Getting your player ready...
Alex Walter and Jim Burneson have a lot in common. They’re about the same age, they have long histories in real estate, they lived in the same Aurora community – Dam East – for years, and they have been friends for decades.
And they both despise homeowner associations.
Burneson, 72, who formerly did work for a well-known family owned real estate firm, spent 31 days in the Arapahoe County Jail, when he ran afoul of his community’s HOA’s board about four years ago.
HOAs compared to crime families
“The Mafia would be jealous on how HOA boards and HOA property managers have gotten the courts to support them,” Burneson said. Indeed, he compared HOA boards to the Mafia several times.
Burneson said he complained so much to the HOA board that its members got a restraining order against him and then he said a judge agreed he had violated it, resulting in his jail time.
He said he has had a 10-year battle with his board to get them to open up its books.
Walter, 71, who came to Denver in 1974 to work on real estate deals for First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee, doesn’t come off as caustic as his friend. While Walter, who moved from Dam East about five years ago, doesn’t compare HOAs to organized crime outfits, he still says the industry is a “hot potato” that hasn’t received the public scrutiny it deserves.
HOA scandal
“The HOA situation is at least as much of a scandal as state/federal budgets and the national health care situation . . . all put together,” Walter said.” The tragedy is that the real HOA scandal has been suppressed by special interests.”
Specifically, in his own words, he had this to say about HOAs:
Since HOA boards of directors and officers are considered “volunteers” the legal and court system says they can do no wrong. That is simply not so! Those people do lots of wrong.
HOA fee management companies are in many ways clever crooks. They have no idea what full and honest disclosure means or if they do there is no oversight to be sure it actually happens.
The Community Associations Institute is dangerous. Its lawyer, fee-management company and accounting firm members lobby for anything which will line their pockets. Lawyers are the worst as they use the HOA power to lien as a lever to collect unconscionable.
The non-profit CAI is the major advocacy, lobbying and education group for the HOA industry.
Burneson, who covers – or rather lambasts – the Colorado HOA industry in an online site called Court-House Services Inc. – and is self-publishing a book on how to self-manage housing communities without organized HOAs, is no fan of State Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora.
Carroll previously authored Senate Bill 100 to give more rights to homeowners, but Burneson claims it was “neutered” by influence of the CAI, which he describes as the “Acorn of the HOA business nationally,” alluding to the poor-people advocacy group whose practices have been pilloried by many on the right.
Carroll also sponsored HB-1278, which starting this year, for the first time requires HOAs to register with the state and created a database for HOA complaints.
“This bill is another sham by Morgan Carroll,” Burneson wrote a year ago on his web site. “Any legislature that CAI supports a law means the HOA homeowners are screwed and the crooked property managers and HOA lawyers will be protected.”
Carroll proud of her HOA record
Carroll, for her part, didn’t respond directly to Burneson’s charges against her, but defended her record.
“I have carried more HOA legislation (increasing nearly 30 of rights for homeowners and increasing transparency and accountability for HOAs) than any other member in the legislature,” Carroll said. “I have authored the biggest reforms in this area in 30 years, virtually all of it improving the balance of power for homeowners with respect to their HOAs.) I think the record that anyone can read speaks for itself.”
Terry Jerrett, president-elect of the CAI’s Rocky Mountain chapter, said he isn’t familiar with Burneson’s situation, so he can’t address it specifically.
Most HOAs reputable
“I don’t know what to say about a gentleman like that, because I don’t know what triggered his reactions,” Jarrett said. “But I will say that of the thousands of people I have met in this industry, I could count on a couple of hands the number of people who have been unreasonable.”
He suggested that someone who unhappy with their HOA try to be elected to the board to make changes.
“An HOA board is kind of a microcosm of democracy at its most basic level,” Jarrett said. “Sometimes, for example, they have rules in place that were set by the original developer, and they really don’t make any sense. Well, rules can be changed.”
Burneson, for his part, said he tried to run for his HOA board, but claims through political maneuvering he was denied a board position. He said that he was supposed to have replaced a convicted sex offender on the board at one point, but it never happened.
Burneson saves a lot of his verbal venom for lawyer Jeffrey Lane, who he claims controlled the Dam East HOA board and caused much of his problems.
Burneson described as a “nut-case”
But it is Burneson who is the problem, Lane said late this afternoon.
“Jim Burneson is a nut case,” Lane said. “He is crazy. The things he says are bizarre and kind of sad. He is delusional.”
Lane said Burneson went to jail because he repeatedly violated the restraining order, and a judge found him in contempt of court on several occasions, when he wouldn’t stop harassing board members. “He is very self-destructive,” Lane said. “He is not a nice man. It’s like he can’t help himself.”
Lane said that Burneson frequently libels him on his website, making unfounded charges, such as he has faced felony charges. He also said at different times he has said or posted racist and anti-Semitic statements.
“He’s basically libel-proof, because he lives on Social Security, has no money,” Lane said. “I’ve been dealing with him for the past seven years, and it’s gotten to the point I really don’t care what he says about me anymore. He finds a new audience and at first he sounds like a plausible guy. But the more you dig into him, you know he is crazy and says crazy things. I am a little irritated that if you Google my name, his site often pops up. But I figure once people start reading it, they will realize that he is nuts.”
For his part, Burneson is scheduled to leave Dam East, where he bought a home for $34,000 in 1972. In a complicated deal, he said the HOA has dropped some liens against his property and will take over his house. He still worries that the HOA will not be able to sell it for the amount of debt on it, and will try to get his bank to go after him for the deficiency.
But no more HOAs for Burneson.
“We’re going to rent.”
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com
