08.22.24

ISSUE # 97

CIC Info Bytes 08/22/24

CIC Info Bytes are frequent, succinct updates providing educational and engagement opportunities that help your community thrive!  Please forward and share this newsletter with your peers, neighbors and colleagues so they can connect and join.  Our goal is to curate content that provides a robust basis for contextual understanding to support practical takeaways for you and your association.  Please consider following us on Twitter and Reddit. 

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Florida Condo Termination Is Still a Thing

• Boca Raton, Florida: Developers are scooping up condominium units to squeeze out owners and develop the properties of their dreams.  Different courts are providing different answers.  Also see Termination Overruled in Issue# 96.

…“Simply put, we bought a beautiful condo 32 years ago that was supposed to be our forever home,” they wrote in a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis…

Howard and Melissa Fellman say it’s bad enough that they lost their lawsuit to prevent an investor from terminating their Boca Raton condominium and forcing them to sell their unit for a below-market price.

Then the Fellmans watched a court in Miami side with condo owners there who waged a similar fight. Yet the couple say they can’t use the ruling to compel their district court to reconsider its decision…

Florida couple losing condo they’ve owned for 32 years to investor who changed the rules

— Ron Hurtibise | Tampa Bay Times for South Florida Sun Sentinel | August 14, 2024

No Bailouts for Florida Condo Owners

• The Florida legislature is going to let things play out and consider a bill during the 2025 session to stop the immediate full funding insanity and prevent condo homelessness.

Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was up to the Legislature to address significant increases in assessments that residents face on top of homeowners association fees.

“If the Legislature has ideas about how to make this more sensible for people, I’m totally open to all that,” DeSantis told reporters while in Aventura on July 25…

On Friday, August 16, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo ruled out a special legislative session to address problems facing condominium associations and owners, including soaring costs.

…She pointed to what she described as “misconceptions and inaccuracies” about condominium laws passed after the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside that killed 98 people.

“In my view, no law is perfect. Sometimes issues arise during implementation, and there is often room for improvement,” Passidomo wrote in the memo. “However, the legislative process best serves Floridians when there is analysis, collaboration, and input from all stakeholders.

“I believe the upcoming committee weeks and regular session following our post-election reorganization provide the best opportunity for this type of dialogue.”...

…“The problem is, as with all lifestyles, condominium living comes at a price,” Passidomo wrote. “Costs associated with ongoing maintenance and repairs are supposed to be shared among owners, in addition to setting aside significant savings for long-term structural needs over time.”...

Florida Senate president rules out special session to address condo issues — Jim Turner | Orlando Sentinel | August 16, 2024

ZeGONE

• Payment processing is a big business.  Automatic payments can be a blessing … or a nightmare.

Homeowners in Highlands Ranch will have a new way to pay their quarterly assessments following complaints about the difficulty of paying the fees using a global payments company called ZeGo. 

“The main complaint we received from homeowners using ZeGo was the autopay functionality,” said Rebecca Ruiz, Highlands Ranch Community Association director of marketing and communications. 

All autopays with ZeGo will be terminated on July 29, said Ruiz, and any resident who wants to set up one-time payments or automatic payments can register on a different system called Versapay beginning Aug. 1. 

The trouble came when the Highlands Ranch Community Association changed assessment amounts. Homeowners who were set up with automatic payments had to log in to their accounts and update their autopay amounts and the association couldn’t change them for residents in ZeGo... 

Citing complaints, Highlands Ranch Community Association switches assessment pay systems — Haley Lena | Colorado Community Media | July 24, 2024

Yet Another Survey…Kinda

• The latest community association satisfaction survey article is missing…the actual survey.

We unfortunately do not know who paid Tyson Group to perform the survey.  Was there industry sponsorship bias?  The source of the money, the actual questions asked and more specifics about the survey itself are all important factors.

Condo Connection has a Statistics page with several other surveys, perhaps most notably the Colorado DORA HOA Homeowner Satisfaction Survey performed by a state government organization with no skin in the game and close to 1,700 responses.

…Tyson Group conducted online surveys with about 550 self-identified community association members July 24 through July 26. Some 69% of the participants were HOA members, another 15% were members of condo associations and 16% were members of both, meaning they had rental properties in both kinds of developments.

Out of the sampling, 65% said they’re satisfied with their community association governing bodies. Another 59% said they felt those community associations were worth the extra community fees assessed by their developments with the majority of those being surveyed paying between $99 to $499 per month for association fees.

Out of those surveyed, 68% said they felt those monthly fees and rules laid down by community associations increased the quality of life in their housing developments…

Survey shows Floridians like their HOAs and condo associations — Drew Dixon | Florida Politics | August 11, 2024

Association Bankruptcy?

• Colorado Springs, Colorado: Your association probably isn’t going bankrupt, BUT you might be in for a hefty special assessment.

Many HOAs are on the brink of bankruptcy, according to local property managers. This means they're forced to pass the buck on to residents, who are then facing hundreds of dollars per month in increased fees and even tighter restrictions than years prior.

It's not a new trend to HOA managers, who say it's been going on for years.

"Many of the associations are, you know, one large repair away from being bankrupt," Rudy Thompson, President of Doorman Association Management. "You know, if they had one large plumbing repair in some instances, it could bankrupt many of these associations."

Thompson went on to say that it had to do with increasing costs associated with running an HOA, like insurance, maintenance, and backlogged property maintenance.

Homeowner's Associations are raising fees and tightening restrictions — Emily Coffey | KRDO | August 16, 2024

Hall of Shame - Part I

• Las Vegas, Nevada: The Four Winds HOA has 169 homes on about 37 acres, but it’s far from idyllic…

Homeowners' associations, or HOAs, are supposed to protect your home's value and theoretically make life a little nicer, if not a little easier.

But 13 Investigates has reported for years on HOAs and management companies that have made it difficult and stressful for neighbors to be at peace in their own homes.

A latest member is inducted to the HOA Hall of Shame after residents of a northwest valley neighborhood raised red flags, concerned about how their HOA is spending funds and frustrated with what they call a lack of transparency.

HOA Hall of Shame: Homeowners question $20,000 plus petty cash budget — Darcy Spears | KTNV 13 Action News | June 14, 2024

Hall of Shame - Part II

• Las Vegas, Nevada: More action at Four Winds.

With nearly 3000 homeowners associations in Nevada, chances are you live in a community governed by an HOA. That comes with a monthly pricetag paid by every homeowner that's supposed to support common areas and community amenities. But 13 Investigates discovered HOA board members sometimes use community money in questionable ways, and that suspicion led to this latest addition to our HOA Hall of Shame…

…He's talking about mileage reimbursements to Four Winds HOA board President Jerry Shaner. According to the audit, the HOA paid Shaner $8,300 in 2019, $5,655 in 2020 and $6,572 in 2021.

Doing the math using the 2019 IRS mileage reimbursement rate of 58 cents per mile, that comes to 14,310 miles Shaner claims he drove for HOA business in just 2019 alone.

"My question would be, what are you doing and where are you going?" Flammey asks.

Shaner wouldn't answer any of our questions, deferring to the board's attorney who did not return our calls or emails…

…we found something that we've never seen in all the years of our HOA Hall of Shame reporting. At Four Winds, homeowners' money was used to purchase a plaque with an entire paragraph dedicated to the board president--thanking him for doing all of the things that, as president, he's supposed to be doing…

HOA Hall of Shame: Homeowners outraged over comments recorded in a board meeting — Darcy Spears | KTNV 13 Action News | June 20, 2024

Rochester Towers Update

• Rochester, Minnesota: Rochester Towers condominium should be fully occupied by now.  Read more about what happened in Issue# 69.

The City of Rochester says the Rochester Towers deemed these 12 units to unlivable because of ongoing construction after residents were forced to evacuate the condominium seven months ago after a city engineer announced the building to be structurally unsound.

City says 12 units still remain unoccupied inside the Rochester Towers Condominium — Brandon Cote | KIMT 3 | January 09, 2024

Up In Smoke (Again)

• Austin Texas: Fire destroyed 4 units at the Twelve Oaks condominium.

VIDEO: Fire destroys part of West Campus condominium complex in Austin — Morgan McGrath and Kelsey Sanchez | KVUE | August 13, 2024

Falling Apart

• Guragon, India: The Oakwood Estate Condominium Association is falling apart, literally.

A 20-feet-long and 2.5-feet-wide concrete slab fell on two cars at D Tower in Oakwood Estate condominium in DLF Phase Two on Thursday evening, the condominium’s resident welfare association (RWA)said on Friday, adding that the cars were unoccupied at the time and there were no injuries in the incident. The slab was part of a projection of a tower in the condominium…

...“We have lodged a complaint with DLF and asked them to conduct a structural audit. We have carried out repairs in different parts of the building but this part of the slab was not touched. This is an issue which has arisen due to missing steel bars,” he said, adding that no complaint has been lodged with government authorities....

...A senior DLF official said that maintenance of the condominium was handed over to the RWA more than 15 years ago...

Concrete slab falls on two cars at DLF condominium — Abhishek Behl | Hindustan Times | August 10, 2024

High Hacked Security

• HID keycards have been compromised.

HID Global's keycards—the company's radio-frequency-enabled plastic rectangles that are inside hundreds of millions of pockets and purses—serve as the front line of physical security for hundreds of companies and government agencies. They can also be spoofed, it turns out, by any hacker clever enough to read one of those cards with a hidden device that brushes within about a foot of it, obtain an HID encoder device, and use it to write the stolen data to a new card.

Now a team of security researchers is about to reveal how one of HID's crucial protections against that cloning technique—secret cryptographic keys stored inside its encoders—has been defeated, significantly lowering the barrier to copying credentials that let intruders impersonate staff and unlock secure areas worldwide…

…The researchers' method, presented publicly for the first time at Defcon, mostly affects the majority of HID's customers with lower-security installations of its products, and it isn't exactly easy to pull off. HID also says it’s been aware of the technique since sometime last year and that it’s quietly worked with many of its customers to help them protect themselves against the cloning technique over the last seven months. But the possibility of extracting and leaking HID's keys considerably raises the risk that hackers—now even those without HID encoders—will be able to surreptitiously scan and copy keycards, says Adam Laurie, a longtime physical security researcher and head of product security at electric-vehicle-charging firm Alpitronic, whom the Defcon speakers briefed on their research ahead of their talk. “If you get that crypto key out of the encoder, then you can derive any component of the system from it,” Laurie says. “It is literally the keys to the kingdom.”...

How Hackers Extracted the ‘Keys to the Kingdom’ to Clone HID Keycards — Andy Greenberg | WIRED | August 09, 2024

• Property insurance EMERGENCY. 🚨🚨🚨

Gov. Josh Green has issued an emergency proclamation to stabilize the insurance market where condominium buildings have been unable to secure full insurance coverage from one of the three companies operating in Hawaiʻi.

The proclamation would allow the state to loan up to $60 million in general funds to the Hawaiʻi Hurricane Relief Fund and the Hawaiʻi Property Insurance Association to issue insurance policies.

It would also allow the Hawaiʻi Hurricane Relief Fund to issue hurricane insurance again, which it has not done since the early 2000s…

Governor issues emergency proclamation over condominium insurance rates — Ashley Mizuo | Hawai’i Public Radio | August 08, 2024

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Governor Josh Green signed an emergency proclamation aimed at stabilizing Hawai’i’s volatile condominium insurance market, which has seen unprecedented rate increases due to a hardening global insurance industry and recent increase of catastrophic events around the world.

Hawai’i’s property insurance market faces significant challenges due to its small size, high real estate costs and unique risk profile. The wildfire in Maui has highlighted these issues for our state, leading to skyrocketing insurance rates for condos, some increasing by as much as 1,000%. With the possibility of similar rate hikes for townhouses, immediate action is required to protect Hawai’i homeowners and maintain market stability.

Governor Green emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating, “The recent surge in condo insurance rates is placing an unbearable burden on homeowners across our state. This emergency proclamation is a critical step to stabilize our insurance market and protect our residents from further financial strain. By working closely with industry experts, federal partners and legislative leaders, we aim to ensure that Hawai’i remains a viable and secure place to live, even in the face of global insurance challenges. Our commitment is to safeguard the interests of our communities and provide stability for people living and working in Hawai’i.”

Governor Green signs emergency proclamation to address the condominium insurance crisis — The Maui News | August 12, 2024

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The wildfire risk in Diann Dumas’ neighborhood is very low. And yet it’s making her bills more and more difficult to pay.

She lives in Village Green, a park-like condo complex in the middle of the busy, concrete neighborhoods of South Los Angeles. The hundreds of 1940s townhomes and bungalows encircle a manicured green space…

…A report from S&P Global Market Intelligence says insurance rates have jumped more than 11% in 2023. It’s gone up nearly 20% since 2022. Texas, Utah and Arizona saw the worst increases last year. Meanwhile tens of thousands of State Farm policyholders in California’s high-fire-risk areas lost their insurance altogether. 

Last spring, Village Green’s insurance costs went up. Dumas’ fee went up 20% this year, from $523 per month to $628 per month.

“With my income frozen with Social Security and a pension, I have to be really careful,” she said.

The 20% increase is the maximum allowed by state law. The insurance on the property actually went up 475%. There are several possible causes, but wildfire risk isn’t one of them. So Dumas has been cutting costs wherever she can…

Urban condo owners also see insurance costs soar — Caleigh Wells | Marketplace | August 16, 2024

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When a nor’easter struck in 2018, intense winds blew shingles, gutters and siding off Brandi Schmitt’s home in Lothian, Maryland…What started as wind and water damage evolved into something much worse: mold…

…Despite paying for extra “fungus, wet or dry rot” coverage of up to $15,000 in her policy, Schmitt said USAA did not remove wet insulation from the attic where she believes the mold is growing. Air samples in the home taken in January 2020 found “problem mold concentrations,” according to fungal activity review documents USAA provided to Schmitt.

Schmitt and her husband, Joseph, sued the insurer in 2019. A unanimous jury on March 7, 2023, determined USAA materially breached the terms of their homeowner policy and awarded Schmitt $41,480 for interior repairs and $7,200 for additional living expenses. She is currently appealing the damages because of estimates that repairs will cost much more…

Insurers deemed mold too risky decades ago. That coverage gap still surprises homeowners — Genna Contino | CNBC | August 11, 2024

• Inflation and a glut of listings means condos are a losing investment in Toronto.

Shemeer Ahmad is stuck with a condominium investment located near Toronto that’s losing hundreds of dollars every month.

The entrepreneur purchased a two-bedroom apartment in 2019, as rents were rising and real estate seemed like a safe bet. Now, he’s losing around C$830 ($604) every month as high mortgage rates and other costs suck up more than what he receives in rent. He could sell — but he’s worried he would lose tens of thousands of dollars on it.

“I’m in this kind of ‘Catch 22’,” Ahmad said. “It’s simply a bad investment.”

He’s not alone. About 77% of investors who closed on a new Toronto condo with a mortgage last year are losing money, up from 52% in 2022, according to a report from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and industry consultant Urbanation. The average monthly losses on these new units hit C$597 last year…

Toronto Condo Investors Are Losing Money — Aimee Look | Bloomberg | August 12, 2024

Built Environment

From a tall structure with a metal screen in SoHo to house extensions in neighborhoods around Prospect Park, we've rounded up seven townhouses in New York City designed to make the most of narrow lots.

New Yorkers know space is at a premium, from crowded subways and streets to tiny apartments in prewar buildings.

Within the city, families who want more space often opt for a townhouse – multi-floor buildings with internal staircases that sit alongside larger apartment structures. This type of apartment is most common in the denser areas of the outer boroughs, especially in Brooklyn…

Seven skinny New York townhouses making the most of urban space — Ben Dreith | Dezeen | August 14, 2024

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A remarkably ambitious proposal in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, looks set to take timber to new heights. Assuming all goes to plan, the project will become the world's tallest timber skyscraper once complete.

The currently unnamed skyscraper is designed by Michael Green Architecture (MGA), the founder of which is a pioneer of modern timber construction and has played a huge part in popularizing modern big wooden buildings in North America.

We don't actually have an exact height figure at this early stage, but the firm has said that it will consist of up to 55 floors. To put this into perspective, the current world's tallest timber building, which is also in Milwaukee, is the Ascent, which contains just 25 floors. So it will be a substantial height increase. The tower will be partially covered with greenery and include multiple terrace areas. It's also part of a larger development by Neutral that will be built on the site of an existing garage that's a local landmark and the site of a, ahem, beloved snow pile…

New world's tallest timber skyscraper planned for the USA — Adam Williams | New Atlas | August 09, 2024

Inflation and Monetary Policy

• FOMC rate cut on the way.

The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July meeting showed the “vast majority” of officials see a rate cut in September as appropriate, while several saw a plausible case for a reduction at the last decision. That sets up Chair Jerome Powell to usher in the next phase of the Fed’s inflation battle at Jackson Hole on Friday, when he’s expected to further underpin the view that a cut is coming.

Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day — Sam Unsted | Bloomberg | August 22, 2024

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A few weeks ago, Wall Street was panicking. Now, the US looks to be in soft-landing territory with inflation falling below a crucial threshold as the country nears the end of its battle back from the pandemic’s economic aftermath. While the US economy is cooling by design, consumers are still spending and more upbeat, further cementing the unmatched status of America’s resilience following the 2020 recession. After close to two years of historically low unemployment and more recently rising wages, the Federal Reserve’s oft-criticized caution continues to bear fruit as the central bank is poised to start lowering interest rates. But the process is still a balancing act. With pandemic savings largely gone and wage growth cooling, many Americans are increasingly resorting to credit cards and other loans—raising questions about the sustainability of consumer spending, especially as more people are falling behind on payments.

— Victoria Cavaliere and Ian Fisher | Bloomberg Weekend Reading | August 17, 2024 

Cashing In

• Index investing set for a rough patch?

It's investing advice that you've probably heard over and over again: buy an index fund, don't touch it, and watch your nest egg grow.

And for good reason. History has proven this to be a brilliant strategy if investors are willing to hold for the long term. For example, $100 invested in the S&P 500 in 1990 would be worth $3,220 today. Returns on index funds tracking major indexes have been so good while requiring minimal effort that they're where investing legend Warren Buffett tells most people to put their money.

Odds are this approach will continue to succeed over a multi-decade period. This is even more the case for investors who dollar-cost-average, or buy in increments over a long period of time, during ups and downs in the market.  But evidence shows that it's an utterly terrible time to buy into the broader market, especially for investors looking to hold for around a decade.  That's a bold statement, considering the S&P 500 is up 25% over the last year…

S&P 500 Index Funds Are in for a Decade From Hell — William Edwards | Business Insider | August 18, 2024

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To protect older Americans’ life savings, President Joe Biden pledged in October to crack down on financial advisers who recommend investments just because they pay higher commissions. Then the insurance industry got to work.

Lobbying groups representing New York Life, Lincoln Financial Group, Prudential Financial and other companies first pushed back against the newly proposed regulations before suing to topple them entirely. Now the government’s latest attempt to protect retirees is in political and legal limbo, facing the possibility that it may never take effect.

It is the latest example of a pervasive pattern: As the Biden administration tries to impose new restrictions on powerful industries, those businesses successfully turn to Congress and the courts for a reprieve. This time, the resulting clash centers on a basic question: Should federal law require more financial professionals to put retirees’ needs above all else — including their own paychecks — when they offer advice about how to invest?...

Insurance lobbyists block federal crackdown on costly retirement advice — Tony Romm | Washington Post | August 11, 2024

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Home prices are higher. Stocks are higher. And so is the sum Americans think they need to feel rich.

Americans on average believe it takes a net worth of $2.5 million to be considered wealthy in 2024, according to annual survey results released Wednesday. That’s a 14% jump from last year, when the Charles Schwab Modern Wealth survey found Americans thought it took $2.2 million to be rich....

...The older someone is, the higher their definition of wealth in the survey. Baby boomers said being wealthy takes $2.8 million, while millennials peg it at $2.2 million. Overall, slightly more than one-in-five Americans said they were “on track” to be wealthy, and 10% said they were wealthy already. 

When asked what average net worth you’d need to be considered “financially comfortable,” Americans said $778,000 — a big drop from last year’s results and on par with 2022 results. As inflation remained hot in 2023, the number rose to $1 million, the highest reading since the survey’s 2017 start...

Americans Say It Takes $2.5 Million to Be Considered Wealthy — Suzanne Woolley | Bloomberg | August 21, 2024

Hearings Required

• Fulton County, Georgia: An HOA filed suit against an owner over a no-leasing provision.  The owner never appeared for a deposition.  The district judge ruled in favor of the HOA without a hearing.  This appeal reverses that decision.

KSENIYA PARFENOVA v. HEDINGTON SQUARE HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATION, INC. — Georgia Court of Appeals Fifth Division | July 31, 2024

Unfinished Condo Leads to Lawsuit

• Boca Raton, Florida: Every reasonable person would want their deposit back if a developer never finished building their home.  Clawing back the funds isn’t always easy.

A Highland Beach couple is suing an affiliate of Boca Raton-based Penn Florida Cos. in a bid to recoup their deposit on a unit at the unfinished Mandarin Oriental condominium…

Buyers sue to recoup Mandarin Oriental deposit on unfinished Boca Raton condo — Alexandra Clough | The Palm Beach Post | … , 2024

CONSTRUCTION SCAM? Boca Raton Mandarin Oriental Condo Delays Lead To Lawsuit — BocaNewsNow | August 17, 2024

Buyers sue developer of long delayed Mandarin Oriental Boca Raton — Katherine Kallergis | The RealDeal| August 22, 2024

Voluntary Payment Doctrine

• Fayetteville, Georgia: The Rivercrest HOA.  Voluntary payment doctrine applies to fines recovered via lien upon sale of a home.

A Clayton County judge has sided with a homeowner’s association in its dispute with a couple who say they were blindsided by thousands of dollars in fines when they tried to sell their home.

Clayton Magistrate Court Judge John Parker has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Richard and Tae Haupt against Rivercrest Homeowners Association, which put a $5,665 lien against their property in late 2023.

Parker said because the Haupts settled the fee prior to closing on the home, the voluntary payment doctrine applies and rules out recovery of the lien. The voluntary payment doctrine mandates that to recover a payment, it has to have been made involuntarily because some facts were not known at the time of the transaction or a valid reason existed for failure to determine the truth, the court said…

Clayton County judge dismisses lawsuit in HOA dispute — Leon Stafford | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | August 08, 2024

Settlement: Associa, TownSq and Convenience Fees

• Montgomery County, Maryland: A settlement over convenience fees.

A proposed class action alleges Associations, Inc. (Associa), Select Community Services (SCS) and HOAM Ventures unlawfully charge a $2.95 convenience fee when collecting monthly homeowners’ association (HOA) dues from Maryland homeowners.

Plaintiffs commenced this action on February 14, 2023, by filing a lawsuit in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland, Case No. C-15-CV-23-000495, alleging Defendants violated the Maryland Consumer Debt Collection Act (MCDCA), Maryland Consumer Protection Act (MCPA), and state common law causes of action by charging and collecting additional processing fees when homeowners paid their monthly homeowner’s association and/or condominium association dues online through an application called “TownSq” (“Convenience Fees”).  Defendants removed this case to this Court on March 27, 2023. [ECF No. 1]. 

The claims are based on the allegation that Defendants charged and collected millions of dollars in Convenience Fees from homeowners, in addition to their regular monthly dues payments, and that this practice violates Maryland law. Defendants deny the allegations in the Complaint and deny their actions were in any way unlawful.

SETTLEMENT BENEFITS: MONETARY RELIEF

The Settlement Agreement, if approved, will create a $600,000.00 common fund and will resolve the claims of Plaintiffs and the Settlement Class Members deriving from Defendants’  practice of charging fees for making payments using the TownSq website (“Convenience Fees”). The common fund, which represents an estimated 26% of the total Convenience Fees collected by Defendants from the Class during the class period, will provide cash payments to Settlement Class Members, as well as Administrative Costs to provide notice and administer the settlement, and any Fee and Expense Award and Service Awards that the Court may approve. Settlement Class Members need not submit a claim form in order to receive monetary compensation. Settlement Class Members who paid at least one Convenience Fee are entitled to receive a payment of $2.95 from the Net Settlement Fund, with the remainder paid to Settlement Class Members on a pro rata basis, based upon the amount of Convenience Fees paid by each Settlement Class Member during the Class Period.

SETTLEMENT BENEFITS: INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

In addition to the common fund, the Settlement includes important and valuable injunctive relief requiring Defendants to ensure that (1) all entities owned by Defendants that communicate directly with Maryland consumers regarding payment of their homeowner’s association and condominium associations fees and assessments are licensed under the Maryland Collection Agency Licensing Act, and (2) Send notices, twice per year for three years after the Effective Date of the Settlement Agreement, in substantially the same form as provided in Exhibit D to the Settlement Agreement, to Maryland homeowner’s association and condominium association members who reside in communities that offer the TownSq application, informing them of available free payment methods for making payments as an alternative to using the TownSq application. 

Birks et al v. Small Community Specialists LLC - Class Action Settlement Order - 07/11/24

8:23-cv-00837 - Birks et al v. Small Community Specialists, L.L.C. et al

Class Action Claims Certain Maryland Homeowners Charged Illegal Fees on HOA Dues — Kelly Mehorter | ClassAction.org | March 30, 2023

Banning Banners

• Do you know your state law?  It can come in handy this time of year when political signs and flags abound.  California Civil Code § 4710.  Also see Flag Drama in Issue# 93.

There is a debate over banners posted on one Lodi resident's house after their homeowner's association sent a letter that said he had to remove the signs he had posted out in front that support Donald Trump.

The letter that was sent to Lodi resident Paul Wood Bonilla last week makes no mention of politics, but Bonilla still feels like he is being targeted…

VIDEO: Lodi homeowner keeping Trump 2024 signs posted on porch despite HOA pushback — Tori Apodaca | CBS | August 18, 2024

Conciliation in California

• Westlake Village, California: Fair Housing Act violations lead to a conciliation agreement.

The Hidden Canyon Homeowners Association (HCHOA), located in Westlake Village, and its recently recalled and removed prior President, James “Jim” Marzec, have reached a settlement in a California Civil Rights Division (CRD) case filed by a member. The case, involving violations of the Fair Housing Act including the denial of a disability-related reasonable accommodation, has been resolved through a Conciliation Agreement facilitated by the CRD (formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing).

Facing the prospect of prolonged, costly, and indefensible litigation, HCHOA and Mr. Marzec opted to settle the matter, recognizing the necessity to address and rectify their actions. The agreement includes several key resolutions for the affected member.

Written Apology: Respondents must provide a formal written apology to the member.

Approval of Accommodation: Respondents must approve the verified disability-related accommodation as requested.

Monetary: Respondents must pay $10,000 in damages to the member.

Additionally, Mr. Marzec and the entire Board of Directors are required to complete three hours of Fair Housing training to ensure his future compliance with fair housing laws. With CRD requiring Mr. Marzec to receive formal education, personal liability for future claims is bolstered. The burden of defending such claims should never be on the HCHOA.

The HCHOA, like all HOAs in California, must be an inclusive and supportive community for all residents including those in protected classes. It is through the bravery of residents who formalize complaints that the CRD can provide oversight of HOAs and take steps to prevent such issues from arising again.

The Conciliation Agreement underscores the critical importance of HOAs adhering to fair housing laws and ensuring reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. It also underscores the importance of electing Directors and engaging managers who place legal compliance above all else.

In California, Conciliation Agreements are public records. All HOA members can benefit from conducting annual due diligence related to their Associations, including requesting copies of completed financial audits and all conciliation and settlement agreements binding the HOA to specific performance. Simply contact your HOA and request the records pursuant to Civil Code § 5205. It’s really that straightforward.

— Douglas Kruschen | August 14, 2024

No Standing

• Orlando, Florida: Legal cases require standing.

CONCLUSION: Matos’s failure to prove standing at trial dooms his claims.  We therefore vacate the district court’s judgment and remand to the district court to dismiss Matos’s case without prejudice.  

Gilberto Matos v Lexington Place Condominium Association — 11th Circuit | August 1, 2024

Gilberto Matos v Lexington Place Condominium Association — US District Court Middle District of Florida Orlando Division | March 1, 2019

Matos v. Lexington Place Condominium Association: 11th Circuit Reverses District Court’s Opinion on Plaintiff’s FDCPA Claims for Lack of Article III Standing

— ACA International | August 2024

• MISSOURI: HB2062 requires HOAs to allow pasturing of chickens (and prohibitions against roosters) subject to reasonable rules.

Homeowners associations in Missouri can no longer ban backyard chickens — Héctor Alejandro Arzate | KCUR | August 12, 2024