Saturday, May 29, 2010

Homeowner beats HOA lawyer in court

Article and Video Courtesy of WOAI -- San Antonio
By Brian Collister
Published May 23, 2010

Jury Verdict
Newton's Contract with HOA's

SAN ANTONIO-The News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters' recent investigation into skyrocketing foreclosures by homeowner associations struck a nerve. Because of the spotlight we put on the problem, many homeowners are demanding lawmakers stop HOA's from taking homes because of unpaid dues.

Most of these foreclosures are filed by one attorney, Tom Newton. He represents almost all the HOA's in San Antonio. If your home is on the auction block, there is a good chance he is the guy you'll have to deal with.


But that didn't scare off homeowner Kent Hern. When the HOA foreclosed on Hern because he owed a couple hundred dollars, he took them to court.
Hern lives on the north side of town in the Hidden Forest subdivision. He fell behind on his HOA payments a few years ago while he was out of the country on business. No matter, Newton still filed the papers with Bexar County to take Hern's house.

"He's the ringleader for attorneys who foreclose on homes for HOA's," says Hern about Newton. "When I saw there was a number of HOA's that had actually taken these steps to foreclose on homeowners for such ridiculously small amounts of money, we just decided that I was going to fight it because it just wasn't fair," he added.

A Bexar County jury agreed with Hern, saying the HOA and Newton engaged in "unreasonable collection practices" while foreclosing on his house over such a tiny amount in unpaid HOA dues.

The jury also thought the massive amount of legal fees added to the dues was completely out of line. Hern was awarded a total of $22,000; $11,000 of which was to cover his attorney's fees.
Hern's attorney, Peter Kilpatrick, took Hern's case because he's tired of seeing people lose their homes over something so small. "This is a message to those HOA's that even though homeowners should pay their assessments, and on time, when they don't, they have rights too and they should not be plowed over with these gestapo-like collection tactics," explained Kilpatrick.

Kilpatrick says part of the problem is in the contract the HOA's sign with Newton. It says the HOA is not allowed to accept past due payments from homeowners without Newton's approval.

"Board members dealing with their neighbors, with respect to assessments and the ultimate weapon

HOA ATTORNEY TOM NEWTON, Esq.

of foreclosure against somebody's home, should not give up that power. Abdicate that responsibility to collection lawyers," explained Kilpatrick.

"Something has to be done to either change this law or to discourage the HOA's from taking these ridiculous measures to put people under thousands of dollars of debt for just a couple of hundred dollars of association fees," pleaded Hern.

We tried to contact Newton to see if he would like to comment on the verdict, but he has not responded.

If you'd like to read the jury verdict and see Newton's HOA contract, click on the links.

Homebuyer: HOA 'Unscrupulous' In Raising Fee

Article and Video Courtesy of Channel 5 KPHO
By Sarah Buduson
Published May 8, 2010

QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. -- A Queen Creek homebuyer said an unexpected hike in a homeowners' association fees may force him to walk away from the house he has tried to buy for 10 months.

I'm almost better off looking for another home out of this neighborhood,” said George Peck.

On April 28, the HOA told Peck the original fee to transfer into the Montelena community’s homeowner’s association would be $500.

On Monday, he received noticed the fee would be $2,500.

"I have never seen anything like this,” said Cari Gililland, Peck’s realtor.

"I mean, to raise to the fee is one thing,” she said, "but this is five times what the fee was."

Peck is now reconsidering purchasing the five-bedroom short sale on Poco Calle.

"I'm just disappointed that things have turned out the way they have,” said Peck.

CBS 5 News attempted to contact the president of Montelena homeowner’s association, Anthony Del Corsano.

When our crew attempted to knock on his door, neighbors blocked our path and asked us to leave the property.

After three attempts, our crew reached Del Corsano on the telephone. He said he had no comment.
TV

Rampant foreclosures leave condo owners stuck with fees

Article Courtesy of The St. Petersburg Times
By Susan Taylor Martin
Published May 16, 2010

To most people, Brittany's Place in Largo looked no different than the hundreds of other blandly attractive apartment complexes built in Florida in the 1970s and '80s.

To four Miami men, it looked like gold.

As the condominium boom neared a frenzied peak in 2005, they hit on a plan: buy the 96-unit complex, spend a few thousand dollars per apartment on showy upgrades, then sell the units as condos at a tidy profit. It seemed like a fine idea, one that had enraptured developers all over the state.

Now, five years later, buyers like Peggy Bodine have discovered just how wrong a condo conversion can go.
So many units are in foreclosure that Bodine is one of the few owners still paying maintenance fees. There is no money in the budget to repaint the outside walls, to repair the cracked pool deck, to pay the insurance premium due this month. The clubhouse has been stripped of most of its furnishings.

Worst of all, Bodine says, "they dumped the association on us.''

On April 30, the developers washed their hands of Brittany's Place. They transferred control to a condo association board made up of owners like Bodine, a math teacher who acknowledges she knows little about condo law or the duties of a condo board.


Resident Peggy Bodine sits at a hot tub turned into a planter. The condo’s budget shows reserves of less than $200.



What she does know is that the burden of maintaining Brittany's Place is falling on her and a few other owners.

"We're going to have a special assessment because there's no money for anything,'' Bodine says. "If there's only 12 people who are paying their association dues that means 12 units will be assessed for 96 units. The special assessment is going to be so excessive that the 12 of us will end up losing our units and we haven't done anything wrong.''

Developers converting apartments to condos must file detailed reports with the state on the age of the buildings, their condition and the costs to replace areas that the condo association is responsible for, such as plumbing, roofing and air conditioning.

"Usually the problem we have with conversions are where people have purchased a condo only to find out the roof wasn't in very good shape,'' says Michael Cochran, director of the state's Division of Florida Condominiums, Time Shares and Mobile Homes.

Brittany's Place, off Ulmerton Road, was nearly 20 years old in January 2006 when its Canadian owners sold it for $7.95 million — about $83,000 per unit — to Joel Campo and his partners.

After submitting the required paperwork to the state, the developers upgraded the units with granite countertops, new cabinets, stainless steel appliances and Italianate lavatories. In September 2006, the Brittany's Place Condominiums went on sale at prices ranging from about $122,000 to about $185,000.

Records show that many of the buyers were from Miami, and several were related to the developers. Few, if any, ever occupied the units they bought.

By 2008, Florida's condo market was in free fall. The developers were stuck with almost a fourth of the units while others were sliding toward foreclosure.

By last summer prices had dropped low enough — but the complex still looked good enough — that Bodine bought a two-bedroom unit for $63,000.

"The price was good and it had a really nice kitchen update,'' she says. "I had my Realtor check it out — there was $50,000 in reserves (in the condo budget) at that time so I went ahead and moved in."

Bodine's first hint of trouble came a few months later when she got a notice that Pinellas County was going to shut off water to the complex because the bill hadn't been paid.

Last winter, when Bodine's mortgage company asked for a copy of the complex's hazard insurance, she was stunned to learn it had expired in November — "while it was still hurricane season!'' she says.

Bodine said she confronted Campo, the lead developer, last month as she watched men carting off refrigerators, stoves and office furniture. She says Campo assured her that he would pay thousands of dollars in delinquent fees for the developer-owned condos. He also promised to attend the April 30 meeting of the condo association board.

Instead, Campo sent his lawyer, who "got really huffy,'' Bodine says, and pressured her and others into signing documents transferring control of the complex to a board made up of a few inexperienced condo owners.

"There's a mechanic, a retired postal worker, a teacher and none of us know anything about any legalities,'' Bodine says. "But I figure it's better being on the board to kind of know what's going on than not knowing anything at all.''

Bodine got a copy of the budget from the property management company hired by the developers. The budget showed that Brittany's Place has $162 in reserves and anticipated expenses this year of $182,783.

The company also turned over partial records, showing that many owners are late on their maintenance fees, one by 867 days. Though at least 33 of the 96 units have gone into foreclosure, lenders aren't responsible for the fees until they take title to the property.

"In Building 3, two of the 16 are paying,'' Bodine says, unfurling a hand-drawn diagram on which she has marked the owner, payment and occupancy status of each unit. "In Building 5, two out 12 are paying and three are stripped (of appliances). In Building 4, one of 12 is paying and occupied.''

The St. Petersburg Times was unable to contact Campo, his attorney or any of his partners.

Bodine filed a complaint with the state, alleging that the developers misrepresented the complex's financial condition. Officials say they are investigating.

As for Bodine, "I'm freaking out.''
CONDO

Why Carry a Gun?

My old grandpa said to me 'Son, there comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin.'

I don't carry a gun to kill people.
I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don't carry a gun to scare people.
I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid.
I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I'm evil.
I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I hate the government.
I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don't carry a gun because I'm angry.
I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone.
I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy.
I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.

I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man.
I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate.
I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don't carry a gun because I love it.
I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

Police protection is an oxymoron.
Free citizens must protect themselves.

Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to lean up the mess.

Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take an ass whoopin'.....

This pretty much sums up why I carry, especially the last statement - Ron Wise

Friday, May 28, 2010

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "OBAMA CASE REACHES THE SUPREME COURT":

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "OBAMA CASE REACHES THE SUPREME COURT":

This is an April Fool's article. None of it is true. The Supreme Court has not received the case. In fact, the Supreme Court has turned down all the birther cases that reached it. Occidental did not release any transcript. The AP did not write the article.

Most importantly, Pakistan was NOT on any "no travel list" nor did it keep US citizens from visiting. It granted US tourists 30-day visas on arrival. So any US citizen could visit using a US passport. Obama was one of them. Obama had had a US passport from the time that he left Hawaii to go to Indonesia with his mother. BUT Obama never had an Indonesian passport or a British passport, as the embassies of those countries will tell you.
A man was driving down the road and ran out of gas. Just at that moment, a bee flew in his window.

The bee said, 'What seems to be the problem?'

'I'm out of gas,' the man replied.

The bee told the man to wait right there and flew away. Minutes later, the man watched as an entire swarm of bees flew to his car and into his gas tank. After a few minutes, the bees flew out.

'Try it now,' said one bee.

The man turned the ignition key and the car started right up. 'Wow!' the man exclaimed, 'what did you put in my gas tank'?

See picture to the left PB AND THE BEE

Joe Hunter is not accepting my mail

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for ; Fri, 28 May 2010 05:42:48 -0400 (EDT)

Jail vs. Nursing Home

IN OUR CASE, WE PAY $5000 A MONTH AND THEN ANOTHER $800 FOR MEDS FOR GARY'S MOM!!!! I WOULD BE ALL OVER THIS IDEA!!!

Here’s an idea worthy of serious consideration…
Let's put the seniors in jail, and the criminals in a nursing home.

This way, the seniors would have access to showers, hobbies, and walks, they'd receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment , wheel chairs etc. and they'd receive money instead of paying it out.
They would have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance. Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them.

A guard would check on them every 20 minutes, and bring their meals and snacks to their cell. They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose. They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counselling, pool, and education. Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, P.J.'s and legal aid would be free, on request. Private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard ,with gardens. Each senior could have a P.C. a T.V. radio, and daily phone calls.
There would be a board of directors, to hear complaints, and the guards would have a code of conduct, that would be strictly adhered to.

The criminals, on the other hand, would get cold food, be left all alone, and unsupervised. Lights off at 8pm, and showers once a week. Live in a tiny room, and pay $5000.00 per month and have no hope of ever getting out.

Justice for all.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

OBAMA CASE REACHES THE SUPREME COURT

RECEIVED THIS FROM A FRIEND OF MINE. THOUGHT YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED AND/OR ENLIGHTENED. SO FAR, NOTHING IN THE NEWS MEDIA THAT I HAVE SEEN . HOW WILL IT END UP SINCE IT IS A POLITICAL FOOTBALL. PAUL ATKINSON

PS: CAN IT BE FRAUD OR JUST UNCONSTITUTIONAL . MAYBE HE WAS FRAMED ?
Subject:.

VERY QUIETLY, OBAMA'S CITIZENSHIP CASE HAS REACHED THE SUPREME COURT

Released today, the transcript school indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship.

This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been seeking. Along with the evidence that he was first born in Kenya and there is no record of him ever applying for US citizenship, this is looking pretty grim. The news has created a firestorm at the White House as the release casts increasing doubt about Obama's legitimacy and qualification to serve as President article titled, "Obama Eligibility Questioned," leading some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic issues on Obama's first official visit to the U.K. In a related matter, under growing pressure from several groups, Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama's legal eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by Leo Donofrio of New Jersey . This lawsuit claims Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. Donofrio's case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens demanding proof of Obama's citizenship or qualification to serve as president.

Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation of Obama's campaign spending. This study estimates that Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal resources to block disclosure of any of his personal records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the U.S. Attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused to comment on the matter.
LET OTHER FOLKS KNOW THIS NEWS, THE MEDIA WON'T!

Subject: RE: Issue of Passport?

While I've little interest in getting in the middle of the Obama birth issue, Paul Hollrah over at FSM did so yesterday and believes the issue can be resolved by Obama answering one simple question: What passport did he use when he was shuttling between New York , Jakarta , and Karachi ?

So how did a young man who arrived in New York in early June 1981, without the price of a hotel room in his pocket, suddenly come up with the price of a round-the-world trip just a month later?

And once he was on a plane, shuttling between New York , Jakarta , and Karachi , what passport was he offering when he passed through Customs and Immigration?

The American people not only deserve to have answers to these questions, they must have answers. It makes the debate over Obama's citizenship a rather short and simple one.

Q: Did he travel to Pakistan in 1981, at age 20?
A : Yes, by his own admission.

Q: What passport did he travel under?
A: There are only three possibilities.
1) He traveled with a U.S. Passport,
2) He traveled with a British passport, or
3) He traveled with an Indonesia passport.

Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled with a U.S. Passport in 1981?
A: No. It is not possible. Pakistan was on the U.S. State Department's "no travel" list in 1981.

Conclusion: When Obama went to Pakistan in 1981 he was traveling either with a British passport or an Indonesian passport.

If he were traveling with a British passport that would provide proof that he was born in Kenya on August 4, 1961, not in Hawaii as he claims. And if he were traveling with an Indonesian passport that would tend to prove that he relinquished whatever previous citizenship he held, British or American, prior to being adopted by his Indonesian step-father in 1967.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the American people need to know how he managed to become a "natural born" American citizen between 1981 and 2008.

Given the destructive nature of his plans for America, as illustrated by his speech before Congress and the disastrous spending plan he has presented to Congress, the sooner we learn the truth of all this, the better.

If you Don't care that Your President is not a natural born Citizen and in Violation of the Constitution, then Delete this, and then lower your American Flag to half-staff, because the U.S. Constitution is already on life-support, and won't survive much longer.

If you do care then Forward this to as many patriotic Americans as you can, because our country is being looted and ransacked!

The information contained in this message may be privileged, confidential, and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or any employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Denzel Washington

The Media (Accidently?) Missed this one!!!!

Please read this:
The troops oversees would like you to send it to everybody you know.

Denzel Washington, and Brooks Army Medical Center

Don't know whether you heard about this but Denzel Washington and his family visited the troops at Brook Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, Texas (BAMC) the other day.

This is where soldiers who have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the United States , especially burn victims.

There are some buildings there called Fisher Houses. The Fisher House is a Hotel where soldiers' families can stay, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying in the Hospital. BAMC has quite a few of these houses on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled most of the time.

While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how
much one of them would cost to build. He took his check book out and wrote a check for the full amount right there
on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American
public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it
The question is: why do:
Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton,Tom Cruise and other Hollywood fluff make front page news with their ridiculous antics and Denzel Washington's Patriotism doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the Local newspaper in San Antonio.

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