09.14.23

The Community Association Institute (CAI) Report Card

• We’ve crunched the numbers and they tell an undeniable story.  CAI’s business trade activities mean homeowners are not the focus.  View the entire Report Card.

  • Do you use the CAI Exchange?  It exists to “provide support to community association professionals” NOT to homeowners and volunteer leaders.

  • Did you know CAI amended the Exchange Code of Conduct to ban all surveys other than its own following the success of Condo Connection surveys in 2021 and 2022?  Here’s how the Code used to look. 🤯

  • Did you know?  Every CAI member directly supports CAI lobbying activities?

Did you know?  CAI operates political action committees (PACs).  No need to guess who is donating…

Community Association Statistics

• We’ve updated our statistics page to provide more community association insights based on additional data from the US Census Bureau and FCAR.

Due Diligence

• What an instructive story about due diligence -- and the lack thereof -- conveniently related to what might be the most infamous (former) condominium in the world. 

If YOU act on advice that’s illegal or based on a fabrication, regardless of the source, your personal indemnity might hold up, but your association is in hot water.🧨

• The developer (DAMAC) tells the Surfside Planing and Zoning Board that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) "made us do it"

• FDOT tells the Miami Herald "we never had that conversation"

• DAMAC then said their consultants related "FDOT's normal policy"

• In a development eerily reminiscent of board meetings far and wide: board members cited requirements without performing due diligence [non-existent FDOT requirements represented by the developer] to conclude there would be no viable way to address concerns.

Champlain site builder said state requires loading dock near memorial. FDOT cries foul — Aaron Liebowitz | Miami Herald | September 1, 2023

Management Conundrum

• Does your community association suffer from a state of disorder and uncertainty?  Is there a tendency to maintain the status quo and general fear of change?  If so, you’ve discovered that entropy and inertia keep the community association industry afloat:

Entropy is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty.

Inertia is the tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged.

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The Condominium Authority of Ontario, Canada exists to engage and empower Ontario's condominium communities.  What a fantastic mission!  It makes you wonder why organizations like CAI treat education and resources as commodities.

• Dispute Resolution through the Condo Authority Tribunal

• Director Training

• Before You Buy and About Condo Living

• Resources

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CMRAO, the Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario published their 2022 Satisfaction Survey revealing that homeowners in Canada, just like in the United States, want more accountability from management companies.

Risk Management

• The unique ownership structure of community associations comes with great responsibility and the need for appropriate risk management.

Risk Management Considerations for Condo Association Boards — Patrick Wraight | Insurance Journal | April 3, 2023

Fraud ^5

• Fraud and embezzlement galore.  View our prior coverage here, here, here and here.

A Tarpon Springs woman is back behind bars after she was accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from homeowners associations in the Tampa Bay area.

Jamie Fonville, 47, was arrested in June 2022 after she was accused of stealing over $228,000 from three HOAs while working as an accounting manager at First Choice Association Management. Her job duties included managing bank accounts for 58 organizations and issuing checks on their behalf, according to a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

On Tuesday, she was arrested by the sheriff’s office again after she was accused of pocketing over $521,000 in checks and credit card payments from 13 organizations, bringing the total alleged loss to over $750,000.

Most of the new charges against Fonville are for crimes that occurred before her June 2022 arrest, but a PCSO arrest report noted that she allegedly made at least two additional fraudulent payments less than two months later.

Pinellas accounting manager stole over $700,000 from HOAs, deputies say — Rachel Tucker | WFLA | September 6, 2023

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The former president of a Miami condominium association has been arrested after police said he embezzled more than $32,000 for his own benefit.

Ben Dvir, 47, was arrested Wednesday on a grand theft charge, Miami-Dade Police officials said.

Dvir is the former president of the Blue Condominium Association at 601 Northeast 36th Street in Midtown, police said...

Ex-president of Miami condo association arrested for grand theft: Police — Jamie Guirola Tucker | NBC 6 | September 13, 2023

Champlain South Update

• Was the pool deck to blame?  Watch for the final report in June 2025.

Surfside condo collapse investigators say pool deck construction 'deviated' from design requirements — Laura Romero | ABC News | September 7, 2023

“We have been making progress on a number of fronts,” said Glenn Bell, NIST’s associate lead for the Champlain Towers South investigation. “If we can continue on our current schedule, we expect our technical work to be substantially completed in late June of 2024 so that we can release our report with findings and recommendations in late June of 2025.”

NIST Provides Update on Investigation Into the Collapse of Champlain Towers South — NIST | September 7, 2023

Permitted, but Covenants Shall Prevail

• Community associations are good at keeping out the “undesirables.”  With segregation snuffed out, discrimination continues.  Read some enlightening comments on Reddit.

SUMMARY: The Fargo City Commission granted a permit for a residential foster home within a Fargo HOA.  The HOA can still pursue this owner IF a covenant violation exists.  The most obvious example is operating a business where customers ingress and egress to and from the property.

Giselle Ishimwe plans to open a foster home in a far south Fargo neighborhood for adults with disabilities battling strokes, brain injuries and dementia. 

The Golden Valley Homeowners Association (HOA) says the facility goes against their HOA "covenant" and asked the city commissioners to overturn the permit that would allow Ishimwe to run a group home in a residential neighborhood. 

Commissioners, in a 3-2 decision, voted in favor of the 4-bedroom foster home. While commissioners all agreed that it was important to allow residents with disabilities options to live in neighborhoods instead of just in nursing homes, some felt that the decision was too rushed.

The commission’s job isn’t to follow HOA guidelines... “We are really trying to integrate disabled people into the community,” Preston said, noting that the city’s focus is to create neighborhoods for all that are a mix of various ages, incomes and abilities. This project is one step closer to that, she said.

HOA tries to stop foster home from moving into south Fargo neighborhood — Melissa Van Der Stad | INFORUM | September 6, 2023

Good, Bad, Ugly: Surveys Reflect Bias

• Surveys are only as good as the questions asked and the audience polled.

An estimated 74 million home and condominium owners now live in properties governed by associations of their fellow residents. And to hear the Community Associations Institute tell it, the vast majority are pleased with how their boards run the show. But hold on a minute. Another survey, this one from HomeAdvisor, has found that 4 out of every 5 folks living with an association would just as soon live elsewhere. And even more say the rules and regulations are restrictive, if not downright oppressive. 

The striking differences between the two studies should stand as a stern warning to anyone thinking about buying a place run by a small, elected fraction of their fellow owners. If you don’t mind living under the potentially heavy hand of board members, fine. But if you value your freedom, perhaps you should look elsewhere.

In its 2020 survey of 1,500 residents, about 70% rated their overall experience of living in a community association as “good” or “very good,” and about 19% rated it as “neutral.” Not so with the HomeAdvisor study. Of the 1,000 folks polled, a third said their association had caused them “regular stress,” and 4 out of 5 admitted they’d rather live elsewhere.

Are homeowners’ associations beneficial? Depends who you ask — Lew Sichelman | Miami Herald | October 22, 2022

Strained Relationships

• Are homeowner and association relationships related to an overall loss of confidence in major US institutions?  We think not…

Dan Johnson was charged a cumulative $182,500 fine for a drapes violation by the homeowners association at Elizabeth Village.

“HOAs attract two kinds of people: those who really want to serve their own communities, and those who are only attracted to power,” Galvin says. “That makes them either mini-democracies or, more cynically, mini-totalitarian states run by people who have been given authority that they have never had in any area of their lives before — and probably for decent reasons.”

“Most people don’t realize how many emails, text messages and phone calls a board member gets,” Rosenfeld says. “Most people want to live their lives and not worry about the things that condominium associations have to worry about. “Somebody has to pay attention.”

Are relations between HOAs and residents getting worse? Here's why experts think so. — Michael Gordon | The Charlotte Observer | August 5, 2023

• Gallup’s Confidence in Institutions poll sits at all-time lows in its 50 year history.  View historical Gallup confidence poll data.

View past coverage:  1,  2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18.

Energy

• Small modular reactors (SMRs) are the future of nuclear energy.

…There are three factors sparking this. One is a recognition that demand for electricity will soar in coming years, because of global growth and the fact that digital innovations such as AI need “a lot” of additional electricity. This creates, as Altman admits, “urgent demand for tons and tons of cheap, safe, clean energy at scale”.

Second, relying on fossil fuels to generate this electricity will exacerbate global warming — but renewable sources, such as wind and solar, cannot plug the gap without major breakthroughs in battery storage.

Third, the nuclear tech has changed. In the 20th century, this was generated in massive power plants that were costly and time-consuming to build. The cost of Britain’s planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, for example, has surged to £32bn, while the bill for America’s new Vogtle plants has doubled from $14bn to over $30bn…

Nuclear power’s future is being disrupted — Gillian Tett | Financial Times | August 31, 2023

The Cost of Net Zero

• Heat pumps are more than twice as efficient as fossil fuel heating systems in cold temperatures, research shows.

Even at temperatures approaching -30C, heat pumps outperform oil and gas heating systems, according to the research from Oxford University and the Regulatory Assistance Project thinktank.

Heat pumps twice as efficient as fossil fuel systems in cold weather, study finds — Fiona Harvey | The Guardian | September 11, 2023

Coming in from the cold: Heat pump efficiency at low temperatures — Duncan Gibb, et. al. | Joule | September 11, 2023

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One of the first major industries to start selling climate-conscious products to its consumers may be one of the last to actually decarbonize.

Airlines have been offering customers dubious carbon offsets on their booking sites since at least 2005. This summer holiday season, many of the the same carriers have been replete with boasts that they’ll use revolutionary sustainable fuels to go green. As a growing number of bans, consumer complaints and lawsuits over the past year have demonstrated, those claims are bunk.

Aviation: The Industry's Path to Becoming Green Doesn't Exist… — David Fickling | Bloomberg | September 12, 2023

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To hit its net zero targets, the world is relying on a controversial technology pioneered by the fossil fuel industry. It’s going to cost $4.5 trillion this decade.

Carbon Capture Technology Is Running Out of Time to Prove Itself — Stephen Stapczynski | Bloomberg | September 13, 2023

Environment

• Further evidence that carbon offsets aren’t real.  See more coverage from Issue# 66.

In an all-day investor event in June, Sawan laid out an updated strategy for the European oil major that included cutting costs and doubling down on profit drivers like oil and gas. As important was what he omitted: any mention of the company’s prior commitment to spend up to $100 million a year to build a pipeline of carbon credits, part of the firm’s promise to zero out its emissions by 2050.

Those goals for the offsets program have been retired, the company confirmed, along with the plan to harvest a whopping 120 million carbon credits annually by the end of the decade from projects that sequester carbon with trees, grasses or other natural resources, many of which Shell would develop itself. That would have accounted for about 10% of the company’s emissions. It hasn’t made public any new targets for developing offsets or specified how it now plans to deliver on its future climate commitments…

Europe's Biggest Oil Company Quietly Shelves a Radical Plan to Shrink Its Carbon Footprint — Alastair Marsh and Will Mathis | Bloomberg | August 30, 2023

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…In a paper due to be published later this year, Ren’s team estimates ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. The range varies depending on where its servers are located and the season. The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure — such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity…

Artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa — with a lot of water

— Alastair Marsh and Will Mathis | Associated Press | August 30, 2023

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The world needs to "rapidly accelerate action" on cutting heat-trapping emissions, warns a new report from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Countries have an ever-shrinking window of time to stave off temperatures that would bring more dangerous heat waves, droughts and storms.

The warning comes ahead of major climate change negotiations among world leaders in early December at COP28, to be held in the United Arab Emirates. Countries use the annual summit to discuss their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but so far, they're still falling short.

Climate scientists warn that the world needs to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Beyond that threshold, sea level rise threatens to inundate coastal cities, coral reefs could disappear almost entirely, and extreme weather events become even more common. Currently, the world is on track for around 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming…

The world is still falling short on limiting climate change, according to U.N. report — Lauren Sommer | NPR | September 9, 2023

Implementation must accelerate to increase ambition across all fronts… — UNFCCC | September 8, 2023

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A recently published study shows that paper cups can be just as toxic as conventional plastic ones if they end up littered in our natural environment. Seemingly eco-friendly paper cups are coated with a thin layer of plastic to keep their contents from seeping into the paper, and this lining can emit toxic substances. “There are chemicals leaching out of these materials,” says lead author Bethanie Carney Almroth, an associate professor of environmental science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden…

Sorry, Your Paper Coffee Cup Is a Toxic Nightmare — Sabrina Weiss | WIRED | September 1, 2023

Single-use take-away cups of paper are as toxic to aquatic midge larvae as plastic cups — Bethanie Carney Almroth, et al. | ScienceDirect | August 1, 2023

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Could these strings be a better way to extract lithium?

Revolutionizing Lithium Production On A String — Guest Contributor | CleanTechnia | September 10, 2023

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Experiments have shown that microwaving plastic baby food containers available on the shelves of U.S. stores can release huge numbers of plastic particles — in some cases, more than 2 billion nanoplastics and 4 million microplastics for every square cm of container.

Though the health effects of consuming micro- and nanoplastics remain unclear, the Nebraska team further found that three-quarters of cultured embryonic kidney cells had died after two days of being introduced to those same particles. A 2022 report from the World Health Organization recommended limiting exposure to such particles.

“It is really important to know how many micro- and nanoplastics we are taking in,” said Kazi Albab Hussain, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “When we eat specific foods, we are generally informed or have an idea about their caloric content, sugar levels, other nutrients. I believe it’s equally important that we are aware of the number of plastic particles present in our food.

“Just as we understand the impact of calories and nutrients on our health, knowing the extent of plastic particle ingestion is crucial in understanding the potential harm they may cause. Many studies, including ours, are demonstrating that the toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics is highly linked to the level of exposure.”...

Nebraska study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers — Scott Schrage | Nebraska Today | July 21, 2023 

Housing Affordability & Homelessness

• Not affordable.

According to findings from an Indiana Land Use Task Force meeting Friday, nearly 80% of Hoosier households are being priced out of the housing market.

“The supply isn’t keeping up, and financing challenges with interest rates increasing continue to provide affordability challenges,” Fisher said.

“I think a lot of people would say we’re in a housing crisis right now,” Rick Wajda, the CEO of the Indiana Builders Association, said.

Wajda said the median new home price in Indiana is currently around $400,000, which means a household would need to earn at least $120,000 a year to afford a new home. That leaves roughly 2.1 million Hoosier households out of the market…

Nearly 80% of Indiana households priced out of current housing market — Hannah Adamson | FOX59 | September 8, 2023

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…Baby boomers, who transformed society in so many ways, are now having a dramatic effect on homelessness. Higher numbers of elderly living on the street or in shelters add complications and expenses for hospitals and other crisis services. The humanitarian problem is becoming a public-policy crisis, paid for by taxpayers.

Aged people across the U.S. are homeless in growing numbers in part because the supersize baby boomer generation, which since the 1980s has contributed large numbers to the homeless population, is now old. But other factors have made elderly people increasingly vulnerable to homelessness, and the vast numbers of boomers are feeding the surge…

Why More Baby Boomers Are Sliding Into Homelessness — Shannon Najmabadi | WSJ | September 12, 2023

HUD Releases 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report — December 19, 2022

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Even YIMBYs get things wrong:

YIMBYs are right that the US needs a major expansion of its housing supply. Unfortunately, eliminating restrictions on private housing development won’t do much to get us there…

…unrealistic expectations about how far cities can be changed for the better by “liberating supply,” due to a too-ready acceptance of models that try to adapt Econ 101 thinking to the sui generis problem of urban housing…

…in order to work as intended, upzoning needs to clear a high hurdle: it needs to result in the number of homes per plot of land expanding by more, proportionally, than land prices increase. If it doesn’t, then housing is unlikely to get any cheaper…

The Problem With YIMBY Economics — Seth Ackerman | Jacobin | September 1, 2023

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…Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. homes were valued at $1 million or more in June, a share close to last summer's all-time high and up from a 12-month low in February, according to Redfin.

Of note: Washington's slice of million-dollar plus homes rose from more than 6% in June 2019 to about 16% in June 2023, Redfin's data shows…

One third of Seattle homes are worth at least $1 million — Christine Clarridge and Sami Sparber | Axios | August 29, 2023

Condo Connection's financial coverage is indexed to our Dollar$ and $ense page dedicated to all things CIC finance.

You know the drill: Bad news for the economy turns out to be good for stocks, and good news becomes bad. It’s happening again, and it’s all thanks to inflation—or more to the point, worries about inflation.

This could be part of a generational shift in how markets operate. For most of the 20th century—aside from the Great Depression, World War II and the Vietnam War—stocks and bond yields moved in opposite directions. But today’s investors grew used to stocks and bond yields going in the same direction, as they did from 2000 to 2021.

In the past two years, the pattern has reverted to the old normal, as inflation concerns came to the fore…

The Generational Paradigm Shift Taking Over Markets — James Mackintosh | WSJ | September 6, 2023

Inflation and Monetary Policy

• Still on the rise: a 10th consecutive rate hike for the ECB to 4.5%.

European Central Bank hikes rates to record level, hints at possible peak — Jenni Reid | CNBC | September 14, 2023

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The heat is on.  Time to pay the piper for gorging on low rates.

In the decade before the Covid-19 pandemic, governments, businesses and households became addicted to low interest rates, gorging on debt to fund everything from expensive new cars to crisis-fighting stimulus and leveraged buyouts.

That era was a product of the sluggish, low-inflation environment that prevailed after the 2007-09 global financial crisis, and now it is over. As investors have come to that realization in recent weeks, long-term bond yields have risen to 15-year highs. The Federal Reserve’s federal-funds rate averaged 0.5% from 2009 through 2021. Today it is between 5.25% and 5.5% and markets think it will be around 3.5% for the next decade…

Among the most exposed: taxpayers. Federal debt held by the public rocketed from 35% of gross domestic product at the end of 2007 to 93% in the first quarter of this year as Uncle Sam borrowed first to bail out banks, then to prop up growth, then to cut taxes, then cushion the economy from the pandemic, and now to support manufacturing.

Rates Are Up. We’re Just Starting to Feel the Heat.

— Greg Ip, Joe Pinsker, Will Parker, Walden Siew, Jennifer Willaims-Alvarez, Veronica Dagher and Telis Demos | WSJ | September 1, 2023

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The federal budget deficit is expected to balloon to about $2 trillion for fiscal year 2023, roughly double what it was in the previous fiscal year, according to a government watchdog group.

The surge stems largely from a sharp decline in tax revenues, coupled with an increase in mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare and interest payments, as well as in other areas. It follows a sharp drop in the budget shortfall in fiscal year 2022 after two years of giant deficits swollen by record government spending on Covid-19 pandemic relief measures.

Federal budget deficit expected to nearly double to around $2 trillion… — Tammi Luhby | CNN | September 6, 2023

Cashing In

• Brokered CDs are the ticket to the best yields competitive with US Treasuries.  Some banks are playing yield catch-up by offering a high proportion of these products as a percentage of their net deposits.

…Many industry players view brokered deposits as a double-edged sword. They can be a quick and easy way for a bank to shore up its balance sheet. The deposits are typically much more expensive because banks have to pay higher interest rates to lure in those customers, along with other fees. Regulators and bankers say they are also a type of “hot” money that is prone to disappear when a bank hits a rough patch, since these yield-seeking customers don’t tend to be loyal…

Brokered deposits are what they sound like: A bank can go to a third-party broker such as Morgan Stanley or Fidelity to find customers to invest in the bank’s high-yielding certificates of deposit. That allows the bank to get big influxes of money at once, rather than customer by customer.

Brokered deposits remained a relatively small percentage of total deposits at these banks. But at some smaller regional banks, such as Associated Banc-Corp and Valley National Bancorp, brokered deposits accounted for more than 10% of domestic deposits, a level that can make regulators wary. The FDIC can charge higher insurance fees to banks that have high concentrations of brokered deposits…

Banks Load Up on $1.2 Trillion in Risky ‘Hot’ Deposits — Gina Herb | WSJ | September 12, 2023

Cashing Out

Municipal-bond investors are paying a greater premium than should be expected for the “pleasure of not being taxed,” a new study finds, often negating the bonds’ benefit.

In a perfectly priced world, a muni bond would pay interest equivalent to a Treasury bond minus the investors’ tax burden on the Treasury and adjusted for liquidity and credit quality of the issuing state or municipality.

But munis pay investors even less than that, according to the study, which appeared in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper in June. On average, the study found, the yield of the muni bonds was nearly 15 basis points, or 0.15 percentage point, lower than what would be explained by their favorable tax status…

Municipal-Bond Investors Pay a Hefty Price for Not Being Taxed — Daisy Maxey | WSJ | September 3, 2023 

Prevailing

• 'The best we could do was prevail'.  2023’s HB1310 became law in North Dakota.

…The law was passed, and a court date for Woodruff v. Elm Terrace Condominium Association was set, but the judicial process ended in mediation in May, when the case was settled. The association agreed to pay Woodruff $20,000, garage heaters had to be submetered, and the entire board of directors had to resign, among other stipulations…

…“I think the biggest overarching comment or advice that I would give is for folks to communicate," he said. "So many issues, especially in condo associations and other communities where people live in close quarters — communication early is just so key."

Fargo woman takes condo association to court over power bill for EV, inspires new law

— C.S. Hagen | Grand Forks Herald | September 5, 2023     [No Paywall Version]

Inspection Requirements

• Do you live in Florida or are you keen to learn more about milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies (SIRS)?  Read on!

HOA Q&A: What are the new requirements for structural inspections of condo buildings?

— S. Kyla Thomson | TCPalm | June 24, 2023

Lock and Key

• The following articles touch upon reasonable rules, contracts with Board members, unit access and trespassing.  You’ll find language about possessing methods of access in Ideas for your Declaration: Language to Live By.

Association must keep unit keys under lock and key

— David M. Bendoff | Daily Herald | August 11, 2023

Condo legal expert aghast at this purported association trespass

— Ryan Poliakoff | The Palm Beach Post | January 27, 2023

Electioneering

• There is a void of statutory text compelling fair elections for community associations, including, but not limited to, electioneering.  While political speech and campaigning is thankfully protected in many states, electioneering goes further and pushes the boundaries: the use of official association resources, staff, and/or vendors to influence the outcome of an election.  In its most basic form, electioneering involves telling owners for whom they should vote.

Resident raises red flag in condo election, but is the concern legit?

— Ryan Poliakoff | The Palm Beach Post | January 18, 2023

Selective Enforcement…Or Not

• “Step down … or else.”  Many homeowners express concerns related to selective enforcement.  This homeowner joined the Board and then sought relief from the court.  An interesting read about issues of law (decided by a court) vs. issues of fact (decided by a jury).  Intriguingly, plaintiff’s appealed despite finding favor with the jury.

VIDEO: Harrisburg homeowners win jury trial against Heatherstone HOA

— C.S. Hagen | WCNC Charlotte | September 5, 2023

Aziz v. Heatherstone | North Carolina COA22-819 | Aziz v. Heatherstone Opinion

Not a Meeting

• California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District decided two important issues:

  • discussion of association business via email does not constitute a meeting

  • emergency meetings held via email do not require unanimous consent

In sum, we conclude “board meeting,” as defined by section 4090, subdivision (a), is an in-person gathering of a quorum of the directors of a homeowners association at the same time and in the same physical location for the purpose of talking about and taking action on items of association business. E-mail exchanges among directors on those items that occur before a board meeting and in which no action is taken on the items, such as those at issue in this case, do not constitute board meetings within the meaning of that provision. The trial court therefore correctly rejected appellants’ claims that the e-mail exchanges were board meetings that violated the OMA.

LNSU #1, LLC v. Alta Del Mar Coastal Collection Community Assn. — August 25, 2023

Sex Offenders

• Know your statutes!  See this ruling from Pennsylvania and then read this from Utah:

2023 Utah Bills HB146 and HB0099 amended 57-8-8.1(10) and 57-8a-218(18): 

A rule may restrict a sex offender from accessing a protected area that is maintained, operated, or owned by the association, subject to the exceptions described in Subsection 77-27-21.7(3).

Utah bill passes restricting registered sex offenders at HOA pools, parks, playgrounds

— Wendy Halloran | KJZZ | February 14, 2023

Emotional Support

• The protagonist in this story does not live in a community association, but a neighbor engaged the city to enforce a livestock ordinance against him.  This is a worthy read about assistance animals.  Read more on our Animals & Pets page.

He fought to keep an emotional support emu at his home — and won

— Olivia Diaz | Washington Post | September 5, 2023

Supreme Application

• The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals applied a decision from SCOTUS (see They Took Too Much from Issue# 67) to decide the following case denying the plaintiff fair market value minus the debt owed in a foreclosure case.

...The Michigan Supreme Court, in addressing this exact issue, held that awarding the fair market value of a property instead of the price obtained at a public tax foreclosure sale “would run  contrary  to  the  general  principle  that  just  compensation  is  measured  by  the  value  of  the property taken” and would “not only . . . [take] money away from the public” but would also allow  plaintiffs  to  “benefit  from  their  tax  delinquency.”   Rafaeli,  LLC  v.  Oakland  County, 952N.W.2d 434,  465–66  (Mich.  2020)...

Donald Freed v. Michelle Thomas, No. 21-1248 (6th Cir. 2023) — Justia