FL: Guilt by association
Homeowner associations
throughout our region and
state need to adjust to
reality: The days of
justifying lush green lawns,
all year long, are gone. The
future -- the present,
actually -- is in
Florida-friendly yards
resistant to drought and
less dependent on e...
CA: Police help
gang-infested community
reclaim ground
The homeowners association,
usually the first line of
defense against neighbors
who bring in blight,
generally attracts no more
than a handful of members to
its meetings....
CA: Village Board president
grills attorney in 3 hour
televised interrogation
Although Monday's special
meeting of Laguna Woods
Village's Third Mutual Board
was billed as an opportunity
for mutual directors to ask
questions of community
attorney Bill Hart of Hart,
King and Coldren of Santa
Ana, the televised meeting
quickly became an in...
VA: Parking decision angers
HOA members
A recent decision by a
Prince William County
homeowners association to
eliminate street parking on
Towering Oak Way has become
such an issue for people
living there that resident
Arif Husain joked he can
only invite two guests at a
time to his house....
OH: Copley Township
concerned with chemical
vapors in condo basements
But a September report named
another danger from the
chemicals,
tetrachloroethylene and
trichloroethylene, which can
cause myriad health
problems, including skin
irritation, naseau and
sometimes even death. Vapors
from the chemicals have
entered the basements ...
Spice Up the Condo Meetings
Q Herndon: I have recently
moved into a condo and
noticed that maybe 1 percent
of owners show up for
monthly meetings. Are there
any ways we can boost
attendance at condo
association meetings? The
only thing my board has come
up with is raising fees 10
percent...
FL: Concrete blocks save
condo from eroding beach
Bernie Vukelich was relieved
on Thursday. His South Palm
Beach condo had been
threatened by heavy surf,
but was saved by engineers
who rushed in wet cement,
sand and concrete blocks the
size of baby grand pianos to
protect the building's
foundations....
CA: Homeowners associations
countywide are hit by
foreclosure fallout
San Diego County's
mushrooming number of
foreclosures is starting to
hobble homeowners
associations large and small
as cash-strapped owners
cease paying their monthly
dues....
MA: Towering assessments
leave waterfront residents
divided
It's the condo owners'
nightmare: The building's
heating and cooling system
needs an overhaul, so
everybody must pay a huge
one-time assessment. But the
500-plus owners at Harbor
Towers on Boston's
waterfront are facing the
mother of all bills: from
$70,000 ...
NH: Clothesline: Solar
Device or Eyesore? (Audio)
A battle is brewing in
neighborhoods across the
nation to bring back what
was once part of America's
backyard landscape - the
clothesline. This green
movement touts the
clothesline as an
environmentally friendly way
to dry laundry....
NV: Homeowner association's
president sees the future,
and it is dry
In 1999, Monte went to the
other homeowners in Sunrise
Villas 6 and said he'd like
to replace some of the
complex's grass with
landscaping more suitable to
the desert. "I said: Just
trust me." And they did.
"Now they tell me they love
it, they like it better ...
FL: Second fraud case looms
for jailed Davie condo
president
A Davie condominium
president, who was arrested
this week and accused of
using forged checks to steal
from his condo association,
might have used a similar
scheme to take money from
another condo,...
FCC gets earful on ownership
rules
The FCC rejected cablers and
building owners' arguments
that consumers do receive
the benefit of competition,
since cable companies vie
with each other to land an
exclusive contract with
buildings with multiple
units....
CA: Canada's flag causes
local flap
For one couple in an
Orangeville luxury
condominium, according to
information obtained by this
paper, it's a time to come
under fire for displaying
the Canadian flag in their
window "to Honour the Men
and Women serving our
Country in Afghanistan,"...
FL: Man accused of condo
fraud pleads guilty
The first man charged in a
$1.4 million condominium
kickback scandal has become
the first to end his
criminal case, pleading
guilty to organized
fraud....
AZ: Surprise loses $800K
revenue
Some Surprise residents
could face higher HOA fees
as a result of a major water
billing error. "It's
ridiculous," resident Thomas
Porter said. "Some people
didn't even live there when
this mistake took place --
you can't ask them to pay.
No way!"...
FL: $300,000 Water Bill
Worries Condo Residents
Time is running out for
hundreds of northwest
Miami-Dade County residents
who call the Sunset Palm
Villas home. The tenants
have been fighting for
months to keep water flowing
to the 267 units that make
up the complex, but the
Miami-Dade Water and Sewer
Depart...
PA: An autistic boy's mom
said she won't tolerate
harassment about her
eviction
Shelly Spann says she can
take the criticism in a
fight over being evicted
because of her noisy,
autistic 9-year-old son, but
she won't put up with an
attack on her children.
Spann called city police
Monday after someone taped a
few pages of "harassing"
commen...
CO: Propane grills on
Boulder condo's balconies
made fire worse, says
official
Having propane tanks on
balconies in most condos and
apartments is illegal. But
the code is difficult to
enforce. "The City of
Boulder has thousands and
thousands of apartments and
condominium complexes and
it's tough to get around to
them all," said Lowrey...
NY: Mother of autistic boy
faces eviction
She said she's tired of
fighting with her neighbors
who have pushed to get her
evicted from Monarch Mills
Condominiums in York because
her autistic 9-year-old son,
Reggie, screams, cries and
has loud outbursts....
CO: Old clothesline is still
hanging tough
In response to the
property-value-lowering
connotation of clotheslines,
a good number of the
country's 300,000 homeowner
associations have covenants
prohibiting or discouraging
outdoor clotheslines along
with items such as visible
trash cans, open garage
doors...
FL: Condo tiff involves
timing, $100,000 deposit
More than two years later,
with no building to move
into, they're suing
developer Bob McGrath
because his delays in
constructing Serena Bay have
broken their contract and
cost them a shot at the
market....
Green vs. aesthetics:
Neighbors, associations
clash
In neighborhoods across the
country, there's a battle
brewing: the
environmentalists vs. the
aesthetes. As "green"-minded
homeowners move to put in
new energy-efficient
windows, solar panels and
light-reflecting roofs, they
are bumping up against
neighbors an...
VA: Loophole found against
builders
A routine housekeeping
resolution set off a debate
this week that could empower
homeowner associations. A
bold subdivision for work
force housing hangs in the
balance. The upshot is that
HOAs may be able to stop
developers from expanding
neighborhoods beyond t...
TX: Homeowner asks for rules
to be enforced
A resident of The Hills
neighborhood in Lakeway is
making noise about a
homeowner's association
ordinance which he says is
not being enforced. Section
9.06 of The Hill's
neighborhood charter says
sporting equipment such as
basketball goals, soccer
goals and ot...
CA: Columbia Area Residents
Move to Sue Homeowner and
Recall Their Board
A crowd of 150 homeowners
from Castro Valley's
Columbia area filled Canyon
Middle School's music room
last week to discuss how to
deal with two issues that
have dogged many of them for
some time....
AZ: Community upset with HOA
gives boot to 2 leaders
Residents of a large Gilbert
community, who were fed up
with how their homeowners'
association ran meetings and
handled requests to change
house façades, ousted their
board president and vice
president Wednesday
night....
WA: Downtown condo owners
cry foul
The Heritage Place
Condominium Association is
suing developer Heritage
Place LLC and Craig E.
Angelo, a managing partner
of the company. The amended
suit, filed Oct. 9 in Clark
County, also alleges Angelo
withheld information
regarding the defects,
improperly ...
GA: Trying to keep community
alive
Perhaps it is because this
is my first house, or
perhaps because I am a
hopeless optimist. In any
case, seeing such a lack of
interest in getting anything
accomplished, replaced
rather with hapless
bickering of only
self-interest, I jumped on a
grenade. I joi...
FCC To Vote To End Exclusive
Cable-Condo Building Deals
The Federal Communications
Commission is set to vote to
end exclusive deals between
cable companies and
apartment buildings to
provide video service to
tenants in those
buildings....
See all of the
latest national, legal,
regional and state news
Recruiting
Directors