeowners.
Borrowers whose loans are backed by the government-controlled mortgage giants -- nearly half of all outstanding mortgages in the United States -- are not eligible for payouts under the deal. State officials who negotiated the deal say they could not convince Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the loan giants, to join onto the settlement because they are steadfastly opposed to principal reductions -- loan write-downs for borrowers whose homes are at risk of foreclosure.
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I believe the mystery quasi-settlement is supposed to cover less than 8% of the nation's mortgages. What is all the publicity about, if the GSE's aren't going to help out underwater owners?
LOVEJOY, Ga. —
Communities left incomplete by the housing bust are causing more problems than just empty and overgrown lots, according to homeowners. Some residents in Clayton County said they're also leading to potentially dangerous conditions. Melanie Scott, a homeowner in the Lovejoy Crossing subdivision, said she and her neighbors have had to fight for basic services, including street lights. Scott said residents also had to go to the city of Lovejoy to get a dark, undeveloped corner of their own neighborhood barricaded after a stream of illegal activity."Colorado legislators received so many complaints about HOAs that in 2010, they voted to create an HOA Information Office and Resource Center to gather complaints and help homeowners Through Dec. 1, the center had collected 478 complaints, a third of which named managers. Many of the rest centered on poor management practices — from a lack of transparency to ignoring homeowners' concerns About 2 million people in Colorado live under more than 8,000 HOAs, according to state estimates.
"At the CAI's request, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies is conducting a "sunrise review" to determine whether HOA managers should be regulated. Nine states and the District of Columbia license or regulate community managers."
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When CAI starts asking for regulation, you know the situation is bad. I think many of the mom and pop property management firms are struggling these days. Financial problems trickle up from the owners to the association to the professionals. If the owners can't fund the association, the association can't hire professional management. I realize managers and lawyers do everything possible to sign up associations as clients and start the fee machine, but with all the unfinished subdivisions and foreclosures eventually owners just can't afford management fees. Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.
