EAST LAKE - Sheriff's deputies cruised along Arabian Lane and Lago Vista Boulevard last week, stopping intermittently at townhouses in Nature's Watch, delivering 34 foreclosure lawsuits.

This latest chapter in the sad saga of Nature's Watch comes a month after reconstruction of water-damaged townhouses was halted because the community's reserves were tapped out.
 

Homeowners in the 182-unit townhouse development in East Lake have been reeling since April when they learned it may cost them $92,000 apiece to repair water damage that, construction experts concluded, was caused by poor construction. Many have kept up with the $28,000 in assessments levied to date, but several dozen either have refused to pay as a matter of principle or cannot pay. With bills coming in for the reconstruction work and no money left to pay, court-appointed receiver Andrew Bolnick stopped work. Six buildings, each with four units, have been

Repair work has come to a standstill in the 182-unit Nature's Watch development in East Lake as funds have run out.

Until last week, beleaguered Nature's Watch residents had thought for months they wouldn't have to face foreclosure actions. A judge put a stay on all foreclosures while the original, and controversial, court ruling was appealed.

In that decision, retired Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Fred Bryson ruled in 2001 that all Nature's Watch homeowners are responsible for sharing equally in the costs of repairing the buildings. Those costs are estimated to be about $17-million because the water damage is so extensive.

Many unit owners are confident Bryson's ruling will be overturned. If that happens, each owner could be on the hook only for what it costs to fix their own home. So, many decided not to pay assessments until the appeals court weighs in.

Vernon Cooney was among those who got a foreclosure notice last week. It makes no sense, he said, to pay assessments before hearing the appeals court decision.

"I don't have the money," Cooney said last week. "I could probably go out and borrow it, but if the court ruling is overturned, I'm not going to get that money back. Why should I have to pay to have other people's houses fixed?"

But the 2nd District Court of Appeal has not made a decision in the three months it has had the case and could take another three months. So Pinellas-Pasco Chief Judge David Demers recently lifted his stay "based on the passage of time and the uncertainty as to when this matter will be resolved."

Last week, Bolnick, the receiver, issued 34 foreclosures.

"We are so close to a decision, why would he want to press on with foreclosures?" resident Chuck Badgley asked. "They are just crashing ahead with this thing."

Those facing foreclosure also might have to pay as much as $2,000 more to cover attorneys fees and interest on assessments owed.

Although water damage is a common plight for Florida homeowners, the unprecedented scope and expense of the damage at Nature's Watch captured the attention of the Tampa Bay area.

Residents, who paid $125,000 to $300,000 for their townhouses, have shared stories of financial and emotional heartbreak. To cling to their homes, owners depleted retirement savings or their kids' college funds. Others sold their homes at distress prices just to get out.

Their pleas caused the county building department to take a hard look at its inspection process and caught the attention of several area legislators who want to correct some of the issues raised in Nature's Watch with new state laws.

Even the reconstruction process has proved to be bumpy and difficult.

Several months ago, workers for JSS Property Professionals accidentally cut numerous post tension cables running through and stabilizing the concrete slabs of several buildings.

Fixing that should cost no more than $30,000, said Bolnick, who hired two engineering firms to analyze the problem.

But an engineer hired by one of the residents reached a far different conclusion.

"Not stopping the work as soon as the first cable was cut indicates a total lack of supervision and common sense," Largo Engineer Ramanuja C. Kannan stated in a written report.

Kannan concluded that structural damage was done and that the buildings may settle beyond a repairable condition. He estimated it could cost an additional $100,000 per home to fix.

Blame for the severed cables, and therefore who has to pay, has yet to be determined, Bolnick said.

The tensions at Nature's Watch extend now well beyond underground cables.

Outspoken resident Lara Shane filed a complaint with the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation against JSS Property Professionals, the architectural firm of Aude, Shand & Williams and engineer Brian Keene alleging they overstated the extent of the damage in the community and have overbilled residents to fix it.

JSS Professionals and Aude, Shand & Williams responded two weeks ago with a defamation suit against Shane.

"To say that we have been deceitful to the community is an affront to us and we can't sit idly by," said Art Shand, a partner with the Clearwater architectural firm.

Shane isn't talking.

"I'd love to talk about it but my attorneys are telling me not to comment for a little while," she said.

Shane and her family moved out of Nature's Watch two weeks ago to a home in Palm Harbor. They plan to rent out their townhouse.

Driving in and out of the gates every day, she said, it was gut-wrenching to see neighbors who may lose their homes. "We just felt, for our own sanity, we needed to leave," Shane said.

Many say Nature's Watch is turning into a rental community.

Resident Jim Foggett is current with his assessment payments, but he's moving out, too. Like many, he said, he will seek to protect his assets by transferring title to his townhouse to a limited liability corporation, and then renting it out.

Eventually, Foggett said, as more and more foreclosures occur, the burden of paying for repairs will be shifted to the remaining residents, until the community collapses.

"It's like an empty hole and whatever you throw in disappears," he said. "At some point it will get everybody."

County Commissioner Susan Latvala, meanwhile, is shopping around for a legislator to sponsor a bill that would prevent another Nature's Watch.

She envisions a law requiring homeowners association bylaws to clearly define an owner's responsibility within commonly shared walls. It also would prohibit a receiver from replacing the board of directors of a homeowners association, as happened in Nature's Watch.

The state's attempts to pursue criminal prosecution of developer Richard Geiger ended last summer when the State Attorney's Office determined the four-year statute of limitations had passed. The homeowners' civil suit against him still is pending, however.

Resident Michael Leonardo, who was met in his driveway last week by a sheriff's deputy and a foreclosure lawsuit, no longer knows what to think.

"It's all just legal wrangling," Leonardo said. "It's frustrating.

"We never thought it would go this far," he said. "It has gone so far."