Posted on 12/04/2013 5:50:10 AM PST by Renfield
(Poster's note: this is the story of a neighborhood association forcing the foreclosure of a woman's home, that she had fully paid for, because she didn't pay her neighborhood association dues. Apparently, this is legal here in KY. This is one of the most outrageous things I've heard of.)
In a rare case, the Masterson Station Neighborhood Association won a court judgment this year to foreclose on a Lexington woman's home.
The Urban County Council decided on Tuesday to review the situation in which Ingrid Boak's home was sold at a master commissioner's sale because she did not pay a mandatory $48 annual fee and accumulated late fees for at least six years.
Council member Shevawn Akers said she wants the council planning and public works committee to review the matter because there were apparently no attempts to reach Boak in person.
Boak acknowledged that she did not open letters or respond to the attempts to reach her by mail, but said no one served her with a notice in person or received a signature from her acknowledging that she knew her home would be sold....
(Excerpt) Read more at kentucky.com ...
Ingrid Boak in front of her home, 1048 Winding Oak Trail in Lexington, Ky., Monday, December, 02, 2013. Ingrid Boak's house was sold by the master commissioner after the Masterson Station Neighborhood Association took her to court over several years of unpaid fees. She no longer owns the house and is now renting it. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Number four million and something why I will never belong to a Home Owners Association.
Too many bad repercussions possible for the perceived ‘good’ they can bring.
So, for less than $300 in actual fees ($48/year for six years - not including the likely usury level of “late fees”), this lady loses ownership in a house that has to be worth at least 350 times the original fees due? What happened to her equity? She owned the house outright.
Agreed 100%. I’m still stuck in a HOA for a condo we’re still paying mortgage on that wasn’t damaged but was later demolished by the HOA Board so they could sell the property on the cheap out from under our feet and profit from the development of the land after some fancy footwork to spot-zone the land. Been in litigation with these goons for > 5 years to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. There is nothing good that ever comes of having an HOA. There are ways to accomplish *everything* an HOA does by other means. And as the law stands now, HOAs are way too powerful, and the power-hungry corrupt Board members who use their positions in HOAs to prey on their neighbors have never, to date, been held individually responsible for what they’ve done.
Okay, I went back and read the whole article. Seems the HOA was owed less than $1,000. They sold her home for less than fair market value (appraised at $120,000, sold for $26,500 less than that at $93,500). Seems to me that the HOA owes her the difference in the value of the house vs. the amount sold, less any fees due. I’d at least go after them for that.
According to the article, she didn’t even know she was in a homeowner association. She didn’t read letters from them, because she thought it was junk mail asking her to join the HOA.
I just bought a home here in Lexington (September) and decided against Masterson Station despite the fact that it is only a mile or two from my work because of horror stories like this about the HOA. I have several co-workers with homes there and they are annoyed with the association.
It’s a pretty neighborhood. But if they keep doing stuff like this they are going to diminish the overall price of the houses.
I spoke with my money this year and bought a more expensive same-size house away from Masterson station.
This story makes me sick for the lady but at the same time reenforces why I didn’t buy here.
It appears that she entered into a binding agreement, without knowing what was in it. It pays to read the fine print.
I read the small print in my agreement with my internet service provider, a very long document, listing all the terms and conditions of the agreement and near the very end, it says, "we have the right to change or annul any or all terms of this agreement, with or without prior notice to you".
They could have shortened it considerably by simply stating, "We'll do whatever we want to at any given time".
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