The House Is Just A Series Of Unfortunate Events

A report from KHON in Hawaii. “Many condo and townhouse owners are starting to pay up for the increased maintenance fees due to skyrocketing insurance costs. The Gardens at Launani Valley in Mililani has 238 units. Each owner received a letter from the association dated Aug. 27, saying they’ll all have to cover the 325% increase in insurance coverage for the complex, which is more than $570,000, due Oct. 1. Miles Curtis’ portion comes out to a one-time payment of about $2,700. That’s on top of the $600 monthly maintenance fee. On top of the assessment, Curtis said homeowners had to pay for a $900 plumbing upgrade at the beginning of the year. ‘I can get that, you know, insurance rates go up, but then like, where does it stop?’ said Curtis. ‘And it goes into I mean, just worrying about the family, like, you know, I don’t want to have to get two, two or three full time jobs.'”

Boston.com in Massachusetts. “There are some words that just don’t go together. ‘Toilet’ and ‘explode’ are two of them. So in January, when the toilet exploded in Nick Motyl’s Somerville condominium, he called 911. Motyl had closed on the home, his first, in September 2021. ‘I got the thing that I wanted for such a long time,’ Motyl said. ‘And it was really cool for like two years, and then it just kind of got ripped away, literally overnight.’ The toilet wouldn’t flush. The plumber couldn’t get there anytime soon. But then, without warning, water began to gush from the tub. Terrible, stinky water. It was sewage. Owning a home seemed like an obvious goal — and a socially encouraged one at that — said Motyl. But it’s hard not to regret this decision. ‘I don’t honestly know what I would have been able to do to prevent this from happening,’ he said.”

“It was a few months following inspection when Nicole Eller figured out there was a hole in the foundation of her new home. A heating exhaust system had been improperly installed prior to move-in day at the Barrington, R.I., property. Soon, the house required a water heater replacement, costing more than $15,000. Door and window replacement contractors presented myriad frustrations. And, Eller said, she had ignored her mortgage broker’s advice to buy a slightly larger house, and her family soon began to outgrow this one. ‘The house, I guess, is just a series of unfortunate events,’ Eller said.”

Fox Local in Florida. “It only took about an hour for two feet of water to flood Gary Dykens’ home of more than 25 years last Wednesday night in St. Pete. ‘It was seeping all through the doors, even through the sliding glass door, seeping under the tub,’ Dykens said. ‘You got sewage in the house, and so, the whole house has to be gutted.’ He’s not alone. Neighbors a few houses down said they climbed through a window to escape, because they didn’t want to let more water into the house through the front door. Dykens and others, though, said they want more answers from the city. They said they don’t have flood insurance, because it’s not a flood zone, and have never had issues. ‘You have a lot of angry people,’ Dykens said. ‘They need to help us out maybe a little bit. They need to put a sump pump in at the baseball field. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not enough over there.'”

From Denver 7. “Holly Crystal says her homeowners association in Frisco has been in turmoil for years. Court records show she has fought a long legal battle after she said her four-house HOA granted themselves an easement on her property. Last month, a court of appeals ruled in her favor on that issue. ‘I’m horrified to the point where I need to do something,’ she said. ‘To date, I’m now over $400,000 in legal fees, and my journey through this process has been horrifying.’ Now, she is part of a growing Colorado chorus calling for HOA reform.”

“‘HOAs are almost like third-world dictatorships, where they can do almost anything they want, even flat-out crime,’ said Patrick Johansen, with HOA Reform Leaders (HRLING), a national HOA reform advocacy group. ‘So the biggest problem is that there’s no enforcement of the laws. The only thing that the homeowners can do is to take them to court. The homeowners have to use their own money and could potentially risk their home, trying to force the HOA board to follow the laws.'”

The San Francisco Standard in California. “In the idyllic, coastal city of Pacifica, a civil war is unfolding over what some say their lifestyles and livelihoods depend on: Airbnb. On one side of the debate, residents say short-term rentals have subjected them to a living hell of loud parties, overflowing trash, and parking wars. On the other, some homeowners say Airbnb income allows them to afford their mortgages. Wayne Thai and his wife moved to Pacifica in 2019 after purchasing a three-bedroom house on Milagra Drive for $1.3 million. When the couple decided to move back to the East Bay to care for ill relatives, they listed the home on Airbnb and its competitor Vrbo. Thai said the income they get from renting out the house — $70,000 a year — goes toward home improvements and paying off the mortgage. The couple rents it out for nine months a year, just enough to break even, Thai said. ‘We could lose the home,’ the 40-year-old said of the proposed restrictions. ‘I want to work out a solution rather than a straight ban.'”

The Westside Current. “For non-profit affordable housing developers, business in Los Angeles is booming. But in the past 18 months, new housing development in Los Angeles has collapsed, all but guaranteeing that L.A.’s housing shortage will continue in perpetuity. And the political influence of those non-profit developers may be to blame. During the pandemic, these developers benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars in Project Homekey funds – grants issued by the state for homeless housing. The Ramada Inn project developed by PATH Ventures was just such a Homekey-funded project. So are the Aviation Apartments, opened by Venice Community Housing. All in all, over $800 million in Project Homekey funds went to non profit developers, and, according to our recent reporting, over 1200 of the units purchased are still vacant, including the Ramada.”

“This growth is not limited to these particular 503cs. As illustrated by Sue Pascoe in a recent editorial for Circling the News, many other not-for-profits have benefited from what she terms a ‘gold rush’ for homeless services agencies. This explosive growth has occurred concurrently with a massive increase in government funding for affordable housing projects over the past eight years. In 2016, voters passed Proposition HHH, which raised $1.2 billion, funneled exclusively to affordable housing developers for new construction projects which cost, on average, over $600K per unit to build.”

The El Paso Times in Texas. “El Paso’s Gateway Hotel was temporarily shut down by a state judge after the hotel owner was accused by the El Paso County Attorney’s Office of illegally operating the hotel and allowing criminal activity, including housing members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The El Paso Police Department has received 693 police calls for service related to criminal activities, including assaults, gang involvement, and suspected prostitution, the lawsuit states. The officers claimed hotel management has not attempted to control illegal activity, allowing drug use, gang activity, and illegal dumping to persist, the affidavit states. The officers warned that the establishment poses a significant threat to public safety if these conditions continue.”

“News of the Tren de Aragua gang in El Paso has also made headlines, with several high-profile figures, including Elon Musk, sharing it on social media. Musk reposted an image of the alleged gang in a hotel, captioning it, ‘Mad Max is becoming real fast.'”

Global News in Canada. “Residents in an Upper Mission neighbourhood of Kelowna, B.C., are pleading with the city to help shut down what they call a problem short-term rental home. ‘I’ll be frank with you, I’m fed up,’ said Dave Montpetit, who lives on Viewcrest Court. ‘Parties going on, we had a tour bus show up and drop people off, we had abusive tenants in the house that were renting it, they were swearing and intimidating and yelling at the neighbours.’ Earlier this month, there was another disturbing incident as Montpetit took his dog for an early-morning walk. ‘I heard loud music followed by moaning and groaning,’ Montpetit said. ‘There were people having sex in the pool, utterly shocked.'”

“Montpetit is far from alone as numerous residents on the street told Global News they are fed up. ‘I have kids, and some of the stuff that goes on, like vulgar language, the partying, you know, obviously the sex on the street, you know, up in the pool,’ said Trevor Bigelow, another concerned resident. ‘It’s just constant.’ Residents were hopeful B.C.’s new legislation that stipulates the owner must live on the premises to rent would help shut down the operation, but that hasn’t happened. ‘We know there is no owner there,’ said Montpetit. ‘They reside in Vancouver.'”

From CTV News. “The dream of a life on water has drowned in a sea of sadness for a group of Chatham-Kent residents who paid a Wallaceburg-based company for a floating home they never received. ‘It just never happened,’ stated Meg Connelly, who along with Melissa Jacob and Keith Thompson say they’re waiting for their money back from Stronghouse Canada Corp./Twin Dolphins Canada Corp. The residents even have a court ruling, ordering restitution and they’re still waiting for repayment. ‘It’s really disheartening. I’ve cried a lot of tears,’ said Connelly.”

“The 71-year-old retired nurse said she was excited about the idea of living on the Sydenham River when it was first presented in 2020. She sold her mortgage-free home to get one. Now, Connelly describes herself as a senior with no nest egg who was forced to take a part time job at a grocery store to make ends meet. ‘It’s been really disappointing. Disheartening. I lost my life savings doing this. I sold a home that was paid for, and eventually after two years I had to try and find another place to live. I was living in a camper in my daughter’s backyard. I got a condo, but I now have a mortgage on it.'”

The Telegraph. “George Osborne’s redesign of England’s stamp duty taxation has driven down the number of £1m homes in London over the past decade, analysis shows. In December 2014, then-Conservative chancellor Mr Osborne announced major reforms to stamp duty. He abolished the ‘slab’ system in favour of charging on ‘slices.’ This meant stamp duty began to work in a similar way to income tax, with higher rates only charged on the parts of the price above the thresholds. More expensive homes suddenly saw their stamp duty liabilities shoot up. This then ate into the potential profit owners could make if they decided to sell, as buyers now had to factor in much higher bills for these types of properties. Since Mr Osborne’s changes, prices in the prime London market have fallen by 17pc.”

Radio New Zealand. “A year after a troubled, half-finished Auckland apartment block found a new owner, neighbouring businesses are still waiting for the building to be finished – or knocked down. The Epsom Central Apartments Project halted five years ago, after Auckland Council found it had not complied with building consent. The original partnership, Epsom Central Apartments LP, was put into receivership in 2022, and purchased by Xiao Liu, the director of a company named Reeheng Limited, in September 2023. Since then, community members and business owners have said there has been an air of mystery around what will happen to the building, which at one point was filled with rats and squatters.”

“Greenwoods Corner Epsom Business Association president Dominique Bonn described the multi-storey building as a ‘blight on the Epsom landscape.’ It was covered in graffiti and ‘entombed’ in scaffolding. ‘It’s an eyesore – certainly not something we welcome in the area. We’re very keen to see something built to conclusion, but we have no real gauge on what’s going to happen.’ Yvonne Sanders, the owner of Yvonne Sanders Antiques on the other side of the apartment block, said the derelict state of the building had led to rats coming into her shop. ‘We even had one worker who had a rat crawl across her leg!'”

News.com.au in Australia. “Dr Smith* thought he’d retired to a nice suburb and complex in Sydney’s east when for the first time, as a strata committee member, he was confronted by other members who thought nothing of abusing him. The stoush began when he simply suggested cleaning faecal matter from defective piping which had leaked onto his car space. Instead of a solution, emails seen by news.com.au reveal he was met with accusations by the chairman of the committee that the only ‘faecal matter’ was the ‘stinky content’ of his email and that he stop ‘faecal ranting’ about ‘faecal nonsense.’ But it didn’t stop there, with another committee member suggesting Dr Smith stop ‘creating drama’ and that he should ‘sell’ and ‘go find happiness’ elsewhere. ‘To say I was shocked is an understatement,’ Dr Smith said.”

“Meanwhile, in another example, Samantha*, a lawyer and committee member on another complex, said she was stunned to find that her committee chairman took it upon himself to send a derogatory letter to a long-term tenant telling him to ‘stop washing his genitals with the hose’ and to ‘stop spreading odours with his cooking,’ while also wrongly accusing him of having a ‘mental illness.’ ‘The committee was livid at these accusations, as they only came from the chairman. I insisted a record be kept by strata management that the committee had not approved this,’ she said. ‘It’s disgraceful. Imagine this happening in the workplace? Strata committees are like the wild wild west.'”