Homeowner wins against crooked incompetent board
HOA Wall of Shame
by Stephen Richardson
23 May 2016

Cheryl Summers of Aurora Colorado writes:
I have been working to remove our board because they aren't abiding by the rules & regs, the by-laws and declarations of our community. We are being overcharged for work and the board and property management company aren't properly managing or maintaining our property.

I also believe they [the management company] are getting kickbacks, bonuses or using the by-laws to get paid for doing nothing.

Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies is going after the property management company, but there is no one to control the abuse of power by the board. Who by the way, filed a frivolous lawsuit against me and a lien—tried to take my home by not depositing my HOA dues and stating that they didn't accept post dated checks; which they had been accepting since 2003.

Cost me lots of money. The Board used our HOA dues to pay for their attorney. I won because the judge verified they had no case against me because there wasn't a policy; except the one they created for me, and they also committed fraud by falsifying documents.

The community lost because they used our dues/insurance to try to remove me from my home by an illegal lien and illegal attempt to foreclose on me.

We have to stop giving so much power to teh board members of HOAs!

Commentary by Stephen Richardson:
Congratulations, Cheryl, I am not a lawyer, but here are my opinions:

This is one of those events where we wish we could publish the names of the HOA, crooked incompetent Board Members, and the management.

Your experience with this board and management company happens all over the country. If you go after a HOA board, they can retaliate in a number of ways. Some boards will lose your check and attempt to tie you up in court and file a lien on your property. If you don't have good records, and they follow and have in place their state of Colorado required good practices policy statements , they can and will try to set you up and take your house.

The rules favor the board in these skirmishes, and you must be sure your payment paper trail is beyond question when you challenge your board.

The board certainly can force you to direct all your efforts toward saving your house instead of rallying your neighbors to replace them or being a "trouble maker"

You won because your board was incompetent and not properly represented by a reputable property manager. Often these actions can only be undertaken with a complicit property manager.

You also were lucky in court. Many judges will just send you into a one-sided arbitration process that favors your board. It appears as though you had a reputable, skilled attorney that was able discover and raise the fraud aspects of you case.

We would judge that your board is still in place and your neighbors are unaware of your board's actions. They belong in jail, but often boards are untouched for such behavior.

By the way, we would really like to hear about what action Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies takes against your management company, and your satisfaction with the outcome of any complaint filed against them.


top  contents  chapter  previous  next