Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
 
Homeowner associations provide the most hospitable environment for fraud, embezzlement, harassment and abuse of any organization in the United States.  Claiming the relationship between the HOA and the unit owner is a private, contractual one, law enforcement and legitimate government agencies refuse to investigate allegations of wrong doing, leaving the owners to fend for themselves.  We have all heard the horror stories of individual homeowners being victimized and terrorized by the bullies on the board,  their legal henchmen and management.  Quite often those who have been targeted for abuse are too afraid to speak up and fight back, thus allowing the injustices, abuses and horrors to continue.  But what happens when an entire development is "hijacked" and held hostage?  Is there a way out for the owners? 
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Melanie McKeddie. Melanie is an attorney in Arizona who, along with other attorneys in her firm, specializes in HOA law but in a complete departure from the other experts in the field, Melanie and her colleagues represent primarily the owners.  One of the cases that she is currently working on involves probably the worst abuse of power yet.   According to documents filed with the court, the president of the association is a convicted felon and disbarred attorney.  And that's just for starters.  Please join us On The Commons.  We'll find out what this law suit is all about, get to meet some of the characters who have been named as defendants in this case and learn just how bad things can get in a mandatory membership association and just how low property values can drop in an HOA.  You won't want to miss this one.   Listen to Melanie Mckeddie   

Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.

The post war economic boom made it possible for Americans to move out of the urban centers and still work "downtown".  Roads were built, cars were financially feasible for many families and the call of the less congested suburbs was hard to resist.  A car in the driveway and a single family home, surrounded by a white picket fence became the embodiment of the American Dream.  Over the next several decades the suburbs exploded.  The builders built more and more housing. schools, retail spaces, parks, roads - and the people came - in droves.  Along the way, the notion of helping local municipal governments financially by establishing, and requiring,  homeowner associations to assume many of their responsibilities also became a part of this brave new world.  Condominiums were part of this changing landscape as well.  We know how the last fifty years changed the way Americans lived, but what does the future hold? 
 
On The Commons this week we are joined by Tyler Berding. Tyler, an attorney and a founding partner of the California firm of Berding Weil, represents associations in California.  He maintains a blog at http://www.condoissues.blogspot.com/ where he writes fairly extensively about the issues that affect this particular type of housing.  In a recent blog post titled "Predicting the Future of Community Associations" he looks through his crystal ball and shares his vision of what the next half century will bring in condos.  Some of his observations about today's projects are dead on and some of his visions would take American homeowners in yet another direction.   Please join us On The Commons.  We'll talk about lessons learned and hear some of his thoughts on where we may be headed with this experiment in communal living.  Will it be a brave new world or a scary place to be?  Tune in and you decide.

On the Commons is produced by OTC Multimedia Productions.   Listen to Tyler Berding