Posted on 06/01/2010 9:07:42 PM PDT by Dr. Marten
Michael Clauer is a captain in the Army Reserve who commanded over 100 soldiers in Iraq. But while he was fighting for his country, a different kind of battle was brewing on the home front. Last September, Michael returned to Frisco, Texas, to find that his homeowners' association had foreclosed on his $300,000 house—and sold it for $3,500. This story illustrates the type of legal quagmire that can get out of hand while soldiers are serving abroad and their families are dealing with the stress of their deployment. And fixing the mess isn't easy.
(Excerpt) Read more at motherjones.com ...
The ultimate liberal-conservative balanced sob story.
Disgusting. Homeowner Associations are thieves.
(sniff), (sniff)....smells like bullsh*t.
But, then, this IS Mother Jones. Big time supporter of our troops don'tchaknow. Oorah.
There's your problem, right there.
The SSCRA would have inoculated the Captain from such foreclosure. Had he contacted his unit JAG, they would have helped him make the appropriate notification to the HOA, which would have legally disallowed the foreclosure, court order or no court order - federal law trumps Texas state law.
I don't know the details of this story, but lots has to happen before a house is foreclosed on. Homeowners have plenty of time to make good or make payment arrangements. After three years of being lied to, taken advantage of, etc...I don't bat an eye in taking legal action against deadbeats..and that's what most of them are. So can it.
Remember that Memorial Day posting? Here’s another of the same kind. People seem to find new ways to shaft the men and women in uniform.
I would think the Servicemen’s Relief Act, where servicemen are protected from suit while deployed, may save their home for them. The attorney for the HOA filed an affidavit that neither of the couple were in the service. That wasn’t true, so I think they can get the foreclosure set aside.
This transaction... selling a home for $3,500... is bound to have some interesting details; like who was the 'lucky' property flipper or how come there were no other higher bids.
Amen. HOAs are usually run by HUAs.
Nazis-in-training I call them.
Thieves indeed - unspeakable.
Normally a foreclosure has to sell for 60% of appraised value and this is after a year (or more typically two) of ignoring mortgage payments. There has to be more to this.
There is probably more to this story than is being stated.
I'm suspicious. Since when does MJ give a rat's rear end about the plight of our servicemen and women?
I smell an agenda.
Has to be.
But I am confident that if any news gathering organization is worth its salt when it comes down to getting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, it's Mother Jones.
In some U.S. states (such as Texas) a homeowners association can foreclose a member’s house without any judicial procedure in order to collect special assessments, fees and fines, or otherwise place an enforceable lien on the property which, upon the property’s sale, allows the HOA to collect otherwise unpaid assessments. A proposed constitutional amendment in Texas would limit the power of HOA’s in such matters. A case in point involves a soldier who was informed his fully paid for $300,000 home in Frisco, Texas had been foreclosed on and sold for $3,500 by his HOA over unpaid dues of $800 while he was serving in Iraq. This case is still pending. Federal laws protecting military personnel may be his only defense.
Other states, like Florida, require a judicial hearing. Foreclosure without a judicial hearing can occur when a power of sale clause exists in a mortgage or deed of trust.[25]
A report self-published by a professor at Washington University disputes the claim that HOAs protect property values, stating, based on a survey of Harris County, Texas (which had an unusual legal regime regarding foreclosures): “Although HOA foreclosures are ostensibly motivated by efforts to improve property values, neither foreclosure activity nor HOAs appear linked with the above average home price growth.”[26]
Homeowners association boards can also collect special assessments from its members in addition to set fees, sometimes without the homeowners’ direct vote on the matter, though most states place restrictions on an association’s ability to do so. Special assessments often require a homeowner vote if the amount exceeds a prescribed limit established in the Association’s by-laws. In California, for example, a special assessment can be imposed by a Board, without a membership vote, only when the TOTAL assessment is 5 percent or less of the association’s annual budget. Therefore in the case of a 25 unit association with a $100,000 annual operating budget, the Board could only impose a $5,000 assessment on the entire population ($5,000 divided by 25 units equal $200 per unit). A larger assessment would require a majority vote of the members. In some exceptional cases, particularly in matters of public health or safety, the amount of special assessments may be at the board’s discretion. If, for example there is a ruptured sewer line, the Board could vote a substantial assessment immediately, arguing that the matter impacts public health and safety. In practice, however, most Boards prefer that owners have a chance to voice opinions and vote on assessments.
Increasingly, homeowner associations handle large amounts of money. Embezzlement from associations has occurred occasionally, as a result of dishonest board members or community managers, with losses up to millions of dollars.[27] Again, California’s Davis-Stirling Act, which was designed to protect owners, requires that Boards carry appropriate liability insurance to indemnify the association from any wrong-doing. The large budgets and expertise required to run such groups are a part of the arguments behind mandating manager certification (through Community Association Institute, state real estate boards, or other agencies).
Maybe I should have said “some”....
Excuse me, I was president of our HO association for two terms. We had a good conservative board.
You must think all homeowners are choir boys and girls. Wrong. Many will flout every covenant and evade every responsibility they can if they're not dealt with legally and promptly.
And then they cry and whine that THEY'RE the victims and the association board is the perp. And people like you fall for it.
One jerk, an attorney of all things, painted his house day-glo lime over a weekend hoping he'd get away with it. He thought wrong.
Leni
Assuming this story has any validity to it, you don't see anything criminal in selling a $300,000 dollar home for $3,500 to collect an $800 debt?
Idiot.
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