ID: Woman wants neighborhood
groups to make decisions in
public
Sparks, who lived through a
bitter dispute over
landscaping in her own
Foothills subdivision, is
pushing for the state to
require open meetings
between homeowners
associations and
residents....
TN: Light Years Apart -
HOA's and holiday lighting
problems
Dr. And Mrs. Sheng Tchou and
neighbor Timothy
Vandersommen have chosen to
go it alone against the
Hunter's Lake Homeowner
Association, which voted in
November to enforce a policy
forbidding the use of any
Christmas lights on the
exterior of homes except for
w...
AZ: Neighborhood votes
needed for boy to bring
horse home
But a miniature horse is
still a horse, of course,
according to Skyline Bel Air
Estates Community
Association regulations, and
is prohibited from being
kept in the neighborhood.
And Alexander's mother,
Mercedes Gonzalez, ought to
know - she's its
president....
TX: Police don't know how
killers foiled security
Police have not determined
how two men got into a gated
Fort Bend County community
where they bluffed their way
into a house and fatally
stabbed a retired
schoolteacher in a robbery
attempt....
CO: Porch predicament
The homeowners association
has ordered the Sicklers to
remove the screen from their
front porch because the
couple did not receive
approval from the
association...
OR: Woman sues for false
arrest, battery
According to the suit filed
this week in Multnomah
County Circuit Court,
Lyudmila Trivol arrived home
at her Southeast Portland
condo on May 27, 2006, to
find a tow truck hooked up
to the family minivan. The
minivan was parked in its
proper spot, but its
wheel...
CO: If home association has
rules, read them
If you live in a community
that's governed by a
homeowners association and
you want to screen your
front porch, you had better
ask before you act....
CA: Condo dispute keeps
residents out (plus video)
Some Emeryville residents
will be forced to spend the
holidays in a hotel, instead
of their town homes, because
of water damage that
happened five months ago....
CT: Condo Living Is Not
Meant To Be Hassle-Free
Shocked by the prospects of
having to pay as much as
$11,000 each in a special
assessment, owners of units
in a Farmington condominium
complex have banded together
to find a solution to their
million-dollar problem....
Canada: Emboldened by a
surging loonie, Canadians
snap up U.S. homes
For moderate-income
Canadians like Farley, the
race is on to take advantage
of the loonie, which in
September reached parity
with the U.S. dollar for the
first time since 1976. Many
are combing the Internet for
anxious American home
sellers and looking with
an...
NC: Pink beach house owner
vs. neighbors
Jean Morrison, the owner of
the well-known pink house
along the Intracoastal
Waterway in Little River, is
suing her property owner's
association. Morrison says
the association does not
legally exist and therefore
cannot conduct business as
such because the Ol...
AZ: No Food for You
A resident raises a fuss
after a HOA says yes to
$3,500 to light three trees,
and no to a food drive...
MD: State law affects
homeowners' boards
Apathetic homeowners'
associations could soon find
themselves paying
court-appointed receivers to
manage their affairs. A
Maryland law that took
effect Oct. 1 states that a
group of three or more
owners can ask the courts to
appoint a receiver if their
homeow...
FL: Police target thieves in
condo, homeowner
associations
Attitudes are changing. In
Broward County alone, three
court cases against former
association directors,
managers and employees
charging fraud or misuse of
owners' money are scheduled
to be heard between Dec. 20
and Jan. 24....
GA: Vandals Smash Gwinnett
Holiday Decorations
Vandals went on a weekend
spree in a Gwinnett County
neighborhood, smashing
Christmas decorations,
spray-painting cars, egging
houses and painting obscene
messages on garage doors....
AZ: Winterhaven goes 'green'
True, many Winterhaven
residents still cherish
their grassy lawns, but
perhaps even Al Gore would
be pleased with the
eco-friendly evolution
taking place in Tucson's
traditional holiday
festival....
Canada: Peril lurks deep
It's widely believed that
many more of the 4,000
(mostly residential) condo
corporations in the GTA
should be taken over, but
the victims lack the
financial resources to go to
court. Unit owners suffer in
obscurity as their buildings
deteriorate around them....
MS: Madison man cleared in
covenant case
A judge has found resident
Richard Atkinson not guilty
of violating a provision of
the city's zoning ordinance
that makes a violation of
one's homeowners association
covenants is a crime....
Legal Web Sites Shake Up
Condo Market
South Florida lawyers are
increasingly tapping into
the cyber world to capture a
share of the growing
business of helping buyers
recover deposits from
pre-construction and condo
conversion projects....
TX: Safety sign spurs
parent, HOA battle (plus
video report)
Some El Dorado Estates
residents say all they want
to do is protect their kids
when they play in front of
their houses, but the
homeowner association says
their warning signs for
drivers to slow down have
got to go....
NY: Latest Hot Co-op Topic:
Secondhand Smoke
Benjamin Zitomer lived
happily with his family in a
two-bedroom apartment at 99
Jane St. in the West Village
for six years before a new
tenant moved in next door
and brought an unexpected
menace: It wasn't rats or
cockroaches or even noise;
it was secondhand s...
FL: Entire Neighborhood
Faces Foreclosure Over
Association Fees (Video)
Unless They Pay, By The End
Of The Month, They Could End
Up Fighting A Legal
Battle... Just To Keep Their
Homes. More Than 70
Homeowners... Already Have
Liens Against Their
Properties, In The
Stonebridge Landings
Development, Off Goldenrod
Road, Near The Airpo...
FL: Boca Raton woman sues
condo association to open
doors
For more than a year,
Fontanez has been trying to
break free. But each time
she got close, officials at
the Casa Del Rio Condominium
Association have stood in
her way....
MD: Homeowner groups in
spotlight
Apathetic homeowners'
associations soon could find
themselves paying
court-appointed receivers to
manage their affairs....
FL: Couple asked to take
down American flag
The flag, flies from a
16-foot tall pole. But last
month the Grants were told
their flagpole violated
their Homeowners Association
guidelines and now the
Grants have been told they
have 15 days to bring it
down...
VA: Water damage repairs
cost condo residents
$40-thousand each
A $40-thousand assessment
for water damage repairs
make the sweet sounds from
Mike Hassell's piano turn
sour....
FL: They won again, but it's
unlikely to be over
A late switch put Judge
Robert Bennett on the case,
and after he heard testimony
and legal arguments, Bennett
found Moore's legal
arguments groundless....
MA: Owners can't block
costly condominium
assessment
Unit owners in a condominium
complex could not bar the
condo's board of trustees
from levying an assessment
for a major renovation
project, even where the
project is expected to cost
$75 million, a Superior
Court judge has ruled. The
plaintiff owners argued t...
See all of the
latest national, legal,
regional and state news
The
Majority Rules, but What if the Minority Won’t
Stop Fighting? - Majority rules. That
is the simple but essential concept on which a
democracy rests, and it works reasonably well
most of the time in common interest communities,
where volunteer board members set policies and
make rules for their self-governing
communities. But some board members don’t
understand, or are unwilling to accept, that in
order for the majority to rule, the minority
must support decisions with which it disagrees.
When these board members find themselves on the
losing end of a vote on an issue about which
they feel strongly, they continue the battle,
taking their disappointment into the community
and seeking from owners the support they were
unable to win from other board members. They
rail against the decision, accuse the board’s
majority of acting irresponsibly and encourage
owners to protest the offending policy or ignore
it. This behavior undermines the board’s
decision-making process and breeds
dissatisfaction and dissension in the community.
Instead of being a unifying force, these
dissenters create tensions or exacerbate them,
and the damage they do over time can’t be
overstated.