ORLANDO — Some downtown Orlando condominium owners feel like the President of their owners association wants to run the place like a hotel, even though the city prohibits short-term rentals of entire condo units.
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Jackson Condominiums in Orlando |
“I just wanted a quiet
place, and actually one that had a manageable HOA,” owner
Stephen Komives said. “And at the time, this one did.”
Now, some owners say a special assessment of over a million
dollars, what they were told was needed to replenish
reserves, has pushed their budgets.
“The overall total amount that I’m paying per month is
around $1700,” Andrew Aponte said. “It’s almost tripled.”
“I went from, I think about $400 a month [in HOA fees] to
nearly $1200 a month,” Michelle Deleon claimed.
The owners question whether it’s an effort to encourage them
to sell to make room for rentals. 9 Investigates went
through property records and found half of the 52 units in
the building are connected to association board members,
either directly or through associated LLCs, including board
president Nabeel Ansari.
Ansari admitted in a lawsuit to operating a rental business
with his units in the building. That suit, in which Ansari
is suing Aponte for defamation and tortious interference,
claims Aponte would ‘seek out and pay for negative reviews’
on Ansari’s listings ‘intended to impair or destroy’ his
business relationship with his customers. Aponte told us
those listings were on short-term rental websites.
Ansari and other board members have been cited by Orlando
Code Enforcement in the past for violating the city’s short
term rental ordinance, but have later come into compliance
after removing or editing the listings.
Documents provided by the homeowners show Ansari also helped
change the rules for selling units in the building to
include a Right of First Refusal, meaning the board has the
power to block a potential sale and buy the unit instead.
Real estate attorney Barry Miller says the combination of a
special assessment, Right of First Refusal, and a push for
rental properties, is a recipe for a building takeover.
“I draft declarations for developers, and one of our
philosophies is, keep it as simple as possible,” Miller
said. “So I never put in a first right of refusal, because
that deters a buyer from buying. That’s exactly what they’re
trying to do, it appears here, is deter third parties from
buying, because they want to buy the units and control it.”
We cannot confirm whether any units have been purchased by
board members through the right of first refusal, but in a
letter Ansari confirmed he sent to unit owners, it states
‘we think that if all unit owners collaborated, we could
petition the city of Orlando for a land use change to that
of a condo/hotel zoning which would in turn maximize the
value of each unit in the Jackson.’
After multiple attempts to call and email Ansari and his
attorney, Karla Ray ran into him outside of the Jackson. Off
camera, he confirmed he and his attorney received all of
Ray’s messages and he said the letter speaks for itself.
The letter goes on to say that ‘even though short term
rentals (under 30 days) are against city ordinances and
punishable by fine, they also do not violate any laws and
are not illegal in the figurative meaning of the word.’
“No comment, thank you very much,” Ansari said when asked if
he wanted to elaborate on the letter.
9 Investigates took the letter to city leaders, and learned
that in addition to nearly two dozen citations given to
various Jackson unit owners for short-term rentals over the
last two years, two additional units are being taken to the
Code Enforcement Board in February for repeat violations.
One of those units is owned by an LLC managed by Ansari and
his brother, who is also on the Jackson board.