Real Estate Attorneys

Adeline and Al Kish bought their dream retirement home at Trilogy in Gilbert’s Power Ranch five years ago. And by the end of this year, they’ll be part owners of the 2,032-home development.

The town’s only retirement community is preparing for a rite of passage all young homeowner associations go through: The transition from developer control to a homeowner-controlled board. “It’s something you have to go through,” Al Kish said. The birth of Trilogy’s HOA represents a way of life in Gilbert, where there are more than 100 HOAs making up 96 percent of the 182,000-resident town. HOAs have been standard among developers in Gilbert for the past two decades. But two years ago HOAs became a town requirement for new subdivisions. Town officials say the…

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When it seemed the homeowners association would take a stand against his care home, David Vokes had a choice: stay and fight, or move out of the neighborhood. He did both. Vokes and his wife, Myrna Ngipol, own the Best Quality Care home, which houses disabled elderly people. Until earlier this month, they ran the business from a house on Northwest 121st Circle, part of the Clomont Estates Homeowners Association. Then, having filed a discrimination complaint with the state Human Rights Commission and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, they moved to a house in Salmon Creek. The care home and the homeowners association are in the final stages of an agreement with the Human Rights Commission that would end the case but not the controversy. At issue is whether the homeowners association discriminated against the disabled by not affirming the home’s right to operate. Vokes feels that, by not allowing businesses such…

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Despite facing a recently filed lawsuit, the city of Carlsbad continues to push forward with plans to stop a landslide that has severely damaged eight condominiums and part of La Costa Avenue, a city official said Wednesday.

In a closed-to-the-public meeting Tuesday evening, City Council members reiterated their support for the mediation process between the city and the La Costa de Marbella Homeowners Association regarding the proposed repair work. Council members emphasized, “Let’s not be adversarial,” Glenn Pruim, deputy public works director, said Wednesday afternoon….

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-When Jeannie Seanor put an 87-foot jasmine arbor behind her home in the River Ridge subdivision in southeast Raleigh, she knew little about the power of homeowners associations.

Then her subdivision’s association began fining her $15 a day for refusing to remove the unapproved structure.

Seanor racked up more than $1,100 in fines before taking down the arbor in March. She said she paid them after learning that, under state law, the association could put a lien on her home and eventually foreclose if she didn’t pay.

“If you read the power they have, it’s scary,” said Seanor, 40, who has put her family’s home up for sale.

The issue of overbearing homeowners associations has gotten the attention of state legislators, who are expected to pass a bill this week that would limit those groups’ power.

Under the bill, the associations could no longer foreclose on a homeowner for violating community rules or for attorney fees the association incurs in seeking repayment. Such action could occur only if a homeowner failed to pay the association’s dues.

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Paying for attorneys and witnesses to challenge a rent increase in a mobile-home park is not cheap — just ask the homeowners association of Lakeview Mobile Estates.

Officials with the homeowners association at the 113-lot senior park on Discovery Street said they have spent more than $14,000 this year to challenge a $230 monthly rent increase.

But they said that paying the high costs of challenging the increase will save residents a lot of money in the coming years because the attorneys helped prevent a steep increase in monthly rents.

After hearing extensive testimony from lawyers and expert witnesses representing both the residents and the owner of the park, the San Marcos City Council, acting as the Rent Review Commission, decided last week that a fair increase for both sides would be $40 a month.

Officials with the homeowners association…

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A Rio Rancho couple’s clash with their homeowners association over a solar water heater is prompting renewable energy supporters to call for the state to step in and curb restrictions that stymie investing in the alternative energy source.

Glenn and Debby Olsen last month yielded to the Stonehenge Estates homeowners association’s order to remove the solar heater they had installed to heat the water for their backyard pool.

The association in a letter to the Olsens said the roof-mounted solar system had to go because it didn’t comply with design guidelines for homes in the subdivision near a Rio Rancho golf course.

Tish Silva, community association manager for Stonehenge Estates, said the Olsens were told to remove the solar system after “multiple complaints” from neighbors.

As part of their home purchase agreement, the Olsens had agreed to a set of conditions designed to uphold a uniform appearance and standard of maintenance on the 343 lots on the subdivision, Silva said in a phone interview with the Journal.

The rules…

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Bill Magladry has joined Bank of Agriculture & Commerce in Stockton as a financial network registered representative, through a new alliance between the bank and Financial Network Investment Corp., a national securities brokerage firm.

Through the program, Magladry will serve as advisor, offering BAC customers access to the brokerage firm’s investment services.

Magladry has eighteen years of experience in insurance and investments, of which fifteen of those years were spent with financial institutions.

He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State University, Chico. He is a registered investment advisor representative for all securities transactions including life, disability and long-term care insurance, in addition to holding a certified senior advisor designation.

Magladry served as vice president and president of Embarcadero Homeowners Association, he is a member of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce, a 2004 graduate of Leadership Lodi and a member of Pacific Tigers Athletic Association. He served on the San Joaquin County Commission on Aging and volunteered for the Stockton Ducks Unlimited Dinner. Magladry is also a member of the Christian Business Men’s Council.

Neumiller & Beardslee , a Stockton law firm,…

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Forty years ago, city folk motored out to buy lots in this area’s first large-scale, suburban-style housing tract. Motors might have brought the buyers, but it was dreams of muscle-powered motion that helped market the more than 3,300 lots in the 6,000-acre Rancho Calaveras subdivision.

The original idea was to sell the 1- to 3-acre lots to horseback riders, said Carol McDan-iel, now vice president of the Rancho Calaveras Homeowners Association board of directors. Sales representatives for Boise Cascade, which developed…

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In Columbia, the community association is hiring a consultant to set up a purchasing cooperative to negotiate electricity prices and pass along the savings to residents and businesses.

Area chambers of commerce are working on similar co-ops for business owners - and in one case, perhaps community associations.

And consortiums of school districts, county governments and community colleges that have negotiated lower prices as a group from established utilities are now plotting to buy electricity in bulk directly through a broker, bypassing utility companies altogether.

With Baltimore Gas and Electric customers facing rate hikes of 72 percent for residential customers and about 40 percent for small commercial users, Marylanders have begun scrambling to lessen the blow when the state’s legislated rate caps expire in July.

“We’re getting a lot of phone calls coming in, with people asking, ‘Can you help us out?’” said Sherrie Becker, executive director of

the Pikesville Chamber of Commerce, which is organizing its second energy co-op in two years for Maryland businesses but…

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An east Mesa retirement community accused of discriminating against a Mormon group has settled a fair housing lawsuit brought by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. Maricopa County Superior Court approved the settlement Monday, which requires the Sunland Village East Homeowners Association to eliminate its policy of using religion to determine whether a group can use a meeting…

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