Jonathan Friedrich

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Caveat Emptor, buyer beware, was once the watch word for housing consumers.  In other words, do your homework and understand what you are doing because if you buy it you “own it”, all of it, the good, the bad and the ugly.  Notwithstanding all the laws, allegedly protecting real estate buyers, “caveat emptor” is probably more applicable now than ever before.  Real estate deals are no longer simply between the buyer and the seller, today there are many other interests involved in every  transaction.  The ever present HOA always  rears its  ugly head and inserts itself in the middle of the sales contract.  

Jonathan Friedrich joins us On The Commons.  Jonathan’s story should remind us to do our homework so that we know what we are buying.  It should also warn us not rely on what we are told.  Because Jonathan relied on the information provided by title company, it cost him thousands of dollars for HOA assessments he did not owe because, surprise, his house was NOT part of the HOA.  Nice surprise but it cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars extricating himself from the HOA he never belonged to.  He recently won a major legal battle and is rightly very proud of himself.  But that is not the end of the story, he is now going to try to recoup some of the money he has spent to get this far.  What he will never regain is the years of “fighting”to protect what is rightfully his.  Tune in and listen to Jonathan’s story,  in his own words.  F ind out how he discovered the clue that led him on this journey.  

Listen to Jonathan

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Jonathan Dessaules

An often cited benefit for residential associations used to be that they allowed the members greater control over their immediate surroundings. The other bonus they were promised was that collectively  they would gain political clout.  At least that was the sales pitch, along with the ever present promise of enhanced property values.  It all sounded wonderful and in a perverse sense sounded sort of logical. But as we have learned over the years not everything works the way it is supposed to.  In fact in the case of residential associations, the opposite is true.  Not only don’t the members have control over their immediate surroundings but have lost sovereignty over their own private spaces.  The existence of an HOA or Condo association is infinitely more intrusive and tyrannical than a neighborhood where the residents are on their own and allegedly have no control.  

Jonathan Dessaules joins us On The Commons. Jon is an attorney in Phoenix, Arizona.   As part of his practice   he represents homeowners against their associations.  He is one of a handful of attorneys nationwide who will only represent the owners and not straddle the fence hopping over to the HOA side when they feel like it.  Currently his is in a class of his own in Arizona.  He also has a  blog where he discusses HOA issues and gives general guidance.  It’s a great page to check out for quick guidance on some of the more common issues facing homeowners.  We talk to Jon about all the usual HOA issues common to all American homeowners but we also talk about a long and protracted case that he recently won.  His clients own a unit in an upscale condominium where the fees are in excess of $1,000/month. The condo shut the key card down, impeding access to the private unit and banned the use of the amenities until the owners forfeited  a  right they had.  So much for having greater control of your immediate surroundings in a residential association.  

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