Homeowner Seeks Arrest of Ex-North Bay Village Commissioner

Insists His Management Company Improperly Collects Fees and Unfairly Imposes Liens

The court found that the association “failed to establish that

it properly adopted or imposed the assessments at issue.”

Article Courtesy of  Miami SunPost

By Omar Sommereyns
Published March 30, 2006

For almost a decade now, Taimira Perez and other residents living in a low-income Miami Gardens community have been fighting their homeowners association and a management company, claiming they have improperly collected assessments and maintenance fees and placed liens on the properties of those who refuse to pay.

Now, Judge Linda Singer Stein has denied the Miramar Gardens Townhouse Homeowners Association’s request to foreclose on Perez’s property and to collect costs and fees it has claimed.

Although the association’s attorney made a motion for a rehearing, Perez is happy with her belated victory. More so, she wants the ruling to apply to several of her neighbors who are being threatened by the association and to bring down Robert Dugger, a former North Bay Village Commissioner who runs Timberlake, in the process. Through the assistance of Cyber Citizens for Justice, a statewide homeowners’ rights group, Perez was prepared to organize a demonstration in front of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, demanding Dugger’s arrest. The March 21 morning protest, which would have included a “camp out,” was called off after Perez met with prosecutors.

In September 2001, the association sued Perez for foreclosure on her home and damages, alleging that her household failed to pay homeowner fees. In their defense, Perez and her ex-husband Orlando Leiva (also named in the suit) shot back with a list of allegations. Among them, states the January 19 final judgment, a failure to “comply with notice and meeting requirements pursuant to the [association’s] Declaration of Covenants,” that the board of directors unlawfully delegated duties to Timberlake, the management company, and that the association has “unclean hands.”

After reviewing evidence, the court found that the association “failed to establish that it properly adopted or imposed the assessments at issue. In so doing, [it] finds that several of the [Perez’s] defenses are meritorious.”

Back in 1997, Judge Moie Tendrich, a court-appointed receiver, asked Timberlake to act as the management company in Miramar Gardens. The community was in a shoddy state and, as described in the court documents, “the common areas were in disrepair and littered with garbage. In addition, several of the units were used as crack houses and the property was plagued by crime.”

In a recent interview at the SunPost office, Perez, 43, along with other Miramar Gardens residents — Ethel Clarke, 75, and Rene Canizalez, 54 — spoke about their frustration with Timberlake, which they perceive as an oppressive entity that doesn’t care much about the good of the community.

“They don’t make no progress in the community,” Clarke said. “I’m still paying the maintenance fee, but where is the maintenance? There’s no landscaping anywhere…just weeds and sand.

“One of the lies they say is that we don’t want to pay the association fees, but we say, ‘Don’t force us to pay something you’re not entitled to.’”

According to the final judgment, “the [association] was unable to demonstrate that, subsequent to the receiver’s discharge, it conducted a meeting or meetings in accordance with the procedures mandated by its declaration, [which]…prohibits assessments in excess of $27.32 without a vote of the membership. [Its] continued assessments of $35 per month could not be imposed, therefore, unless notices were properly sent and a vote occurred.”

Perez and Leiva also “more than established their defense that the plaintiff has unclean hands. The testimony of various witnesses manifestly demonstrated that the plaintiff association is merely a sham entity and that all decisions concerning its governance and the imposition of any assessment were made solely and exclusively by the current or previous management company, Community Association Management Consultants Group d/b/a Timberlake Group, Inc., and not the board of directors. Moreover these decisions were made without regard to the interests of the homeowners or declarations.”

Commenting on Perez’s ongoing battle with him, Dugger told the SunPost, “She has repeatedly said that her goal is to put me in jail, has filed complaints at the state and local level, and just won’t pay the maintenance fee. … It’s my personal opinion that she knows how to work the system really well, but I am a professional and always will be.”

The association’s attorney, Brian Pariser, added, “The woman hasn’t paid her maintenance for years, but this case only affects her and no other homeowner. It’s a trial court ruling, not appellate, and it’s not binding upon any other homeowner. When you live in a homeowners association, certain things need to be maintained and everybody’s gotta pay to maintain common areas to benefit the whole community.”

However, Perez had filed a complaint against Dugger and his wife/assistant, Rachel Dugger, with the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, an agency that could revoke Bob Dugger’s property management license. Following an investigation, the department recently found probable cause that Dugger, whose Timberlake company manages other communities besides Miramar Gardens, has violated sections of a Florida law that regulates community association managers. Dugger is currently being served the complaint and can dispute the charges as well as request a formal evidentiary hearing.

Back in 2003, Dugger was forced to relinquish his North Bay Village commission seat when he was arrested for not disclosing his financial relationship with Al Coletta, a property owner with lawsuits filed against that city. After initially contesting the charges, Dugger settled his criminal charge with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office last year.

Rachel Dugger was quoted in a 2004 New Times article saying she was “proud” that her management company files “liens and foreclosures so homeowners will pay their association fees.”

“Timberlake is not here to be nice to people,” she told New Times. “We’re not here to win a popularity contest. We are here to do our job.”

Back at the SunPost interview, Rene Canizalez lamented, “We don’t count. … If you don’t agree with them, you don’t have a chance to participate.”

“Timberlake has done a lot of things wrong, and it shouldn’t be happening,” said Jan Bergemann, president of Cyber Citizens For Justice, a grassroots organization fighting for “owner-friendly reform” in condo and homeowners associations. “There are some very clear statements in that court decision. One of the big problems people face in associations is the lack of enforcement, and most just don’t have the means to fight for their rights. I spoke with an attorney who told me that the association had to ask for a rehearing — that’s the only way out, but nothing’s gonna come out of that. We seriously hope that something will finally be done now to help these people.”