Preston Village Homeowners Association Village on Preston Homeowners Assocation FRAUD EMBEZZLEMENT Dallas, Texas

I agree with this report and would like to add the following:

- After several unsuccessful attempts to levy a new Special Assessment on the Garden condos in this development, the Board deceived the homeowners to get an almost $500,000 "rehab" of the Garden condo's siding.

- This deception included sending out proxy ballots with a separate letter that stated the amount of the rehab was the same.  However, even though many owners sent in Yes votes based upon the same price, the Board had actually added more than $100,000 to the total!  Therefore, votes were cast without having adequate or correct information.

- This Special Assessment sales presentation was given by the President of the Preston Village HOA Board.  Within one month of deceiving the owners, it was discovered that the President Richard Fuchs had transferred ownership of his condo to his son 3 days after taking office as President of the board.

- Rather than telling the truth to homeowners, the Board and their management company, Excel Association Management in Plano, TX, sent a letter to homeowners stating Richard Fuchs had transferred ownership to his son for "estate planning" purposes.  What they neglected to say was that Richard Fuch's son is a well-known Wealth Manager in Austin, TX that would never recommend "transferring ownership" as a way to plan an estate. 

Furthermore, the letter stated:
"Although the Associations Bylaws state that non-owners may serve on the Board of Directors, the Articles of Incorporation state that Board Members must be owners of record. Effective April 2, 2012, Richard Fuchs resigned from the Board of Directors. Richards resignation was occasioned by the need to avoid any conflict between the Bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation of the Association with regard to eligibility for the Board of Directors."

This is simply a blatant lie to the homeowners the Board is supposed to serve.  Anyone with any knowledge of HOAs understands that the Articles of Incorporation mandate the initial Board of Directors must be members (owners) of the corporation.  The Preston Village HOA bylaws, contrary to the letter sent to owners above, also state that candidates for the Board must be owners of record.  Did the Board ever read the Bylaws?  This letter to homeowners makes it clear that this Board of Directors either has not knowledge of the corporation they are in charge of or they are purposely deceiving the homeowners.

- After Richard Fuchs resigned before being recalled, two Garden condo residents were denied access to the ballots by Excel Management, who stated the vote was by "secret ballot".
Only after being threatened with legal action did Excel determine the vote was not, in fact, by secret ballot.

- Two Garden condos owners then recounted the ballots for this Special Assessment and discovered that the cote did not actually pass.  This evidence was presented to the Board and the Board ignored the evidence.

- To add insult to injury, the Board neglected to tell homeowners that they planned on using a large portion of this Special Assessment to pad the Reserve account in order to apply for recertification by FHA!  

- Once their deceitful application was rejected by the FHA due to inadequate reserves, they failed to notify homeowners that the development was rejected!  Now owners cannot refinance and their buyers cannot use FHA financing!

This is just the tip of the iceberg with this HOA.  I certainly warn anyone to stay away from this group of people determined to run this HOA into the ground.