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EAGLE-EYE HOA CATCHES PAINT TRIM MISMATCH . . . 12 YEARS LATER!!

March 30th, 2012, 11:30 am by

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Carol Zier was shocked when she opened the letter from her Villages at Sand Creek Homeowners Association management company and discovered she was being ordered to paint the trim on her little shed.

And she was given just 30 days to get it done.

Carol was puzzled. The trim on her shed doesn’t need to be repainted. It’s not peeling or chipped.

That’s not the problem, according to the HOA.

Her trim is the wrong shade! It’s not an exact match to the trim on her home, the HOA declared.

And it doesn’t matter the trim has been the same color 12 years. Git ‘er done!

“I am just totally blown away by this,” Carol told me. “If you look at it, you wouldn’t even thing the shade is different.”

Carol assured me she wasn’t some covenant scofflaw who picked fights with the HOA. She’s always been a law-abiding HOA resident since she and her husband, Jerry, bought their home in 1999.

 Heck, she said, Jerry served on the HOA board before his death in 2003.

“I always pay my dues and I work hard to keep my home looking right,” Carol said. “And I never complain about things in the neighborhood they need to fix.”

So I drove out to her tidy home in the Villages at Sand Creek, a 141-acre, pie-shaped neighborhood off of Airport Road with about 500 homes developed in the late 1990s at the confluence of Sand Creek and its east fork. A city walking trail runs along the creeks with HOA-owned walkways providing access between a homes, including Carol’s.

In the evening sun, I studied the paint trim on Carol’s house and then on the shed.

I took some photos and brought them back to my editor, Dena, who studied them. She concluded the house trim was a “sandy” color and, by golly, the shed trim was more of a “putty.”

Her exact words: “The horror!”

She was being sarcastic. (She often gets that way when editing my columns.)

Anyway, I guess it’s true the colors don’t match.

But, really? Who has time to go around conducting CSI analyses of trim paint on hundreds of homes? If it’s so close that it escaped detection 12 years, why go after it now?

I called the HOA for an explanation.

Board member Bob Ricketts said the 12-year delay puzzled him, too.

And, I asked him, if the HOA can spot Carol’s trim mismatch, how did it miss the six-foot-tall fence along the HOA-owned walkway that runs next to her yard?

The wood on the fence is bare, ugly, rotting wood.

Even worse, Carol said a piece of the fence blew down last spring and the HOA declined to fix it saying it was her responsibility.

Ricketts said he was unaware of the fence issue and promised to look into it.

I’m guessing Carol will be forced to paint her shed trim long before that fence is ever painted. Wanna bet?

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SHOULD HOA MANAGERS BE LICENSED, REGULATED BY STATE?

November 9th, 2011, 2:10 pm by

Michelle Green

Michelle Green has worked in the homeowners association management business 15 years. She manages the Flying Horse Homeowners Association as an employee of Hammersmith Management.

 It’s more than just a job overseeing enforcement of covenants, collecting dues and hiring maintenance and landscaping crews.

Green has devoted many personal hours and money to taking classes and getting certified, by an industry peer review group, in various aspects of the business.

She’s proven her proficiency at record-keeping, handling financial statements, perusing insurance policies, navigating government regulations of HOAs and more.

In fact, this week she’s mailing in her final exam for grading as she tries to earn certification as a Professional Community Association Manager, or PCAM, from the Community Associations Institute, a nationwide umbrella group for managers like her. Green is a member of the Southern Colorado Chapter of CAI.

 Achieving PCAM status is the pinnacle of HOA management.

So it bothers her that a lot of people out there seem to wake up one morning and decide they are HOA managers and start trying to run large associations.

“Anybody can hang a shingle on the door and call themselves a management company with no previous experience,” Green said. “They’ve got the checkbooks for the associations. They are doing the financials. They should be monitored so associations don’t lose money or get embezzled.”

In fact, HOA fraud is problem. I’ve written about several HOAs victimized by crooks posing as managers.

But a more common problem is simple mismanagement by rookies which leads to huge legal and financial disputes within an HOA.

Complaints against HOAs are so widespread the Colorado General Assembly created the HOA Information and Resource Center to get a handle on the nature and seriousness of the problems. See previous blogs about the HOA office.

Aaron Acker, HOA Information Officer, spoke to a group of property managers on Feb. 15, 2011, in Colorado Springs.

After nearly a year of taking calls, Aaron Acker, the state HOA information officer, is preparing a report to be delivered to lawmakers during their 2012 legislative session.

Leaders of the CAI’s Rocky Mountain chapter fear the report to be a less-than-glowing assessment of HOAs. They expect shock and outrage. To minimize the anticipated fallout, they have made a preemptive strike.

Last week, the Colorado chapter of the CAI asked the state Department of Regulatory Agencies, or DORA, to initiate an investigation of HOA managers to determine if it’s time for them to join manicurists, barbers and boxers among the dozens of professions licensed and regulated by the state. Check out the list of all the professions licensed by the state!

Green is all for licensing and regulation.

“It would be beneficial for HOAs and their boards if managers were monitored and licensed,” she said. “Managers are handling thousands of dollars, if not millions. Nail technicians and hair stylists all have licensure. Why should someone managing your homeowners association be any different?”

Good question.

I also spoke to Chris Pacetti, a Denver-area manager who is also chairman of the Rocky Mountain CAI’s manager licensing committee. He says the group asked for the investigation by DORA in advance of Acker’s report.

Pacetti said licensing is not new. Nine states and Washington D.C. have enacted manager licensing or certification standards and seven more states are debating the idea.

His group envisions a two-prong test for managers.

One would test an applicant’s skills and knowledge in managing homeowners associations. The other would test for knowledge of Colorado law regarding HOAs.

They would be similar, Pacetti said, to the tests given for basic certification in the industry.

For example, to reach the first rung on the property manager certification ladder, Green took a two-day course followed by a 100-question multiple-choice test.

 Then came the CMCA or Certified Manager of Community Associations exam and another 100 questions. After she logged five years in the industry and passed those two tests, she took the AMS to earn accreditation as an Association Management Specialist.

Now she’s seeking the PMAC.

Green and Pacetti think it’s reasonable to expect every property manager to have a basic education and command of issues before taking the reins of a homeowners association.

But it’s not guaranteed that DORA will agree when it concludes its Sunrise study, likely in 120 days or so.

Attorney Jerry Orten tells me the Legislature studied the issue in 1990 and concluded that new rules were needed to bond managers and protect HOA finances by mandating separate accounts for finances and strict accounting to HOAs of their finances. But lawmakers did not order licensing.

Orten believes licensing would elevate the overall level of servivce to homeowners, resulting in fewer complaints to the new HOA information office.

To recommend licensing managers, DORA must decide the request satisfies three key criteria:

  1. Whether the unregulated practice of homeowner association management harms the public and whether potential for harm is easily recognized.
  2. Whether the public needs and can be reasonably expected to benefit from occupational competence.
  3. Whether protection for homeowners can be achieved by other means in a more cost-effective manner.

 In other words, DORA must find that licensing is needed to protect the health safety and welfare of homeowner, that there is a public need and similar benefit is not available by other means.

Of course, if DORA declines to initiate licensing, individual lawmakers can bypass the agency and simply introduce a bill requiring it.

Stay tuned, HOA fans!

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WILL WOODMEN HILLS COVENANTS EVER BE ENFORCED?

October 23rd, 2011, 11:31 am by
Woodmen Hills is a subdivision of about 2,200 homes in Falcon, an unincorporated community northeast of Colorado Springs along U.S. Highway 24.

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NO, is the answer to the headline if a determined group of Woodmen Hills residents get their way.

The Woodmen Hills Metro District wants the El Paso County Commission to give it the authority to enforce covenants in filings 1-10 of the subdivision in unincorporated Falcon, northeast of Colorado Springs.

Only the 900 homes in filing 11 have a homeowners association enforcing covenants. The other 1,200 homes, in filings 1-10, have covenants attached to their homes but no active HOA to enforce them.

And that’s the way many seem to like it.

When the metro district began enforcing them in 2008, resident Chuck Warne led a group of residents who sued to stop.

 

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A recreation center in Woodmen Hills.

In May 2009, a district judge slam-dunked the  Metro District.

Then, in June 2010, the Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s decision.

Case closed, right? Ha!

The metro district is determined to get authority to resume policing violations of covenants — rules governing parking, landscaping, fences, trailers and such.

On Thursday, they tried to convince the El Paso County Commission to give it the authority as part of a new “service plan” it is seeking.

The proposed service plan also would allow the district to raise its maximum debt authorization to $53 million from its current $16.2 million cap. And it would give the district a maximum mill levy of 60 mills. I found it interesting the covenant issue generated the most controversy.

Residents lined up to denounce the metro district and its previous efforts at enforcing covenants and to plead with the five commissioners to strip the provision from the service plan.

Among those testifying was Chuck Warne, who moved to Woodmen Hills in 2003 and sued in 2008 to stop the enforcement.

“You’ve got a very small group of people trying to impose their will on the majority of people,” Warne said. He said if residents want covenant enforcement, they can do it themselves.

“It’s up to the residents themselves if they want covenant enforcement,” he said. “They can create an HOA under their home rule powers. We don’t need the Metro District involved. They don’t listen to the people. They don’t care.”

Larry Bishop

Before Thursday’s hearing, Metro District manager Larry Bishop said many residents want covenants enforced and his board is responding to that demand.

“There’s a misunderstanding about whether the metro district is going to become a dictatorship and force covenant enforcement down peoples’ throats,” he said. “Voters will decide. It will be a simple ballot question: Shall covenants be enforced in this filing?”

I’ve spoken to folks in Woodmen Hills who would welcome the proposed vote in May 2012 and the enforcement of covenants.

They say there are too many RVs and trailers parked on the streets and other issues.

But it was enforcement horror stories that got the attention of commissioners Amy Lathen and Darryl Glenn last week.

“We’ve heard outrageous examples of abuse,” Lathen said, adding that she’s never gotten a request for enforcement from Woodmen Hills residents. “But I’ve heard many complaints.”

The commission delayed action until December. I’m guessing whatever the decision, the fight will go on.

Here’s a link to an independent Woodmen Hills Info website.

To read briefs filed in the appeal, click here.

Follow this link to the Court of Appeals decision upholding the judge’s decision.

The attorneys for the metro district wrote this letter explaining their position.

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IS HOSSEIN AN HOA TYRANT OR A MISUNDERSTOOD VICTIM OF HATE

June 29th, 2011, 4:41 pm by

Will calm ever come to the Sierra Pointe Condominiums?

I’ve written about the 282-unit complex near Palmer Park several times over the years. It’s homeowners association is a chronic mess.

It’s always the same story: power-hungry HOA board members battling for control.

This time, there’s a twist.

Hossein Forouzandeh, the HOA president elected in January, said he’s under attack because he was born in Iran.

Could he, in fact, be a victim of hate? Or is he just another HOA tyrant who abuses the rules and punishes his opponents?

Hossein Forouzandeh

Hossein Forouzandeh

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Forouzandeh was recruited to run for the Sierra Pointe HOA board by a past president unhappy with the way the 2010 board operated.

That’s not unusual, especially at Sierra Pointe. It has endured years of feuding and upheaval of its HOA board.

What makes him different is his age – he’s 30 – and background as an actor with little experience in the knife-fighting world of HOA boards.

At the time Forouzandeh was elected, Sierra Pointe was being managed by Diversified Property Management, a company formed in 2005 by Steve and Tracy Martin. They manage 24 associations with 8,000 homeowners.

Diversified had been working at Sierra Pointe two years at the time, trying to get caught up on a $4 million backlog of maintenance — especially the repair of failing roofs across the complex and its 34 buildings.

Steve Martin said his team also was working to whittle down the list of folks behind on their association dues. A law firm that specializes in collections was hired to begin the lengthy process.

But after just 90 days of Forouzandeh’s tenure, Diversified quit, walking away from 15 percent of its revenue.

“Hossein was pretty impossible to deal with,” Martin said. “He doesn’t understand the HOA. He thought he could come in and change the workd in a heartbeat.”

Martin further described working with Forouzandeh as a “horror” and “a complete nightmare.”

Forouzandeh, 30, insists he is just a guy trying to restore order after years of chaos at Sierra Pointe. He says he inherited an inept board and management team.

And he says he’s a victim of hate and discrimination because he is a native of Iran who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in second grade.

But former board members paint a darker picture of him. They say Forouzandeh is more often the angry “urban turban” he portrayed in a You Tube video monologue “Persian Rant – Heyokah Project – Garden Of Peaches by Hossein Forouzandeh.”

In it, he describes his U.S. relocation as being “thrown into a den of hungry red, white and blue wolves.”

Former board member Angie Brown says she was unfairly ousted because she challenged Forouzandeh.

She claims he held board meetings and didn’t invite all members. He held executive sessions without following proper procedures, she said, even inviting people who should not have been privy to the sessions. Martin confirms these meetings.

Brown also claims Forouzandeh entered private condos without permission and took action without meeting or getting property board approval.

Forouzandeh denies breaking any rules and attributes the hard feelings to his work trying to reform Sierra Pointe HOA after years of neglect and abuse.

“It’s just lies,” he said, admitting only that he’s been “too blunt” at times.

Part of the problem, Forouzandeh said, is racial.

“I’ve gotten this all my life because I’m brown and my name is Hossein,” he said. “I promise you there’s a little bit of that involved in this.”

He may be right. Martin insists he simply couldn’t take the abuse any longer. But Brown doesn’t like his “Persian rant” and even said she’s worried “Sierra Pointe is coming under Muslim control.”

Hmm. Maybe Forouzandeh has a point.

Here’s a column I wrote in 2007 about Sierra Point and follow this link to the accompanying blog.

This is another column from 2008 and here is the associated blog.
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HOA BOARDS GET ADVICE FOR SURVIVING ECONOMIC TURMOIL

April 26th, 2011, 5:38 pm by

The Rocky Mountain chapter of the Community Associations Institute, an umbrella group for homeowners association boards and management companies, is offering an educational seminar Friday, April 29, for HOA boards and professionals focusing on surviving the economic downturn.

It’s open to the public and will provide tips for HOAs facing declining dues and experiencing neighborhood foreclosures, delinquencies and bankruptcies

“Running an HOA is like running a business,” said Brian Terhark, president of the Community Associations Institute – Rocky Mountain chapter.  “HOA boards and managers are trying to understand what the impact is to their bottom line.”

CAI reports a recent national survey found that more than half of the nation’s estimated 310,000 HOAs are enduring financial strain and 54 percent of the responding HOAs described their problems as “serious” or “severe.”

The conference Friday is designed to address questions including:

  •  What is the role of the new Division of Regulatory Agencies HOA Information Office?
  •  How can you secure a loan for your community?
  •  What is the best way to collect delinquent assessments?
  •  How should an HOA plan for natural disasters like a tornado, flood or hail storm?

The conference is part of  CAI-RMC’s annual Spring Showcase Conference.  Open to the public, this is the largest conference of its kind for Colorado HOAs and offers educational sessions to HOA managers, volunteer board members, homeowners and industry professionals who face increased challenges from the recession. 

The HOA conference is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum,    7711 East Academy Boulevard, Denver, 80230,  in Denver’s Lowry neighborhood.

For more information, go to www.hoa-colorado.org or call 303-951-4973.

Events Schedule – $70 registration fee includes:

  • Breakfast and lunch
  • Nine education sessions on:
  • Delinquencies, Foreclosures and Deficits – Best practices for dealing with these issues
  • Strategic Planning for an Emergency – How to prepare your HOA for a disaster
  • 60 Questions in 60 Minutes – Free legal advice from leading HOA attorneys
  • DORA Panel Discussion – Insight on the new HOA Information and Resource Office
  • Managing the Basics of an HOA
  • What I Wish I Would Have Known – Senior HOA managers share lessons learned
  • Asbestos/Mold/Lead – How to identify and manage these hazards
  • How to Build a Sense of Community Within Your HOA
  • Close Encounters of a Dangerous Kind – How to handle fair housing requests
  • Admission to the exhibit hall
  • Complimentary conference bag and prizes

 

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HOARDER GETS SYMPATHY BUT NO SLACK FOR JUNK COLLECTION

February 13th, 2011, 12:01 pm by

 From the curb, Tom Taylor‘s home looks like any other mini-mansion in Top of Skyway neighborhood in southwest Colorado Springs.

Tom Taylor's home near Orion Drive in Top of Skyway neighborhood in Colorado Springs seen in an image from Google Earth.

Take a closer look, however, and you realize Taylor’s home is anything but typical.

Tom Taylor, shown in December in an interview with KOAA News First 5 video.

It’s a textbook example of urban blight.

 And, until recently, the 2.5-acre lot surrounding his 4,300-square-foot home was filled with junk

All types of junk surround the home of Tom Taylor in Top of Skyway neighborhood near Orion Drive. Photo courtsey Colorado Springs Code Enforcement office.

Junk filled the four-bay garage of Tom Taylor's home near Orion Drive in Top of Skyway neighborhood. Photo courtesy Colorado Springs Code Enforcement office.

An old SUV sat amid the rubble, filled with junk, outside the home of Tom Taylor near Orion Drive in Top of Skyway neighborhood of Colorado Springs. Photo courtesy the Colorado Springs Code Enforcement office.

Neighborhing homeowners associations tried to intervene. But Taylor’s home was built before surrounding developments. So covenants governing life in the neighborhood don’t apply to him. The HOAs were impotent.

Code enforcement officers were called and began trying to get Taylor to comply with city rules. Eventually, summons were issued for four violations of code and he was taken to court.

That was last July. He entered a plea agreement and he was put on probation and given until Sept. 30 to remove the junk from his lot.

 The deadline passed but the junk remained. The city took him back to court. On Dec. 15, about a dozen neighbors showed up to testify about conditions on the property.

 The judge found Taylor had violated probation, fined him $500 per violation and warned him he could face jail time if the didn’t get things up to code. Each violation carries a possible 90-day jail sentence.

Junk is visible strewn around the Top of Skyway home of Tom Taylor near Orion Drive in this image from FlashEarth.com.

Here’s a link to a KOAA NewsFirst 5 video of Taylor and his home.

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FINALLY, A PLACE TO REPORT YOUR ROTTEN HOA!!!

January 19th, 2011, 11:20 am by

Finally, folks in Colorado have some place to turn besides Side Streets to report a rotten homeowners association!

The state has opened its HOA Information Office and Resource Center within the Division of Real Estate, which is under the umbrella of DORA — the Department of Regulatory Agencies in Denver.

The resource center actually invites folks to submit a complaint about their HOAs.

There’s just one catch . . . the resource center won’t investigate your complaint or your HOA, as I often do. (Nor will some irreverent, sarcastic smarty pants at the resource center write about your HOA as I do.)

It will simply log your complaint, along with all the others it receives, and report its findings to lawmakers.

Supporters hope, and critics fear, that it’s the first step toward strict oversight of the 12,000 or so HOAs operating statewide. 

So far, about 1,200 HOAs and management companies are registered. And you can search the database to see if your HOA is in compliance. It’s important to know if your HOA tries to file a lien against you. If the HOA hasn’t registered, it loses its right to file and enforce liens against its residents, said Marcia Waters, director of the Division of Real Estate.

In fact, HOA scofflaws may face civil lawsuits if they fail to register, Waters said.

The center was created in 2010 by the Colorado General Assemblyto get a handle on the growing issue of HOA abuse. 

Colorado Statehouse

It is the brainchild of Aurora Democrats Rep. Su Ryden and Sen. Morgan Carroll, who introduced and sponsored House Bill 1278 .

Originally, they envisioned creating an HOA ombudsman with power to investigate allegations of abuse by HOA boards as well as to mediate disputes.

Ultimately, lawmakers compromised and agreed to create the resource center, effective Jan. 1, 2011.

It requires each HOA to register with the center, which will gather data on HOAs and track complaints filed by the estimated 1.6 million Coloradans living in associations.

In addition, the center will serve as a clearinghouse for HOA board members and residents, providing basic information about the rights and responsibilities of property owners related to neighborhood covenants — rules governing everything from paint colors to landscaping and parking.

 The sponsors said the bill was a response to growing complaints from people living in covenant-controlled communities — neighborhoods, condos, townhomes and time-share complexes. Voluntary HOAs aren’t affected by the law.

The HOA Information and Resource Center is patterned after a state agency in Nevada, created in 1997 to help people resolve HOA disputes besides suing in civil court. Today its ombudsman has a $1.5 million budget and a staff of 15.

Follow this link to read a previous column on the HOA resource center.

And this link will take you to an earlier Side Streets blog on the topic.

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SATELLITE HOTEL HOA LOSING ORBIT

January 16th, 2011, 12:01 pm by

The homeowners association that runs the Satellite Hotel is locked in an ugly battle for control of the 14-story hotel/condo hybrid.

Three officers of the board, including president Margaret Thomas, accuse board member Hayward Rigano of using threats and bullying tactics as he tries to win control of the nine-member board.

They even wrote a letter to their fellow board members in November asking them to censure Rigano, citing a list of complaints from employees, vendors and residents of the building.

Rigano denies ever threatening anyone.

He said the old guard on the board is not qualified to run the building and incapable of making proper business decisions.

The two sides don’t even agree on the issues between them. Is it the 40-year-old heating system that needs major repairs? Or the HOA dues? Or the attempt to cap the number of condos that can be rental units?

Maybe it’s the alleged after-hours sex parties in the building’s restaurant. Or is it the under-performing hotel operation?

Rigano insists he is a peaceful Christian who never threatened anyone. But he admits his year on the board has been stormy as he educates them about the proper way to run the HOA.

His main issue is the hotel operation. When the Satellite opened in 1969, it was the closest hotel to the Colorado Springs Airport. Not anymore. Today it’s 76 hotel rooms sit mostly vacant, leaving little work for the housekeeping and round-the-clock front desk staff.

He said the HOA subsidizes the hotel operation at a cost of $250,000 a year.

Rigano wants to convert those rooms into 35 new condos to be sold with the profits used by the HOA for expensive maintenance.

But Thomas is adamant Rigano is out of control in his dealings with people. She said she is afraid of him. Afraid for her life, even.

She said he berates board members, staff and vendors. She accuses him of bullying and threats.

Elections next month may resolve the issue. Rigano hopes to solidify his majority and gain greater control over the board.

Here’s are some different views of the Satellite from Google Earth and FlashEarth.com.

It sits on the eastern edge of Valley Hi Golf Course.

A closer view shows the tennis courts and swimming pool for owners and hotel guests.

Residents of the Satellite enjoy fabulous views of the mountains and the surrounding city.

Here’s a nice story former Gazette columnist Rich Tosches wrote about the Satellite Hotel in 2004.

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BIRD BUSINESS GETTING EXPENSIVE AS FINES MOUNT

January 9th, 2011, 12:01 pm by

Round One goes to the Van Wormers. But Round Two is already costing them cash.

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Cynthia Van Wormer kisses one of the birds she breeds and sells from her home in Woodmoor. The neighborhood homeowners association has ordered her to move her business because it violates covenants prohibiting animal breeding. Photo courtesy of KRDO Newschannel 13.

Cynthia and Thomas Van Wormer convinced the El Paso County Commission on Thursday to wink at state laws and county ordinances and let them keep their Rocky Mountain Bird Farm & Pet Supply in their Woodmoor home.

Thomas and Cynthia Van Wormer spoke Thursday to the El Paso County Commission in defense of their Rocky Mountain Bird Farm & Pet Supply business that they operate from their Woodmoor home.

It didn’t bother three members of the commission — Wayne Williams, Amy Lathen and Dennis Hisey — that the business violates state and county rules for home businesses and bird breeding.

Williams said if neighbors can’t hear or smell the birds, then the government should butt out. I call the policy “Don’t Ask, Don’t Smell.”

The three commissioners’ attitude incensed the Woodmoor Improvement Association, which is the homeowners association for the 3,000-home community in the woods east of Monument.

WIA President Chuck Maher called the commissioners gutless and said he wished he hadn’t voted for them. And he vowed the WIA would do what the commission didn’t have the spine to do.

Thomas Van Wormer, business partner Shawn Rapley, and Cynthia Van Wormer listen to testimony Thursday before the El Paso County Commission.

“We will enforce our covenants,” Maher said, vowing to use all means necessary including asking a judge for a restraining order to evict the business from the home.

In fact, the wheels of HOA justice already are turning.

On Friday, the WIA won a court decision against the Van Wormers over legal fees associated with fighting a restraining order the couple brought against the association in October.

The WIA submitted fees of about $1,600 in that case.

And the couple now is liable for daily fines stemming from their home business.

At a November WIA board meeting, the couple was found to be in violation of two covenants. Board members described it as a tense meeting in which Cynthia Van Wormer shouted and used obscenities in addressing the board and neighbors.

It fined them $50 for barking dog violations and $50 for having an unapproved home business, according to WIA attorney Debra Oppenheimer.

Both fines were suspended to let the couple remedy the violations. When their two wolf hybrids were shipped to a sanctuary in California late last month, they avoided the first fine.

But Oppenheimer said the home business continues to operate and the $50 fine will be reinstated along with a $25 daily fine that will accrue until the business is gone. The daily fine took effect Dec. 31, meaning the couple now owes $250 and counting!

I tried to talk to the Van Wormers about all this.

Cynthia Van Wormer called the commission’s decision “fair” but declined to tell me her next move. Instead, she attacked me, accusing me of slanting my original column against them.

Cynthia got very angry when I asked her about her testimony to the commission in which she said only about 25 percent of her 1883-square-foot home is dedicated to the business.

I reminded her that she told me her entire basement — about 1,000 square feet — is filled with 50 birds and she had put her living room and dining room furniture in storage to accomodate another 48 birds. That sounded like far more than 25 percent — the legal limit — to me.

Thomas and their business partner, Shawn Rapley, also criticized me and accused me of being unfair in my portrayal of them.

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WISH ANN BATES A MERRY CHRISTMAS . . . IN GEORGIA

December 22nd, 2010, 12:01 pm by

Ann Bates told me a story I couldn’t believe until I checked it out.

Bates bought a home in the Pinon Sun Townhomes in 1984. Her new unit started flooding during cloudbursts in 1990.

Every couple years a cloudbust brought a deluge that flooded the ravine behind her building, turned it into a lake with water flowing so fast it sometimes pushed through her basement window and gushed inside, ruining her walls, carpeting and furniture.

It happened repeatedly. But no one could seem to figure out why.

After the fourth incident over a 10-year period, Bates became frustrated and in 2004, she sued her Pinon Sun Homeowners Association as well as a neighboring condominium complex, an apartment complex and a church.

Her experts had identfied the neighbors as the source of the uncontrolled runoff causing all the damage.

After years in court, Bates won a $118,000 settlement. And the insurance company for the townhome and condo HOAs spent $270,000 expanding the stormwater sewer to handle the runoff.

Water pours under a fence from the Pinon Springs Condominiums into a ravine behind buildings of the Pinon Sun Townhomes. Photo courtesy city of Colorado Springs.

The work was completed in April 2009. Guess what happened in July? A cloudburst swamped the ravine and flooded her home again. A neighbor has experienced the same trouble, as well.

During the years the laewsuit dragged on, Bates couldn’t live in her home. It filled with mold that contamined the entire place. She stayed with friends for many months before finally moving in with her sister in Georgia. She still lives there in a rented condo.

The ravine behind Ann Bates' Pinon Sun Townhome unit is turned into a lake by runoff from nearby Picturesque Circle, which funnels the water onto a condo complex, over its tennis courts and past a privacy fence into the ravine. Photo courtesy the city of Colorado Springs.

Bates said her life has been ruined by the townhome, valued by the El Paso County Assessor’s office at $172,000.

 She can’t live in it because it would cost $15,000 to $30,000 to remove the mold. Years of paying attorneys and other bills have left her broke. She can’t afford to fix it. And she wouldn’t anyway because of the ongoing threat of flooding. She can’t sell her unit for obvious reasons and she can’t lease it.

Even worse, Bates said, her HOA is punishing her for suing. She describes HOA leaders as abusive. Most recently, the HOA ripped the deck off the back of her home. HOA president Bob Podunovich said he determined the deck was acting as a dam, flooding Bates’ home and her neighbor’s unit.

Water pours under a fence and into a ravine behind Ann Bates' unit in the Pinon Sun Townhomes. Colorado Springs' water engineer Lisa Ross said the city should raise the curbs or build a berm to prevent water from leaving Picturesque Circle and flooding the ravine. Photo courtesy of the city of Colorado Springs.

City officials and water experts disagree. In fact, city water engineer Lisa Ross said runoff from Picturesque Circle was wrongly drains onto private property of the townhome complex, down the ravine and into Bates’ basement.

The city identified the project as a high priority and had plans to fix it. Until, that is, the city’s stormwater fee ended last January and money for drainage evaporated.

So now Ann sits in Georgia with a townhome she can’t use in Colorado Springs. She fears she’ll never be able to live in it again, or lease it, or sell it.

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