Living in Boca Grove Plantation, a country club community west of Boca Raton where water fountains shoot out of ponds and the grass is several shades greener, will cost you $70,000 up front and $19,000 a year in dues.

But there is another cost, three residents say: basic homeowners rights.

They claim Boca Grove officials have held private board meetings and sealed financial ledgers, ending a 15-year policy of openness at one of Palm Beach County's most exclusive country clubs.

"We almost don't know where our money is going," said longtime resident Ted Burton, 74, a retired landscaping architect.

Their dispute, now in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, offers yet another glimpse at the high-stakes disputes roiling South Florida's country club communities, where wealthy retirees descend from the pinnacle of business, industry and politics only to discover they have little influence.

The residents suing Boca Grove say they became angry when the club's board of directors barred members from negotiations on a $1.9 million landscaping project.

The board also met privately on such issues as the contract renewal of country club general manager Emerson Lehner, and it refused to release some budget and bidding documents, the residents complain. 

Hartley Lord, one of three residents who filed the lawsuit in September, said the board is violating a state law that regulates homeowners associations.

The law provides standards on homeowners elections, board meetings and other procedures.

Neither Emerson nor Boca Grove President Sandy Angstrom could be reached for comment.

Boca Grove's attorney, Anne Zimet, said the state law does not apply to Boca Grove because it is a country club that has both residential and non-residential members. She refused to discuss the private meetings.

"It is simply not a homeowners association," Zimet said. 

Lord, Burton and Robert Bender, who are being represented by attorney Harold Haimowitz, are asking the court to declare whether Boca Grove must follow homeowners regulations. 

Boca Grove is different from most country club communities because it has one board of directors that serves both the homeowners association and the country club.

Because residents are required to join the country club, Boca Grove would likely have to follow state regulations on homeowners associations, said West Palm Beach-based attorney Michael Gelfand, who advises homeowners association boards.

Until two years ago, residents had no problems getting information from management, Burton said. But he and other residents say that changed shortly after the country club hired Lehner in July 2001.

Even though they are not required to comply with homeowners regulations, many country clubs opt to do so to avoid lawsuits, Gelfand said.

Burton said the Boca Grove dispute is about homeowners' rights.

"Why would anybody want to live in a community not protected by Florida law?" he said.