SUNRISE -- They didn’t plan to spend their golden years paying other people’s bills.

But that’s what 39 owners in the Sunrise Lakes condominium community will do, beginning in August.

They will be required to pay an extra $375 to make up the almost $15,000 owed by a mother and daughter who haven’t paid their $260-a-month maintenance for years.

“I feel like I’m being raped,” said Bernard Goldman, 74, who spent 20 years in the New York Police Department. “I have to give up some of my little enjoyment to pay someone else’s bills.”

Condo living requires owners to share common expenses such as water, landscaping and insurance.

“The building has bills to pay. Where else can it get money to pay them but from the owners?” said Malcolm H. Waldon III, president of the firm that manages the building where owners are being assessed.

In this case, Eileen Kaplan, 54, and her mother, Estelle R. Kaplan, 78, haven’t been paying the maintenance and mortgage on their second-floor apartment in Building 180 of Phase 4.

The association and lender have sought to foreclose their apartment at least four times, but every time, final action was blocked when the mother and daughter rushed to federal bankruptcy court for protection.

For example, on Oct. 10, 2001, Broward County Court Judge Peter B. Skolnik ordered the Kaplans to pay the condo association $9,060 plus interest in unpaid maintenance, attorneys’ fees and late charges. If not paid, he ordered their apartment sold.

One day before the scheduled auction, Eileen Kaplan filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection, blocking the sale. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Raymond B. Ray on Jan. 17 of this year dismissed the case because Kaplan took no action to clear her debts.

On March 8 this year, Countrywide Home Loans filed a foreclosure suit against the Kaplans. Three weeks later, on March 27, Estelle Kaplan filed for Chapter 13 protection. Ray dismissed the bankruptcy case on May 8.

No law prevents repeated bankruptcy filings.

“They can do it over and over unless a creditor steps up and convinces the judge that they’re abusing the system,” said Leigh C. Katzman, the condo association’s attorney.

“We’ll move toward a [foreclosure] sale again, but I know we’ll just be going through the motions,” he said. “They’ll file a petition for bankruptcy again, default again and then we’ll go through the process again.”

On July 2, Countrywide won the right to proceed with the foreclosure, and the case is pending.

The 39 condo owners, however, wouldn’t benefit much from Countrywide’s victory. State condo law requires lenders to pay the association only six months of back maintenance

For the Kaplans, going to bankruptcy court isn’t new. Nine years ago, they rented apartments in other western Broward locations. Court records show that in one case, a landlord on Oct. 19, 1990, filed suit to evict Estelle Kaplan.

Less than a month later, on Nov. 13, 1990, she filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, blocking the eviction.

On Feb. 25, 1993, a landlord filed suit to evict Estelle Kaplan from a rental and less than a month later, on March 23, 1993, her daughter, who lived with her, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

Filing a federal bankruptcy petition generally delays action in state court lawsuits.

“We’ll dun someone for maintenance, move toward foreclosure, get a judgment and the day before the sale, the husband files a bankruptcy petition,” Katzman said.

“That stays our proceeding, gives it to the federal court for six months to work out a plan and then it gets dismissed. So we go back to state court and pick up where we left off, reset the sale and then the wife files. People who know how to work the system can do it for some time.”

The Kaplans bought their apartment in May 1998 for $41,100, according to county records. They were screened to make sure they would be able to pay their maintenance, according to Waldon and David Deutsch, president of the 23-building Inc 2 section.

Fifteen months later, they stopped paying.

“She approached us one day and asked for a payment plan and we agreed,” Deutsch said of the daughter. “We don’t want to put anyone out. We agreed to a plan, they made a few monthly payments and then stopped.”

In phone interviews and handwritten explanations, the Kaplans blame their problems on the “animals” who live around them, the “pigs, pigs, pigs” on the board of directors and Katzman, a “madman” preventing them from paying their maintenance so he can earn more fees.

Their most consistent reason for not paying is, they say, that Katzman’s and Waldon’s offices won’t return phone calls.

They admit they had no need to seek bankruptcy protection because they had no creditors. They even admit using the threat of bankruptcy as a way to get the condo association to give them a payment plan to their liking.

“We had no true creditors to be bankrupt from,” said Eileen Kaplan, who in 1988 pleaded no contest to trying to extort $5,000 from an ex-boyfriend.

Asked why she filed for bankruptcy to keep from paying condo debts, Eileen Kaplan replied, “When I threaten bankruptcy, they back off.”

The condo association held a meeting of owners on June 10 to reluctantly impose the special assessment.

“The people here are upset. They’re the ones who have to pay the bills,” Waldon said.

“We have a lot of widows here on fixed incomes already having a tough time. Now they get hit with a special assessment to pay for people who won’t pay,” said Garson Gell, 75, a retired computer operator.

Agreed Adele Koss, a 78-year-old widow: “I cut down on bingo from four times a week to two knowing this was coming. I don’t go on trips, on cruises or to the movies anymore. And I spend less on groceries. Who thought about something like this when I bought? Who thought that a neighbor wouldn’t pay and I’d have to pay for them?

“I told Dave [Deutsch] that I’ll pay but that he’s got to get those women out,” she said.

Residents of Building 180 say they are compassionate, they just don’t want to be taken advantage of.

“People here are nice people,” said Bernie Kreisman, 78. “If anyone ran into a problem and it was brought up at a meeting, we would take care of them.”