utahcondolawblog

National Public Radio ran a story today about the reality of modern-day Wall Street. According to their story, many of the old financial buildings have been converted to condominiums. So, the 1% can move onto Wall Street and occupy it long term.

Here’s an example of what’s out there, and there’s some tax abatement, as well. I suppose if you can afford the condo, you worry a lot about your taxes.
Studio condominiums start at an affordable $700,000.

I received a copy of the 2012 College of Community Association Lawyers Law Seminar Brochure; the seminar will be held from January 26-28, in Palm Springs, California. I’ll be there, as I have been for every one of the last nine years, and once again, I’ll be presenting. I don’t have an assigned topic; I’ve been asked to join several other distinguished lawyers on the Panel of Pundits, and we’ll be answering questions from, and posing questions to, the audience.
Other topics will include the always-popular case law update; several sessions on insurance and mortgage trends and issues; sessions on governance, fair housing, and construction defects.

While the majority of attendees have historically been attorneys, recent years have seen an increased attendance from managers, reserve professionals and even board members. An insurance masters program runs concurrently with the conference, so the insurance and risk management fields are also well represented.

A lawyer friend from Colorado recently inquired as to how I use my iPad in my law practice. Since I’ve been asked the question before, and since many of my professional uses will apply to many professions, I thought I should share my response. Here it is:

Practice? What Practice?

Actually, about 75% of my iPad usage is personal; for reading news and mags. I don’t have Angry Birds yet, but I borrow my wife’s iPad for that.

Recently, however, I have been using it more in my practice, in several ways. First, we acquired a cabin, and we’re trying to keep that as a “limited technology zone.” I do use it there to receive and send emails when I’m away on the weekend. It’s less obtrusive than the laptop, easier to cart up and back, has wireless (non-wifi) access, and it doesn’t feel as much like work to reply to an email on it.

If you use Daylite (which I heartily recommend), the Daylite Touch App is an amazing way to keep your calendar updated. Daylite Touch also works on my iPhone; it automatically syncs with my office calendar, whenever it’s accessed, provided that I have either phone service or wifi. And, you can access all of the calendars in your database, if you have Daylite installed on your network. I mainly use Daylite Touch on my phone, although it’s better and more accessible on the larger iPad format.

Gotomypc has a good iPad App that allows you to remotely access Windows and Mac computers. We still have TimeMatters as our billing system (unfortunately), so I can access and record time, remotely, through that. If you use Gotomypc, you’ll find that it is much easier to use on the iPad app than it is through a browser. (I’m still looking for a good mac-based billing system, so that I can defenestrate our office server.)

I also recently bought Omnifocus for the iPad. Still playing with it, but it looks like a great organizational program.

Dropbox allows you to sync files between your mobile devices and other computers. I don’t us it a lot, but others do. Crashplan, which is our office remote backup for the office Macs, just released an iPad and iPhone App which appears to do the same thing. That may be preferable, since all of our office files are continuously backed up.

Penultimate is a good program for taking notes in meetings. Papyrus appears to be almost as good (perhaps better), and it’s free. I just acquired a Jot stylus, which has a finer point than most of them, and promises “no more fingerpainting…” (All of the other iPad styli that I have used have a tip about the size of a pencil eraser. The Jot is more like a ball point pen, but protects the surface with a little plastic disc.

There are several good travel apps; FlightAware gives real time status on flights; all of the big travel sites have apps.

Although I joke about my limited use of the iPad for work, I do use it with increasing frequency. I’m teaching in Southern California early next month, and am trying to get up the nerve to leave the laptop behind. I’m quite confident that I could pull it off.

In connection with your shift from the Dark Side, I recommend you check out and subscribe to the MILO (Macs in Law Offices) group on Google. (milogroup@googlegroups.com)

Good Luck!

I’m at the October meeting of the Utah Chapter of the Community Associations Institute; John Richards of Richards Kimble and Winn is the speaker; he’s speaking on suggestions to run effective HOA meetings. His suggestions:

1. Identify all issues to be addressed (and prepare to deal with them);
2. Determine the time and place;
3. What notice is to be given?;
4. What should be contained in the notice?;
5. Once notice is out, what next? (John suggests trying to resolve anticipated issues or concerns before the meeting);
6. Consider mail-in ballots (when allowed by governing documents);
7. Can powers of attorney be used?;
8. Specific tips on conduct:
- have rules of order
- have the board sitting up front;
- assign roles for topics;
- welcome everyone and start on time
- at annual meetings, provide financial information and invite them to review other financial information;
- at annual meetings, present the positive;
- keep on time;
- don’t have prayers
9. Members in good standing?
10. Ballots received after the deadline?

Spent a beautiful Autumn day at the South Mountain Golf Course yesterday, with supporters and friends of the Utah Chapter of the Community Associations Institute. In keeping with tradition, I took photos of most of the players, a couple of the better shots are posted here:

, and the whole collection can be seen at Picassa, here:

UCCAI Golf 2011

There are many, many jokes to be made about condominiums for cats, but this story is too nice to joke about.

Salt Lake icon and Tooele resident Patrick Wiggins (who introduced me and many thousands of others to the beauty of the Solar System) is making a generous contribution to the Utah Humane Society, to help provide individual living units for cats at the Humane Society‘s shelter.  They’re calling them cat condos, but I hope for the sake of the cats that they can enjoy their shelters without the burdens of attempting to run a condominium association.

The law firm of Hobbs & Olson and Utahcondolaw will be giving away a new iPad in connection with the Utah Chapter of the Community Association Institute’s annual golf tournament, to be held tomorrow at the South Mountain Golf Course.  You don’t need to attend the tournament to participate.

There are, however, a few simple requirements for eligibility.

First, you need to follow this blog.  If you don’t know how to do that, you may not want or need an iPad.  Following this blog is the best reason for wanting an iPad.  But, if you want an iPad, and need help to learn how to follow this blog, check back on this site, and I’ll provide instructions.

Second, you’ll need to friend Hobbs & Olson on Facebook.  If you’re not on Facebook, you’ll need to join.  If you don’t want to join Facebook, why would you want an iPad?

And last, but certainly not least, you will also need to friend Utahcondolaw on Facebook.

Finally, if you have moral or political (or other) objections to Facebook, you can connect with Hobbs & Olson on LinkedIn, in lieu of the Facebook connections.  Of course, you can do that in addition to the Facebook connections.

Once you have completed those simple tasks, you should be in the drawing.  Want confirmation of your eligibility?  Send an email to attorneys@haolaw.com, and wait 24 hours.

Our current plan is to have a drawing at the October UCCAI luncheon, to be held on October 7.  Since you will be following this page, you will be automatically updated.

Good luck.  Employees of Hobbs & Olson are ineligible.  Clients are eligible and encouraged to participate.

I’ll be speaking on Friday at the Cottonwood Club; Lincoln Hobbs is willing to sponsor some readers of this blog on a first-come, first serve basis.  Here’s an article about the talk.  Hobbs & Olson can be reached at (801) 519-2555.

USA Today  has jumped on the media bandwagon in criticizing community associations that choose to foreclose upon default thing owners; this recent article publicizes the hardships faced by those who are in arrears on their assessments and face foreclosure from their associations; to a more limited extent it mentions the hardship of associations who face increasing number of delinquencies.

As I have repeatedly noted, unit owners who do not pay their assessments are causing great problems to associations; the dilemma is how best to respond to those problems. This article is just another example of the bad press which is associated with foreclosures; I continue to believe that collection efforts that commence with a demand letter and are followed by a personal lawsuit when necessary are a better solution to collecting past due assessments. Those who have the ability to pay their assessments will pay their assessments when faced with a demand letter and/or a lawsuit; those who cannot pay will simply face another creditor seeking to take away their residence.

The Community Association Lawyers at Hobbs & Olson recommend collecting through a formal collection policy, which should include the timely (and automatic) filing of a lien, followed by or accompanied with a demand letter, followed shortly thereafter by a complaint, if necessary. Our entire collection process from the initial demand letter through the preparation and filing of a complaint, and the opportunity for the debtor to respond, almost always progresses in less than the 90 days allowed by a notice of default. If defaulting unit owners don’t response to a demand letter, followed by a complaint, they are not going to be able to pay off following a notice of default, and the association will find itself the owner of a unit which almost certainly will be foreclosed by the lender, thereafter. And the association may or may not have marketable title, even if the lender doesn’t take the unit away.

There are occasions when the sale of a unit is warranted, such as when a lender is delaying their own foreclosure, or when they foreclose, but refuse to record their deed. In those instances, however, the Association will likely have obtained a judgment in less than the 120 days it would take to have nonjudicially foreclosed a unit, and the association can then issue a writ of execution on its judgment, reaching the same result as the nonjudicial foreclosure would have.

Today’s New York Times is reporting on a trend, which I have noted before, where lenders are sitting back and delaying foreclosures on homes in default.  There are many reasons for the delay, including the lenders’ capacities to foreclose, the courts’ abilities to handle foreclosures, and the massive backlogs of real-estate-owned properties.  The accompanying graphic shows Utah, once again, to be better off than many states.

The lenders’ delays are adversely effecting associations, however, because owners in default on their mortgages are, more likely than not, going to be in default on their assessments, as well.  This reality makes it more important that associations aggressively pursue assessment collections, rather than making the assumption– made by many associations — that the lender’s foreclosure will eliminate the ability to collect from the owner.  Owners remain personally liable, and its likely, in this day and age, that you can collect before the bank will.

For more information on assessment collection options and strategies, contact the lawyers at www.haolaw.com