Neighbors Meet With The City Of Denver To Try To Stop HOA Foreclosures: 'Vote Them Out'
DENVER (CBS4)- In the last year, more than one third of all HOA foreclosure notices filed in Denver happened in Green Valley Ranch. Saturday morning The City of Denver hosted a foreclosure and housing assistance meeting for homeowners at the Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center to try to help those residents.
There was no shortage of stories about people losing their homes to foreclosure after failing to pay fines levied against them by their HOA.
"I'm homeless. I've never been late. This is what a citizen gets!" exclaimed one woman.
Neighbors were able to speak with Denver City Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore about what they can do to save their homes from judicial foreclosure, and they gave her an earful.
"A lot of our rights have been violated," Terry Meeks, a neighbor, told her.
No one from the HOA was at the meeting and calls to them from CBS Denver reporters to ask about these issues have not been returned yet.
A man who said he was from a neighboring HOA said in the meeting he thinks homeowners should be responsible for protecting themselves.
"If you don't like what your board is doing, get down to their monthly meeting and vote them out and vote your new people in," he said.
A woman stood up and responded, "I'm a doctor. I wake up and go to work early every morning so I can get to work at 6, and I get home late. Don't tell me to try to go to a board meeting and vote."
Meeks says she too has been getting an excessive number of fines from the HOA.
"They just kept coming and coming and coming," she said.
Initially she paid them, but they kept showing up. She tried to ask why, but she says got the runaround from the board.
"We would get all different type of answers. 'They're going to look into it. They've been resolved.' Everything from not even being notified of violations and then you turn around and you have $3,000 or $4,000 fines. Then from $2,000 fines to right now $17,000 in fines," she said.
She and many others think someone wants them out of their homes because of their race and the value of their homes.
"It's like another form of gentrification," she said.
While the city was able to provide some information to Terry and her neighbors and gather evidence of potential malfeasance, regulation of HOAs is a state issue. Neighbors want their Colorado State Representatives and Senators to get involved.
Rep. Jennifer Bacon who represents the area did show up at the meeting but did not address the crowd. Terry says she wants her and her colleagues to protect them.
"Do something put some stricter laws in place," she said.
