March 30^th, 2008

What's wrong with this picture, or How my home was auctioned on the courthouse steps for $15,300. I lost all of my equity, and received a check for $2,500 – after paying my mortgage for 20 years on a property that more than doubled in value.

I bought my home in the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Condominium and moved into it in July, 1987.

Over the years, I've had some financial setbacks due to a failed business in the 1990's and some personal issues, but I had my home here at the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Condominium.

Due to separating from my spouse, and a failed business, I became $4,000 behind in my association dues. My financial condition improved and I offered to repay the past due amount by doubling my monthly association dues until I was caught up – which would have taken less than one year. The Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors refused to accept my repayment plan and instead foreclosed on my home. I declared bankruptcy which prevented the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors from auctioning my home on the courthouse steps.

Unfortunately, it only delayed the inevitable. The Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors has resources which I could not fight – the assets of the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association which collects over $150,000 per month from over 380 homeowners monthly dues – keeping the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors well funded to continue their crusade to evict me from my home.

After fighting the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors for several years, I could no longer maintain the bankruptcy and allowed it to be dismissed. The Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors immediately filed foreclosure against me again in December, 2008.

I discussed this with board member Al Steiner before Christmas. He strung me along from until the January 16th board meeting. At that meeting, when a homeowner asked about my situation, a board member said, “He's presented us with a very compelling document which we will review after the meeting.” That was a lie. They may not have voted, but they had already decided they were going to foreclose. No one contacted me with the outcome of the board meeting. When I inquired, I was told I would have to talk to the HOA's attorneys - Riddle & Williams. This tactic delayed any possibility of resolution and increased my costs. When the HOA refers you to their attorneys, the attorneys charge YOU for the time spent talking to you.

Having seen how these bastards operate, I decided I needed an attorney to deal with Riddle and Williams. My attorney contacted Riddle and Williams - who didn't return his phone calls until the day before my home was to be auctioned, giving me no opportunity to do anything to save my home. The Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors strategy was to run out the clock so that I couldn't do anything to save my home until it was too late.

Their strategy worked. Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors refused my offer to make 2 payments per month until I was current. Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors flexed their muscles, proved they have more power than a mere homeowner and drove me from my home. Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors President Pat Rodgers told me in the elevator, “You're not the victim here!” Rodgers is driving me from my home and I'm not the victim?

On February 5th, The Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors auctioned my home. It was purchased by an investor for $15,300. Approximately, $12,400 went to the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association, but the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association's attorneys got most of it. I received a check for $2,600 – out of which I paid another $1,000 to my attorney – netting $1,600 to me.

All of this started when the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors refused to allow me to repay $4,000 over a 10 month period.

Here are some more details:

I spent approximately $30,000 in attorney's fees - out of pocket, those paid to the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association's attorneys, and to the mortgage company. When this started, my mortgage balance was $24,000 and current. Now, due to legal fees, the mortgage balance is more than $35,000 and the mortgage company will auction my home on the courthouse steps on the first Tuesday in April. If the people who bought my home for $15,300 at the 21 board's auction in February don't buy my unit again at the mortgage company's auction, they will lose their money. (I didn't know that a home could be foreclosed and auctioned multiple times, did you?)

The mortgage company withdrew my home from auction in February and has rescheduled it for April. The mortgage company did this to help me keep my home. It will take a total of $1,800.00 to reinstate my mortgage, but I cannot do that because I no longer own the property.

You see, here's the problem: Mortgage companies do everything they can to help homeowners and to prevent foreclosures. Abusive condominium homeowners' associations such as the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association do not work to prevent foreclosures. Instead, they flex their muscles and use their position of power to destroy their neighbors.

The people who bought my property at the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors auction paid $15,300 for my home. They will sell it back to me for $20,000 – a nice profit for 2 months ownership.

Even with all of these problems, the mortgage company has done everything they could to help me reinstate my mortgage. Unfortunately, the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors has precluded any possibility of that happening by destroying me financially.

I want Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors and homeowners to know the following:

1. If I cannot recover my property, I will not move from 21 until I am evicted. The sheriff will have to throw my belongings onto the sidewalk. I will alert all of the TV stations so that they can film it for news reports. I will film it myself and put the video up on the 21turtlecreekcondo.com website.
   
   

2. The 21 board is planning a special assessment that will be in the $25,000 to $35,000 range depending on the size of each unit. This will likely result in financial difficulties for many homeowners here at 21.
   
   According to Worth Ross, the owner of 21's management company, the 21 board cannot make special arrangements with other homeowners who may become behind on their monthly dues and / or special assessment to avoid foreclosure, because that would leave the board open to lawsuits from those who have been previously foreclosed upon and were refused an opportunity of a repayment plan.
   
   

3. If the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors makes special payment arrangements with any homeowner at 21 to help them avoid foreclosure, I will file a lawsuit against the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors, Worth Ross, and Worth Ross & Associates.
   
   

4. It is also questionable whether the refusal to provide a repayment plan to one homeowner while granting it to another actually creates a liability for the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors. In that case, I will sue the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors, Worth Ross, and Worth Ross' & Associates because they failed their fiduciary responsibility by not informing themselves and using incorrect information to make the decision to foreclose on my home.
   
   

5. I was unaware that the association dues were not being paid because my former spouse hid this fact from me. My spouse was not the owner of the property, so the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors may have a liability because they allowed the association dues to get almost one year behind without informing the homeowner. To this date, The Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association Board of Directors has refused to provide documentation that I was properly notified.
   
   

6. Finally, I am documenting what happened to me on the Internet at a website I purchased for this purpose: 21TurtleCreekCondo.com.

For those of you who may think my actions are extreme, I can only say that extreme times call for extreme action. I have nothing to lose by publicizing what happened to me.

It is my hope that the circumstances of this situation will prevent these abuses of power in the future and that I will be able to sue the Twenty-One Turtle Creek Homeowners' Association so that they will be prevented from destroying more lives.

Geoff Staples
Former Twenty-One Turtle Creek Condominium homeowner