1. Dade County breaks the record for the most expensive condominium ever

    sold in Florida.
2. Short sales - What are they and what your association needs to know.
3. Banks are failing to upkeep properties they now own and are destroying the

    appearance of some communities.
4. What snowbirds need to know about maintaining their unit while they're up

    north for the summer.

Dear Florida Homeowner and Condo Owner: 

Another 14 participants in the Nevada construction defect lawsuit scam have pleaded guilty, among them former police officers and a CAM that was doing business as well in Florida. Prosecutors are closing in on the main players. Listen to "On The Commons" today. Senator Mike Schneider is the guest. Schneider and host Shu Bartholomew will be discussing this hot topic.

HOAs in Nevada won a big lawsuit about collection costs. These HOAs were accused of charging more than the law allowed. The court disagreed! Big win for associations. Lawsuits like this were used to scare owners here in Florida trying to make the Safe Harbor provisions in H319 palatable.

Election campaigns here in Florida are heating up. New districts are causing incumbents to fight each other. We need to see that we make sure that our archenemies in the Florida legislature are not getting reelected. See some articles below.

Do you think that banks and/or developers have learned from the real estate crash? I don't think so! More condos are being built -- despite many newly built condos are still being empty -- and we see again the ads screaming: "Buy your own home -- no money down!"

 

BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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THIS IS A MUST SEE FOR ANY VET, AND ALL PATRIOTIC AMERICANS!!  There is really something wrong with our country, when people laugh at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Click on the link below.   No Laughing at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier   The guard sternly, "shut up" a group of people laughing at the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier. Not a peep was heard afterwards. Notice how he went about it....stepped off the black mat, made his comments, proceeded to the end of the mat without getting back on until he reached the end....then stepped onto the blackmat again, began his 21 steps again.   GOOD FOR HIM -- PRICELESS!!!!  GOD BLESS HIM RICHLY!!!!!

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IMAX fly over of Jerusalem.  After a year of research and preparation,

this giant Imax 3D screen  film, JERUSALEM , is scheduled for worldwide

release in 2013.  The film takes you on a spectacular and unprecedented

aerial tour throughout Israel/Palestine , the Holy Land and the city once

believed to lie at the center of the world.



To see it in full screen - click on the 4 small arrows at the bottom right
hand corner.



 http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=iPQI6Yupt48

L A Times was our News with out any ADS 6 years ago.   Now its packed with ADS.  You would think with all these ads they would give out FREE coffee on Monday morning.  Trish Adams now controls this community and if you a a good friend you can write a full page about yourself, not 150 words or less.   All she does is write stories about her wonderful staff and what she is doing.  She is doing crap and taking this community down the tubes.  What a hell of a rotten place to live, having me ban for 4 months trying to make this a better community.  This is how she treats the residents of Lake Ashton.  The Witch of Lake Ashton must go!

Ex-police captain to plead guilty in HOA probe

Article Courtesy of The Las Vegas Review-Journal

By Jeff German

Published May 25, 2012

Retired Las Vegas police Capt. Frank Sutton has struck a deal to plead guilty in the high-profile federal investigation of Las Vegas Valley homeowners associations.
The investigation has focused on a massive fraud scheme to stack associations with board members who would steer legal, community management and construction defect contracts to favored firms.
Sutton is the last of three retired Las Vegas police officers linked to the investigation to face charges. A fourth former officer killed himself early in the four-year investigation.
Sutton was a board member at three of the dozen condominium associations involved in the investigation - Park Avenue, High Noon and Mission Ridge - and tried to get on the board of a fourth association, Pebble Creek.
While on the boards, Sutton also is alleged to have worked for former construction company boss Leon Benzer, a key target of the investigation. Federal authorities have alleged that Benzer and the late construction defects lawyer, Nancy Quon, were behind the lucrative scheme. Quon's body was found in the bathtub of her Henderson condominium on March 20.
Justice Department lawyers disclosed the Sutton deal in a just-unsealed and unopposed motion to consolidate his case with the case of 14 other defendants set to plead guilty before U.S. District Judge James Mahan on May 31. Mahan signed an order Wednesday adding Sutton to the group plea deal, one of the largest ever in Nevada.
All of the defendants, including Sutton, are cooperating with the Justice Department lawyers, as the investigation moves forward with possible indictments of still-more targets. Eleven other defendants pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate last year.
Details of Sutton's agreement with prosecutors will be made public after he enters his plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, the same charge facing the other 14 defendants.
The deal comes after months of negotiations between prosecutors and Sutton's lawyer, Richard Wright, who declined comment on Wednesday.
Another retired Las Vegas police officer, Morris Mattingly, is among the defendants who will enter guilty pleas on May 31. Mattingly served on the Vistana association's board while he worked for Benzer.
Former police Lt. Benjamin Kim is also set to plead guilty next week in a scheme to fraudulently obtain a bank loan for the Courthouse Cafe, which did business at the Regional Justice Center. Benzer, Kim and the late attorney, David Amesbury, were partners in the restaurant, now a Capriotti's sandwich shop.
Amesbury, who was found dead March 25 of an apparent hanging at his brother's property in Northern California, pleaded guilty in both the bank fraud and homeowners association schemes in October.
Kim's estranged wife, Lisa Kim, is pleading guilty on May 31 in both schemes. She ran Platinum Community Services, which managed several of the victim homeowners associations.
Her husband's plea is to take place separately before Mahan on Tuesday.
A fourth former Las Vegas police officer tied to the investigation, retired Lt. Christopher Van Cleef, shot himself to death several days after FBI agents and Las Vegas police conducted a valleywide raid in September 2008. Van Cleef was on the board of Pebble Creek and had purchased condominiums at other developments in the scheme.
Federal authorities have alleged that board members friendly to Benzer worked against the interests of the associations and homeowners to hire Benzer to do construction work and Quon and other lawyers to sue for construction defects. Community management companies also were retained to maintain control over the homeowners associations.
"These HOA contracts can be very lucrative and therefore certain conspirators stood to gain considerable profits by being awarded the contracts or litigation," Justice Department lawyers Charles La Bella and Mary Ann McCarthy wrote in court papers.

The board members were elected through dirty campaign tactics, including rigged elections, the prosecutors previously alleged.

Foreclosed over $250: A local family's nightmare

Article and Video Courtesy of Ch.47 ActionNewsJax By Paige Kelton Published May 23, 2012

Watch VIDEO

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Rodriquez family is about to lose their American Dream, over $250 dollars.

"I was re-financing my home and I was at closing and they said there's a lien that showed up for three thousand dollars in legal fees and I said no, where did you get that?"

Noemi and her husband Juan were thrown into a world of legal bills, unreturned phone calls and sleepless nights. Their homeowners association says the couple missed their annual payment, and the late fines and legal fees began adding up, to the tune of more than 3,000 dollars. Noemi insists she's tried numerous times to reach her HOA and the management company, but that no one will return her calls. "I don't understand why they haven't contacted me back, why they refuse to answer. Why they can't take my calls, it's something so simple that has blown out of proportion, she says.

   

We reached out to the attorney representing the homeowners association, and he told Action News he couldn't comment because of confidentiality issues.

   

Jacksonville attorney Braxton Gillem says when you choose to buy into a deed restricted community, you're agreeing to live with those restrictions. Gillem, says, "That obligation runs with the land just like your obligation to pay your mortgage and if you don't pay, your association can foreclose." And that's what's happening to the Rodriquez's. They've hired an attorney and are fighting for their chance to be heard. "I'm going to lose my home over this, I'm going to lose my home over $242 dollars."

A judge recently ordered both sides into mediation. Noemi hopes they can finally come to terms and figure out what, if anything, they owe.

Lawyers say if you receive a notice from your HOA about an unpaid fine or assessment, don't ignore it. Contact the board, or management company immediately.

 

yes, I do feel strongly about this. No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay on retirement. While Politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full-pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense. If each person who receives this will forward it on to 20 people, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal that really should be passed around. Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ." You are one of my 20+. I passed it on, will you? "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice," and these brave soldiers have given you that right!!   

 

Think residenance think

We are all being had by the management of this community.  When you go to the CDD meeting and see a bunch of clowns discussing  Lake Ashton problems at a cost of $2,300.00 this is a joke.  Jan Carpenter and her boss gets $250/hour and each of the CDD board members gets $50.00 an hour.  Add it up.  $2,300 plus!  They voted to ban me for 4 months from a public clubhouse.  They are crazy.  It was all Trash Adams idea, she wants to get her self notice.  I guess exposing part of her breast is not enough.  This management wants you to know nothing, hear nothing and see nothing.  When Al Miller got bitten by the alligator, they never told you until I notify the news media 6 days later.  What a bunch of clowns.  Now you know why I call them the RAT PACK.  BAN THE CDD MEETINGS, COFFEE MEETINGS AND BINGO.   THANKS  LETS TELL THEM WE THE RESIDENTS ARE IN CHARGED.

Read....short prayer at end

.

 

"IN GOD WE TRUST"

  
   
     Look at the  eagle closely.  
  
 

  
    


   
      23Eagles - - DO NOT  DELETE

   (note: when forwarded an  eagle is added)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 Prayer wheel  for our soldiers...please don't break  it
 When you receive this,  please stop for a moment and say the following  prayer for our troops
 Around  the world  - 

 'Lord,  hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect  them as they protect us. Bless them  and   
Their  families for the selfless acts they perform for  us in time of need.  I ask this in the  name 
Of  JESUS our Lord and Savior. Amen.' 
  
There  is nothing attached. This can be very powerful.  Just send this to all the people in your  address
Book.    Do not stop the wheel, please...  Of all  the gifts you could give a Soldier, Sailor,  Airman, Marine,  
Chaplain  & others deployed in harm's way, prayer is  the very best one. 
 
    

   
 
 
 
 I noticed  that as I forwarded this...another eagle was  added!!  Neat!!