Prince George's County, Md. Water Emergency Alert for CIC's

If you have not already heard Prince George County Maryland is facing a water emergency.

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. (WUSA9) -- We have learned mandatory water restrictions will begin at 9 p.m. Tuesday in Prince George's County areas affected by a failing water main.

Officials say a significant portion of Prince George's County will be left without water for several days. The issue is due to a 54 inch water main that is beginning to fail and must be replaced.

 Issues of concern will be updated here as this develops.

1. Fire, there are loads of issues on this alone and should be number one concern see below.
2. Cooling stations where are they and how can CIC establish them.
3. Cooking how to without water and eventual food distribution
4. Emergency Preparedness what are other issues especially with elder or disabled residents
5. Businesses what is the impact, does lack of water stop CIC’s contractors from working
6. What is the role and responsibility of Community Managers and Insurance companies. co
   
   

   
   

   1. Fire.  Hot water heaters - LIMIT USE OF THIS WATER AS DAMAGE TO THE HEATER AND POTENTIAL FIRE HAZARD EXIST. Gas or Charcoal Grills outside should not be used at all. Residents and Community Manager need to discuss a Fire Safety Plan and how to manage communications.

   
   

   
   

   This is a developing story please check back for updates as they are come in. 
   
   
   
   
   
   

Maryland's Elected officals bend over backwards to kill your condo or hoa.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland's governor and congressional delegation are asking the state's chief judge to halt all foreclosures in the state for at least 60 days.
In a letter to Chief Judge Robert Bell on Saturday, Gov. Martin O'Malley and all 10 members of Maryland's congressional delegation say immediate action is necessary to avoid miscarriages of justice.  Reported on WTOP

So Governor O'malley it appears that you are aware of the fact that 3 out of 4 of these homes are in a Common Interest Community and if you stop the process of foreclosure and dont help the community then there will be nothing left for the owner to be assoicated with since these homes are bound by convents and bylaws that say they are part and parcel of an over all community.

If your one of these communities I would be scared to death right now because this very same government is going to be after their property taxes and since so many of your neighbors went into default on their mortgage your budget has been balanced since the save button was hit drafing it and your community doesn't have these funds.

Let alone the master utilities, for street lights common area lighting, gas, water, security, repairs maintenance and these politicians have the nerve to cry over some auto signed documents.  Either, the Maryland elected officials hate your condo's coop's and homeowner association or they are clueless as to the effect decision like this one have on these communities. It's only 3 out of 4 homes in Maryland.

Considering that our Chairman Nelson Jacobsen called in and ask one



Maryland Condominiums, Cooperatives and Homeowner/Townhouse Associations are not just worried about the foreclosure. The process he talks about does nothing to help the Communities in fact it delays the amount of time and cost to the community.

What is the hardship on the HOA's How are you going to make these communities whole if you dont address the problem.

WHAT THE PROBLEM Well if they aint paying their mortgage then they're not paying these assessmens, reserve contributions and specail assessment for the homeowners they took the property from in the first place.

It gets better........Maryland HOA's there is a totallack of Financial Disclosure under the MD HOA ACT. When these banks do sell these homes which they are not paying assessment on they are not telling the new owners that the HOA is broke because deadbeats like the banks and FANNIE, FREDDY and HUD. Heck they dont have to even give the budget.

Now if that were't enough some of the biggest dead Beads see BOA-BLOG - FANNIE FREDDY & HUD aren't even giving them the required Documents -Article of Inc,

BTW Many of these CIC are not incorporated because they dont have the money to pay the MD filings.

Declarations, by-laws and any amendments. These are required under the Maryland HOA ACT Disclosure requirments and most of these banks, fannie/freddy and HUD are guilty of wholesale dereliction of responsibility or they are once again -- clueless.

Now considering that so many of Maryland homes are in CIC it find it very hard to believe that didn't notice them popping up in all over the place Considering that any development over 3 unit in Maryland has to form a water association.

So we are going to follow up with Craig Rice in Maryland and introduce him to a number of HOA owners and board directors and see if he's with CIC or against them.

Just stopping foreclosures will do one thing KILL CONDOS & HOAS IN Maryland

What are the Feds gona do?

I just called the main number for FHA and said that I have seen some trends that involve condo's and home owners across America as cited all over this blog. So I left a number and this blog address; So we'll see if anyone actually cares in Washington and I'll post the response here.

So far communities are not getting one ounce of love.

Socializing Associations without worrying about the rest. in VA

In this recent article on the Washington Post website I was taken back by over all lack of understanding of how Common Interest Communities, CIC, work within the local markets. Take this....

"...recently gave rise to a proposal for a targeted rental inspection program. The plan would give county agents unprecedented access inside homes to ensure they are safe and well-maintained. County officials said an inspection program could protect property values by pressuring renters to keep up their dwellings.

Michelle Casciato, chief of the Neighborhood Services Division, recommended that the board consider creating an inspection program after noticing that as owner-occupied rates fell, building maintenance cases and code enforcement calls from residential tenants increased.

"In our experience, when you have higher rates of renter occupancies, community maintenance standards start to slide," Casciato said. "It's fairly well-documented that rental property is not maintained at the same rate."
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State law allows counties to establish residential inspection districts, giving owners 60 days to register all rental property within those boundaries. Once the inventory list is created, agents can inspect homes to ensure they are up to code and safe. Inspectors would have access once every four years, unless a complaint is registered."

Housing Bust Spurs Rental Fears - washingtonpost.com

Funny thing I figured since this and many of the properties that are part of private communities the local government does not have this right since a communities document's would govern this as provided by the VA HOA ACt. unless they have changed the laws in Virginia.

The communities documents all have, or should, provisions for renters.Existing architectural guidelines covenants and bylaws of a community would already provide procedures for dealing with non conforming properties.

What we really have here is the this government's failure to buttress these private communities rights with legislation that would put teeth into roles of boards, overall supervision and collection of delinquent assessments.

So now local government is going to illegally go around the inherent rights of CIC's to government their own private communities and take over one function all the while doing nothing about the other issues like disclosure, assessments, board transparency, and most importantly financial viability all of which most are missing and Virginia is considered a model in CIC's.

Now take the District of Columbia, they have no HOA Act. That is right, surprise, there are no rules about Homeowner Associations. So boards, renters, contractors, the government just does what they want to do. I wonder how long before a responsible public office steps up to the plate to make this happen.

btw. here is a hint about a big problem that this story did not address. Every underwriter of loans that involve a CICs, including Fannie, Freddy, VA, HUD, FHA, all have owner to renter ratio limits. The most important one is that no more then 49 percent of the owners can be renters. It's the 51% Letter. The reality is that those number are really much higher in many cases like 75-85 percent.

So how is your State of Communities?



I guess we'll call it "Socializing Associations" without worrying about the rest.

Guess who ain't getting any FED help

Thats right all you Tens of Millions of residence in Common Interest Communities.

Who is that Condos, Coops, Townhouse and Singe-family Homeowner Community Associations.

The congress, the reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision OPHEA, Fannie, Freddy, and the VA HUD have all been told by me and for years about the problems in your communities.


Well, they all have not done one thing positive for you and with the exception of a a few states and local authorities none one else has either and in some case are detrimental.

Did you known that the so called news show 60 minutes has been faxed again and again and not one producer thinks the 80 million homeowners are Sh*t out of luck.

So to all the banks, investors, and governmental agencies that own so many of these homes now I believe everyone of you are in for a RICO charge the first one of these in a CIC that you own and sell and do not disclose the state of the communities, budget, documents, and board actions.

If you are not paying your communities assessment while you own one of these because of foreclosure then you are now undermining the very community your property is in and in some cases has forced seniors to have to move out because of habitability of the premise.

No one pays the bills,

the insurance, lights, heat, water, security, upkeep and repairs do not get done. The community goes to HELL.

Who is responsible besides the owners. Everyone that is doing nothing to change it.

Condos, Coops, Townhouse, Singe-family, Homeowner, Community Associations, congress, the reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision OPHEA, Fannie, Freddy, VA, HUD

Bail-Out Deadlines and what they forgot to print in the Post.

Bail-Out Deadlines by E-Mail - washingtonpost.com

Bail-Out Deadlines by E-Mail

By Elizabeth Razzi
Sunday, July 15, 2007; Page F05

Buying a condominium? A house in a neighborhood run by a homeowners association? You had better stay on top of your e-mail.

A very large and extremely important document could be coming your way. Its arrival starts the clock ticking on a short period during which you can cancel the deal, should you desire to back out of your purchase contract.
New laws that took effect in Virginia on July 1 change the process for distributing the extensive disclosure packages that must be given to anyone buying a home that is part of a condo or homeowners association. While the law directly affects Virginians, buyers in the District and Maryland, where the disclosure requirements are not as detailed as they are in the Old Dominion, may find the effects spilling over as management companies that do business in all three jurisdictions adopt new practices.

If your in the District of Columbia and you happen to live in a Townhouse or Singe Family Homeowner Association you can stop reading this article here.

Why?

Because the leaders of the District have failed for years now at mine and others prodding to establish an HOA Act which is what is the triggering mechanism in this need to disclose. As the District does not have such an Act there is no specific law as is the case in MD or VA to disclose anything about rules and regulations.

Whats more in Maryland the HOA Act does not require that financial information about the community be provided to the buyer. So the budget, pending litigations or special assessments are made available to the new homeowners after they move in. Seem pretty fair to me and you too I bet. Having heard one of the principle in this ruse brag about how they fought to keep this from becoming part of the law. I have to wonder of the community and homeowners share this excitement with them. What I was told is that it would be too hard to provide this information at closing time.

So is there any wonder in what area of the housing market the last foot will fall. If you have been reading this blog you know that I know that HOA and Condo fees are not being paid and thus these communities are running negative budgets. But since the District and Maryland don't disclose this information before settlement those perspective homeowners that are buying may not and have no idea what the status of the communities financial health is or will be in the future until rules, regulations and financial information are fully disclosed.



So I have an idea for Elizabeth why not do a story on why the District has failed to enact such a law or why Maryland does not require the Financial s to be included.

Technorati Tags: Homeowners Associations, Disclosure Laws, HOA Documnets, Rules & regulations

Once again Not paying mortgage not paying association assessments.

Home sales, prices below last year’s rate - Real Estate - MSNBC.com

Home sales, prices below last year’s rate
Foreclosures in April surged, according to National Association of Realtors
Related Stories


Updated: 3:21 p.m. ET May 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - The pace of existing home sales slowed in the first quarter by almost 7 percent compared to a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday.

In the latest indication of the housing market’s slowdown, the NAR said home sales reached a 6.4 million annual rate compared to 6.9 million in the same quarter of 2006.

The report came on the same day that RealtyTrac Inc., an industry research firm, said mortgage lenders foreclosed on 62 percent more U.S. homes in April than a year ago.

I am not sure how many ways to post this but if someone is not paying their mortgage does anyone reading this actually think if they live in a Condo, Townhouse or Single Family Homeowner Association that the dues for the community are being paid.

So what happens when the dues or assessments are not paid? The community is now running a deficit budget and they means that the overall community is now not in compliance with Federal underwriting guidelines...........So let think Fannie, Freddy and any other backer of mortgages.....

Since wall street has been buying these for sometime as well do you think they are telling the investors in these companies that a potential problem exist. When I called the Wall Street Journal and talked to one of the reporters about this he pretty much blew me off.

So I wonder how long this house of cards is going to stand.....

Technorati Tags: Foreclosures, Condos, Housing, Market, Homeowners, Associations