Tag: hoa

TEXAS HOA REFORM: LEGISLATION SUGGESTIONS

I support the efforts of the Texas Reform Coalitions in fighting for resident rights. I received this message from them today:

Dear Texas Homeowner,
The 87th Texas Legislative Session begins in January 2021.  The HOA Reform Coalition of Texas is in the process of proposing new legislation.  As part of this process, we need real examples of how HOA/POA/COA have treated property owners. If you are willing to share your experiences in response to the questions below, please reply to this email or send an email to txhoareform@gmail.com. 
1.  Have you been harassed by your HOA/Management Company/HOA Attorney with terrible and/or unreasonable demands within the last few years that you are willing briefly to describe? 
2. If you have a demand letter from the HOA/Management Company/HOA Attorney, and if you are willing to share, please attach it.
Please let us know so that we can present the problems homeowners endure to the legislators
HOA Reform Coalition of Texas Website:
http://hoareformcoalition.org/
Thank you for all that you do! 
Respectfully,Beanie Adolph – DirectorNancy Kozanecki – Assistant Director
HOA REFORM COALITION

Can HOA Board Forgive Unpaid Assessments?

Q: Our homeowners association’s board of directors forgave homeowners who were two to three years behind on their assessments. This was done without our knowledge, and we found out about it before our annual meeting. Is this legal? This seems unfair to the homeowners who pay their dues every year.

Read the answer here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/02/15/3855294/can-hoa-board-forgive-unpaid-assessments.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: –>HOA Financial Responsibility

Abuse Of Power

At Monday night’s HOA meeting, residents spoke out against the board.
One man said, “Shame on you. Shame on you board members.”
“I mean, it’s just wrong,” homeowner Judith King told 10News outside the meeting. “It’s wrong.”  Neighbors said Evolfo applied for a city permit to build a backyard “deck” before receiving HOA approval. After getting the permit, the HOA president called an emergency HOA meeting solely for a vote on his “deck.” Fellow board members approved construction.

–> Read Complete Story

Gated HOA Gated Community Streets Responsibility

By Robert Lee Long
Citizens say streets in Cross Creek, a private gated community in Hernando, are in need of repair and one of the ways to upgrade their condition is to make them public. One way to achieve improvements and upgrades is to turn the streets over to the city. At issue, however, is the fact that plats of the subdivision will have to be changed, and if the streets are taken into the city, they will have to be accessible to the public.

Leigh Pegram, president of the Cross Creek Homeowners Association, said the group is exploring their options and has retained an attorney. She plans to brief Homeowners Association members on information she received at Tuesday’s board meeting at an upcoming meeting of the Homeowners’ Association.

City Attorney Kenneth Stockton said Cross Creek is platted and recorded as a private gated subdivision. Stockton is seeking an Attorney General’s Opinion on the public access issue. Pegram disagreed slightly, saying the word “private” never appears on the plat. However, at present individuals must have an access code to gain entrance into the subdivision. There are presently two active gates and an emergency gate to allow law enforcement officers and firefighters access to the subdivision.

–> Read Complete Story

Who Pays For HOA BulkHeads

By Gretchen Wenner
One of Oxnard’s premier neighborhoods, where boats nose up to million-dollar homes and the ocean beckons just beyond the harbor, has a problem borne of its marine environment: Sea walls are getting old. The reinforced concrete walls that protect Mandalay Bay’s 743 homes were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They had a projected life span of roughly 40 years — time that’s about up.

A group of homeowners is advocating pre-emptive repairs that would cost a fraction of the estimated $118 million needed for total replacement. A recent evaluation found some stretches are at risk of catastrophic failure, but targeted resurfacing could keep the structures standing 25 more years or so.

The challenge is determining who pays for the repairs, expected to cost millions of dollars.

Bill Scarpino, a resident and member of the Channel Islands Waterfront Homeowners Association, thinks the city owns the sea walls and is responsible for maintenance, just as it is for a public street. He has a folder stuffed 4 inches thick with old city resolutions and court rulings that he says prove it.

–> Read The Complete Story Here

Tomball TX Police Connects Homeowner Associations

By Catherine Dominguez
Despite a small turnout, area residents along with the Tomball Police Department are moving forward with an initial email list to get local homeowners association leaders connected. Administrative Sergeant Rebecca Carlisle with the Tomball Police Dept. met with residents March 8 to provide them with information about what they can do to increase security in their communities and discourage crime.

Carlisle said it was important for local communities to establish an electronic system to communicate with each other, including using social media like Facebook and Twitter along with an email blast list. She also said it was critical for HOA officials to enforce HOA regulations, ensure landscaping is maintained and make sure all lights are working in their neighborhood. “This is up to (community members),” Carlisle said.

The meeting was organized by Councilman Mark Stoll, who lives in Spring Pine Estate of Zion Road. After recent reports of two scams in local subdivisions, Stoll decided to put aside his status as a councilman and help organize a community policing system.

–> Read Complete Story

Are All HOA Monies Tax Exempt?

By Gary Poliakoff
A Las Vegas HOA is currently fighting with the IRS over the question of whether $2 million held in the HOA’s savings account is subject to a 30% sales tax as corporate surplus.

Associations are generally organized as not-for-profit corporations (some older associations are not incorporated) and therefore must file tax returns like other not-for-profit corporations. Associations are not entitled to tax exempt status like charitable organizations. To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in the Code. To be tax exempt under IRC 501(c)(4), a homeowners’ association must operate for the benefit of the general public, i.e., it must provide a community benefit – not a benefit to the owners or residents.  However, homeowners’ associations are still taxed on any income or support received that did not constitute dues or assessments paid by its property owner-members for maintenance and improvement of its property.

–> Read Complete Story Here

Big Money To Be Made In Foreclosures

By John Gittelsohn
Private equity firms are jumping into distressed housing as the U.S. government plans to market 200,000 foreclosed homes as rentals to speed up the economic recovery.

GTIS Partners will spend $1 billion by 2016 acquiring single-family homes to manage as rentals, Thomas Shapiro, the fund’s founder said. That followed announcements this month that GI Partners, a Menlo Park private equity fund, expects to invest $1 billion, and Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management LP will spend $450 million on similar housing. “It’s a massive market,” Shapiro said in a telephone interview from New York. “We’re starting to see this as a billion dollar opportunity to buy rental housing.”

–> Read Complete Story Here

Disturbing New Trend Impacting HOA’s

By Donna DiMaggio Berger
Two recent legislative attempts signal a disturbing trend that has the potential to negatively impact Florida’s community associations.

The first is this year’s construction defect bill, HB 1013, sponsored by Representative Artiles and its Senate companion, SB 1196, sponsored by Senator Bennett. These bills would take away a homeowner’s rights to pursue a developer for defects to the driveways, roads, sidewalks. utilities, drainage areas and other so-called “off-site” improvements that are not located on the lot on which a home is constructed or which are located on such a lot but do not contribute to the “habitability” of the home.

–> Read Complete Article Here

Texas HOA Law Changes

By Jennifer Slewer
A slew of changes are now in effect for the state’s homeowners associations, the love-’em-or-hate-’em groups that everyone seems to have an opinion about. The changes grant homeowners more freedoms when it comes to outdoor decorating and installation of environmentally friendly systems. The changes also make it harder for HOAs to foreclose because of unpaid fees.

Now, HOAs won’t be able to keep you from displaying the U.S. or Texas flag, or flags of military branches. Free-standing flagpoles 20 feet tall or less will be allowed, too — legislation filed in response to an HOA that sued a Marine veteran for flying the Stars and Stripes on a flagpole.

HOAs also won’t be able to keep you from hanging a religious display on your front door, but they can require you to keep it at 25 square inches or less. That legislation was filed after a Jewish couple was threatened with a recurring fine for displaying a mezuzah, a parchment with Hebrew verses enclosed in a case affixed to the doorpost.

–> Read Complete Story Here

Preparing For HOA Annual Meeting

By Stan Riddle
Over the next few months, a number of homeowner associations will be holding their annual meetings. Of all of the HOA meetings held during the year, this one probably has the most members in attendance due to a number of important issues that are likely on the agenda, such as election of officers.

In an effort to assist HOAs in making this meeting run both effectively and efficiently, the Green Valley Council offers a few suggestions:

–> Read Complete Story Here

Texas Homeowner Association Disagreements

By Christin Coyne
Located in far east Parker County off of White Settlement Road, Remuda Ranch Estates is where rural Parker County allows residents to escape the Fort Worth area. When a home burned down several months ago, many neighbors left their homes to support the family. But the neighborhood isn’t as peaceful as it appears.

After years of feuding, some neighbors don’t speak to each other any more. Ten lawsuits have been filed in Justice of the Peace Court or District Court during the last three years involving the Remuda Ranch homeowners association, those on the board of directors, and Colina Court resident Jack Cavenah. At least two heated issues between neighbors have gone to county commissioners court for decisions. And tens of thousands of dollars go to attorneys as the neighbors duke it out in the legal system.

–> Read The Complete Story Here

New Texas Laws Change HOA Powers

By Natalie Solis
Nearly 5 million Texans live in neighborhoods with homeowner associations. Compared to other states, HOAs wield a lot of power. But that’s starting to change. For many North Texans, home owners associations are the norm and not the exception

Angel Long is well versed in the rules. “Just those little things… the arbor on the back that had to be approved, and all the regulations,” she said of her Frisco home. “It wasn’t ever a hard process, but just something that had to be followed.”

Rules are one thing, but taking away someone’s house is another. “Lawyers from other states can’t believe how easy it is to take away someone’s property down here,” said attorney Clint David. “They think it’s like the Old West. They really do.”

Now Texas lawmakers are pulling the reins on HOAs with new laws. Some took effect last year, and others began January 1, 2012. Most of the new laws affect single-family homes, not condos or townhomes.

–> Read Complete Story Here