Article Courtesy of The Osceola News-Gazette

By Ken Jackson

Published January 4, 2016

Poinciana residents who experienced discord with their homeowners association, the Association of Poinciana Villages, will end 2015 with a little bit more after filing a lawsuit against the HOA last week.

 
A group calling itself Friends of Poinciana Villages (FOPV) filed the suit against APV, developer AV Homes (formerly called Avatar) and the Village One Association after some Village One directors met recently to remove its leadership, an act the group calls flawed.

 
It was the last straw for former Village One President Peter Jolly, who said Avatar and FirstService Residential (FSR), the management group APV hired in 2013 to oversee Poinciana, has repeatedly broken bylaws written into a 1985 homeowners agreement as well as a Florida state statute that regulates homeowners associations.

 
Jolly said Village One directors Jerry Ayala, Felix Gratopp and Tony Iorio —a majority — called for a special meeting Dec. 16  (they normally meet with residents the first Tuesday of every month) with the main agenda item to remove Jolly and Elizabeth Welsh Cousins as Village One president and vice president. He attended the meeting, one he didn’t call for and Cousins was unavailable for. The three others voted Jolly and Cousins out and named Gratopp the Village One president.
“Avatar and FSR are running the show,” Jolly said. “There aren’t directors; there are just names on a board.”

  
Jolly claims that Gratopp’s and Ayala’s terms were due to expire in 2015, but they were rubber-stamped for new four-year terms in February 2014.

  
Gratopp, whose business is based in the Toronto area, confirmed the subject matter of the Dec. 16 meeting Tuesday, but he said he was not at liberty to discuss why the action was taken.
“I have my own views, and I will let them be known in due time,” he said. “There are all manner of counterclaims flying around, and that’s unfortunate.”

 
In the lawsuit, the FOPV asks the court to halt all APV Board meetings and impending 2016 director elections until a judge renders a verdict. The lawsuit also seeks an injunction preventing any further action in Village One until Gratopp’s validity as a board member (i.e. if he indeed owns land there and is current with association fees) can by verified.

 
The lawsuit, filed by Orlando attorney Jennifer Englert in Polk County (the APV offices are located on the Polk side of Poinciana), also claims the association has done things that violate both the 1985 agreement and state statute. It states that Avatar has “refused to turn over control to the association per the terms of the 1985 agreement,” and has directors in Village Six despite not owning land there.

 
According to state statute chapter 720, violation claims include failing to complete timely audits, not bidding out contracts exceeding 10 percent of the APV operating budget and allowing Avatar to cast more votes than allowed for the qualifying land it owns.

 
The suit also claims APV changed the date of 2016 director elections from Jan. 12 (“the second Tuesday in January” as described in the 1985 agreement) to Feb. 9 — the same day as the next scheduled Master Board meeting — without the villages’ consent.

 
Tom Slaten, an attorney for APV, said in a statement released on Dec. 23 that he was surprised by the lawsuit.

 
“Pursuant to Chapter 720, mediation should be offered before a lawsuit should be filed,” he said. “There was no offer of mediation. These issues could have been better addressed earlier instead of through a lawsuit.”

 
Anyone who lives in Poinciana can join FOPV, which had 750 followers on its Facebook page as of Tuesday, said Jolly, who also noted about 50 people pay $10 dues per month to fund its efforts for better board representation.

 
Poinciana is made up of nine villages, each with its own elected Board of Directors (although Village Four and Village Six have no residential parcels and don’t appear on any map). Each village president has a seat on the APV Master Board, which makes decisions for all of Poinciana.
   

Gratopp, who is director of Fairhomes Properties, an investor in Poinciana real estate, has holdings in various villages and is listed as a director on five of the nine village boards.

  
“We value our investment in Poinciana quite well, and we feel strongly about its future,” he said. “We want to be sure our money is spent wisely and efficiently.

  
“We’re concerned about how things have gone there over the past year. We feel there’s been a certain lack of transparency.”

 
Keith Laytham, a spokesperson for FPOV, said documents showed Gratopp was delinquent in his Village One assessments in August, and that APV by-laws say he would have lost his Village One board position on the 91st day of delinquency.

 
“That would have happened in November,” Laytham said. “We were told prior to the meeting he paid up his assessments in Village One only and APV said he was good and current. But he would have had to been re-elected to the board. They never had an election, so how could he elect to vote Peter off?”

 
The Dec. 16 meeting capped a four-month period that saw Jolly go from APV Master Board president, to being removed from that seat but still the leader of Village One, to just a village director with no seat on the Master Board.

 
“I feel like I’ve gone to hell and back,” he said.

 
As Master Board president, Jolly began asking questions of Avatar and First Service Residential that are within the bounds of Florida Statute 720, such as audits and another financial records.

  
He did not receive them, but saw financial statements showing nearly $9 million in reserve funds were drawn down without board approval. Worried the association would soon be bankrupt, he and Vice President Victor Destremps removed equipment and files from APV offices, and moved $1.6 million in funds to an account not controlled by FSR.

 
Jolly had the APV offices’ locks changed, but FSR went in and re-changed them a day later, then filed an injunction to have Jolly return all money and hardware. A Polk judge sided with FSR in August, around the same time Jolly and Destremps were removed as president and vice president of the Master Board.

 
Laytham said that with Gratopp and Iorio, an Avatar vice president, sitting on a majority of the village boards, APV and Avatar are able to control the elections.

 
“If anyone stands up to them like Peter did, they throw ‘em out,” he said. “They’ve bought two seats in each village. The handwriting’s on the wall. What’s to stop them from doing the same to Victor in Village Five or John Perez in Village Seven?”