MANGONIA PARK — Some
homeowners in a condo community are fearing they could lose
their homes due to a special assessment that will cost each
homeowner $10,000.
"You can remove your
cameras or I'll have the police remove them," Harlan Miller
with HG Property Management told Contact 5 at a meeting on
Tuesday, kicking our crew out of the building.
Miller manages the properties of 121 units in what was
formally the Tiffany Lakes Condominiums, now called Cateleya
Shores.
At Tuesday's meeting, the homeowners were taking an
important vote after the HOA board proposed each condo have
a special assessment that will cost each homeowner $10,000.
According to the proposal, $6,500 will be
due by July 8 and then the remaining $3,937 will be due on
Nov. 8. |
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It passed with 121 yes
votes, 67 no votes and 52 homeowners abstaining.
The situation is sparking some controversy because those 121
votes all came from Miller's boss, who owns 121 units in the
community, and is also the HOA president.
"I'm thinking, well, when did we talk about this? When did
we have a meeting about this?" Shaundrika Taylor told WPTV.
Taylor is also on the HOA board.
She said the decision to move forward with the assessment
was made without her and several other board members.
Taylor fears this will bring a great financial burden on
seniors who live in the community and others who own homes
and rent them out.
"It's important that we protect our elderly and our aging
community. They live here. This is their home. They've been
here for years," Taylor said. "They've seen the good, the
bad, the ugly come through, and they deserve a right to live
without someone trying to force them out."
After the meeting, Miller came out and answered some of
WPTV's questions.
"The reason for this assessment is — if you look around the
property — we've had 48 roof leaks in the last year and a
half," Miller said. "We have compromised stucco issues,
rotting soffits, rotting fascia."
He told Contact 5 he has no sympathy for the residents who
are fearing they'll lose their properties or will have to
hike up the tenants' rent.
"I'm an investor myself. I wouldn't cry wolf if I was
pocketing all my rent money and not putting it into my
property," Miller said.
The outrage from the owners has sparked the attention of two
state lawmakers in Tallahassee who are hoping to look at how
state statutes can be changed for Floridians, like the
people who live in Tiffany Lakes.
"Because of the way that the law is set up, if somebody has
a controlling interest of a majority of the units, then when
they sit on the board, they're able to control and issue
assessments and what we're seeing here," state Sen. Bobby
Powell, D-West Palm Beach, Minority Leader Pro Temp, said.
"What we need to do, of course, there will be lawyers
involved, but we need to show that this is what's going to
happen all across Palm Beach County," state Rep. Jervonte
Edmonds, D-West Palm Beach, said. "This isn't a singular
issue, but this is what people who have a lack of empathy
and only care about the bottom line are trying to do across
our county."
The Tiffany Lakes community has now started a GoFundMe page,
hoping to raise money to hire an attorney who can help them
fight this.