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Article
Courtesy of The Forum Publishing Group
By JASON
PARSLEY
Published
October 17, 2007
When Glen Conrad of West Boca cut down a
tree that had fallen on his house three years ago, he said he never imagined
it would end up costing him upward of $100,000.
That figure includes the legal fees he has incurred since then. The cost
without them: $325.
In 2004, a thunderstorm swept through Conrad's Hidden Lake neighborhood and
knocked a tree onto his house. After the storm, he cut down the tree, placing
the stump back in the hole in the ground it left.
But Conrad, an 11-year resident of the community within the Boca Chase
subdivision, broke a cardinal rule: He never sought the approval of his
homeowners association. The ensuing dispute, he said, arose because the tree
was on common property, so it belonged to the entire community. When the
association discovered that he had cut down the tree, he said, the tree stump
was removed at a cost of $325, which was charged to him.
But he refused to pay, starting a three-year battle that is now headed for the
Fourth District Court of Appeal.
At one point, Conrad said, he offered to pay half the cost, but the
association rejected his offer. Instead it sued him and won because the tree
was on common property.
"We thought we were doing a favor. If anything they should have paid
us," Conrad said. But he was forced to pay the association about $19,000
in legal fees on top of his own legal expenses. And since then Conrad and his
wife have separated because of the financial burden the lawsuit has caused, he
said.
"It's created such a travesty in my family," the 50-year-old father
said recently. "I can't pay my bills anymore."
So Conrad appealed that ruling and the appellate court recently overturned it
on a technicality. Conrad's attorney, Barry Silver of Boca Raton, said the
trial judge never should have allowed the case to progress as far as it did;
it should have been dismissed and sent to mediation.
Silver said that legal fees in the case easily could top $100,000. Conrad
already has paid $19,000 to the Hidden Lake homeowner's association, but that
does not include expenses related to the appeal or post-appeal legal fees
charged to the association.
Conrad said he still owes his previous attorney $8,000. Silver said if he wins
the case, the judge potentially could award Conrad $30,000 to $60,000.
Neither Staci Keller, president of the homeowners association, nor vice
president Nancy Suchoff would talk about the dispute.
"The association sued the Conrads for destroying association
property," said Guy Shir, the association's Boca Raton attorney. He
said the appellate court did not rule against Hidden Lake, but it overruled
the judgment on a procedural matter that Shir said was not necessary at the
start of the lawsuit.
The issue, Silver said, is that according to Florida law, homeowner
association disputes should go through mediation before a lawsuit can be
filed.
"They think they won," Silver said. "Clearly they lost in the
appellate court." Silver said he thinks eventually Conrad will be awarded
all attorney's fees.
If that were to happen, the Hidden Lake homeowners association could be
responsible for paying $100,000 in legal fees, which breaks down to about $500
per Hidden Lake household.
Two Hidden Lake residents, Philip DiCarlo and April Cameron, who were asked
about the ongoing dispute over the tree, had little to say, because they said
they had not heard of the it.
Carlo said he was going to make sure he learned more.
"The only people who win are the lawyers," Conrad said. "I
should have just paid the $325 and chalked it up as a bad day."
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