Condo Questions and Answers
Jan Hickenbottom, a property manager, and has written the Condo Q&A column in the Los Angeles Times since the early 90's.
She has been a past Los Angeles area director of CAI , a lobby - litigation group of homeowner association lawyers.
With funding from CAI construction defect lawyers she and a handful of other management company owners , including Diane Fullerton of the now defunct Marquis Management, started CACM - a lobby group trained by CAI lawyers. CACM is a lobby group for homeowner association managers.
Some of the CAI construction defect lawyers feature Ms. Hickenbottom in their advertisments to entice board members to their meetings in order to recruit them to file lawsuits against builders. ( It is estimated that 80% of homeowner associations in Southern California have been involved in lawsuits.)
In the late 1980's and early 1990's, homeowners plagued with homeowner association lawsuits and high dues asked Ms. Hickenbottom and the former Los Angeles Times real estate editor, Dick Barnes, to include pending homeowner association legislation in her column. Both refused.
The homeowners started a radio show, newsletters and faxback computers to inform the public, legislators and media about pending CAI bills that were taking away rights and creating unlimited liabilites e.g. :
- AB1545 - to put assessment liens before the first trust deed
- AB1793 -power make any rules, charge unlimited lawyers fees and collect the fees using non-judicial foreclosures.
These efforts stopped several bills. A network of fifty Orange County association homeowners cancelled their Los Angeles Times subsciption in protest. One homeowner summed up their dissatisfaction and frustration by saying, " Having trade lobbyist Jan Hickenbottom writing on homeowner association issues is like having the Klu Klux Klan write on civil rights"
Ms. Hickenbottom continues to inform the public after laws are passed and continues to use her column to refer the public to CAI lawyers.
( Note: Homeowner association restrictions like antenna and satellite dish restrictions helped the cable division of the Los Angeles Times (Times Dimension Cable Company- now Cox Cable) became one of the fastest growing cable companies in the West.)
I have received overwhelming correspondence from homeowners after Sunday's release of the Condo Q and A column. I thought you should be aware of a particular e-mail I received from a genuine concerned homeowner.
The author of the e-mail has given me permission to reproduce questions she has sent to Ms. Hickenbottom yet have never received an answer. Please review the following:
1. Do you think there should be enforcement for HOA laws?
2. Do you think that managers should be licensed by the DRE?
3. Do you think that HOA's have too much power and too little protection for the homeowners?
4. Do you think that non-judicial foreclosures are unconstitutional?
5. Should a homeowner who suddenly becomes very ill, pay their dues first or their mortgage first?
6. Do you feel that CAI represents homeowners? Or are they a business trade organization that represents their trade?
7. The American Homeowners Resource Center has been referred to me for help with association problems, their website is http://www.AHRC.com - have you ever heard of them and should I contact them for assistance?
8. What homeowners associations does your management company represent?
9. Are you a member of the Community Associations Institute?
10. Do you live in an HOA?
It is somewhat strange that Ms. Hickenbottom has never considered any of the above questions in her column.
The American Homeowners Resource Center (AHRC) is an organization developed by consumer homeowners to answer questions and concerns related to CID homeowners. It has no industry affiliations that generate profit. Ms. Ms. Hickenbottom has never referred a single homeowner to this organization.
The AHRC website receives over 1600 hits per day. I would say that's more than the number of readers that take any credence in the Condo Q and A column. Perhaps now is a good time to change the columns name to "A Guide to CID Profiteers".
Other homeowners have sent me information on how to contact the Chicago Tribune to report what they claim to be an injustice to CID homeowners perpetrated by Ms. Hickenbottom and the LA Times. I am inclined to agree with them.
Sincerely,
David R. Hagmaier
Encl: Letter dated February 11, 2001 From: P. flamingo To: Ms. Lauren Beale - Real Estate Section Editor - Los Angeles Times
Here is the free ad space for CAI in Jan Hickenbottoms Q&A section of the LA Times.
Some people feel that Ms. Hickenbottom's questions are all a plant for the industry.
They never list the name or even city of the homeowners. Every query ends with hire a lawyer. Talk about sending homeowners into the belly of the beast!!!!!
In the past the LA Times refused to put the AHRC website in the in the paper when AHRC was announcing homeowners support meetings.
Email the LA Times and just tell them off!
real.estate@latimes.com
Lauren.beale@latimes.com
Real.Estate@latimes.com wrote:
Thank you for your interesting e-mail on the small short we ran in editorial on the Community Assns. Institute seminar. We have routinely run announcements of their free events in the past and do so for other groups, such as the affordable housing fair announcement on K6 of the same issue.
We run these items on a space available basis as a reader service but based on your letter and one other we received it would appear we are providing a reader disservice. I will look into the suitability of continuing to run such announcements.
Thank you for your interest in the Times Real Estate Section.
Sincerely,
Deputy Real Estate Editor
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American Homeowners Resource Center
P.O. Box 97 * San Juan Capistrano
California 92693
Phone: (949) 366-2125 * E-mail:ahrc@ahrc.com
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