HOA punishes homeowners 
by revoking use of gate guard

 
By Joe Kollin 
Article Courtesy of the Sun Sentinel
Posted December 8 2002 

WESTON -- Drive up to the entrance of the upscale North Lake residential community, tell the guard that you're the guest of homeowners Jose and Carmen Martinez, and you'll get a shrug.

It doesn't matter if you are friends invited for dinner, delivering a FedEx package or looking to buy the house, which is on the market. The guard can't call the Martinez family to get permission to let you in. Or even to tell them you are there.


The only way to get inside is for you to call the family and wait for a member of the Martinez household to drive over to the gatehouse and fetch you.

That's the family's punishment for not paying the $3,000 fine their homeowner association says they owe.

"If you're not paying what you owe, you aren't entitled to the services of a gate attendant," said Barry Rose, president of the 562-home North Lake Maintenance Association. "Mr. Martinez and his family are entitled to come and go 100 times a day.

 
 
Jose and Carmen Martinez stand next to the security entrance to their subdivision Friday afternoon. The guard won’t summon them if a guest arrives for them.
But since he's chosen not to pay, he isn't entitled to the amenities."

To the Martinezes, who bought their four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath house nine years ago, the board's action is harassment.

"They know I'm moving," Jose Martinez said. "They should say, `Go on living your life in peace and goodbye.'"

The problem started early this past summer when the association told the Martinezes and several other homeowners that their roofs, sidewalks and fences needed pressure-cleaning. The North Lake association enforces its rules to maintain property values.

The Martinezes, who moved from a rental apartment in Queens, N.Y., after Jose Martinez took disability retirement from the New York Police Department, said they hired someone to do the pressure-cleaning. But it rained every time the cleaner came, they said.

The association eventually set a deadline, then extended it. Then it threatened a fine.

That's when Jose Martinez decided to do the work himself. He put on the heavy backpack containing the spray and climbed to the roof, then completed the fence and sidewalk.

"It was a nightmare to get on the roof with the heavy thing on by back. I was in pain," he said. "I couldn't move for a week, but I cleaned the roof, fence and sidewalk because I didn't want to get a fine."

The North Lake fining committee, meanwhile, found him in violation and imposed the maximum fines of $1,000 each for the roof, fence and sidewalk.

"It wasn't until the fines were imposed that he decided to take care of the problem," Rose said. "He said it was raining, but everyone else managed to do it. He kind of thumbed his nose at us and told us to take a hike."

The Martinezes asked the board to reconsider because they corrected the problems, but their request was refused.

Three years ago, the board came up with the guard gate restriction for owners who ignore 15-day, 30-day and 60-day notices to pay and make no arrangements for payment, Rose said.

State law allows homeowner associations to suspend the amenities. The state's only proviso is that owners must be allowed to travel to and from their homes.

The association is in the process of filing a lien on the house to collect the fines. It is likely to collect. When a lien isn't paid, a buyer can't get a clear title, so either the Martinezes or their buyer will be required to pay.

Even if the Martinezes weren't selling, state law allows homeowner associations to foreclose on homes in order to collect unpaid fines, which gives them more power than city governments.

"Even we can't foreclose on property that has a homestead exemption on it," said John Earle, code compliance administrator for Pembroke Pines, a city known for its tough code enforcement.

Attorney Gary Poliakoff, whose Fort Lauderdale firm represents homeowner boards statewide, said associations are always looking for "whatever edge they can muster" to get homeowners to comply with the rules. Associations seek alternative methods to avoid costly legal battles.

Revoking gate privileges, however unusual, is one of the alternatives. Of the hundreds of associations his firm represents, he said, only two or three block guard gate privileges.

This isn't the Martinezes' only brush with the rules. The association has fined them for other violations, including parking cars outside their house all night.

Not liking to be tied down by rules, Jose Martinez said he put $10,000 down on a house in Plantation. Yet he chose a house that's in an ungated community but is governed by a homeowner association. He said residents told him, "They don't bother you."

The Martinezes want to sell their $315,000 North Lake house by Dec. 15, when their offer on the Plantation home expires.

"There should be some consideration because we're here nine years and they know we're moving," Carmen Martinez said. "Why are they obstructing the sale of the house?"