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Monday, January 31, 2011

CIC2.0 Open.gov has to come to Condo, Coop & Hoa's

Wow what a giant dark hole we are prying the lid open on when we come to think of Open Gov as it relates to Common Interest Communities (CIC).   This is so far removed from the minds of those enabling, - NO! MANDATING- it that in some US States you don't even have to be told that your home is a combined assets of a nonstock company.  And, as the CIC goes~So does your home.

Eample! Right now in the shadow of Congress and every Agency that is espousing OPEN.data.Gov/.Org new home owners  moving into a Single Family or Townhouse Homeowners Associations (HOA) arn't told about the rules or the finances of the HOA.   That means the biggest financial decision these folks will face in most of their lives~ they will have no information about the investment it rules, finances or even it's existence.   How can our GOV makes disclosure of these things for securities and does not for the homeowner in an associations. How can the Federal Gov back loans in areas that don't offer this basic disclosure to the majority of new home buyers.

Because of this oversight or lack of it the management companies & boards operate in the dark to the membership.  There is no enacted law to ensure this does not happen. Yet there is a uniform law that is being used in VA and partially in MD that would help in the dark homeowners. BTW we can see by resales states that have done so fair better.   I have been to more then one reboot of a HOA after they found the management company or someone with access to the funds stole their money.  It just makes sense a concepts like a Disclosure law;  Yet afters years of seeking one none exist.

In Maryland we get to see the downfall of not enacting the financial disclosure requirements that States like Virginia and Washington  along with the Bylaw, Covenants, rules and regulations (aka CondoHOA Docs) who require financial disclosure for resales in Single Family & Townhouse HOA's.  In Maryland resale buyers when buying their home face a decision about a company/community and they don't get any details in the form of a balance sheet, audited statement or any financial disclosure for that matter . What does the homeowner  have to do to get one leader to step up to the plate this makes no sense.

I am sorry to say that until there is some leadership on the National or State level communities themselves are going to be two steps behind.  However, communities can jump  ahead by making  records available to your members/owners any Gov or Emergency responder that need access to data/info on the cloud.  



Tuesday, January 25, 2011

We launched in 02 to bring attention to Condo, Coop and Hoa's plights



Community Associations (CA), Common Interest Communities (CIC) or Planned Unit Development (PUD) over the last thirty years has become a staple of new home development for many reasons. They may be in the form of a Condominium, Cooperative or Homeowner Associations but they all share in number of characteristic and 1 out of 6 US home fall within one.

Each one of these developments has document and disclosure requirements and they have a responsibility to the membership as a whole to operate the community for the good of all residents and to generally increase the combined property value

What is the affect of non- resident oriented contracts and what are the dangers that may come about because the communities were not making these decisions? It is reported by Community Association Institute, a national trade group of the planned community professionals, that 1 out of 6 homes in the US falls within such a place.


This same group projects that 50 percent of all new home developments are being built as planned communities.




According to the Wayback machine we put this online in Aug 2002. Whois has it up April of 02. 


 It is our opinion that for owners of homes that happen to fall inside a Common Interest Communities it has only gotten worse and the State of the Union Speech tonight will not offer any home for the Millions that find themselves in this situation together. 


Lets see if the Gov has a plan for your CIC we are trying to get them to pay attention and please feel free to visit our new group to do just that.   InternationalCommunityAssociation.org  Help Us Help Your Community.