Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By Monique O. Madan

Published February 28, 2017

Wayne Rosen, a well-known developer of upscale homes, kept his promise — well, one of them.

    
After not getting the rezoning he requested last year to build single-family homes in an industrial area, Rosen — who had vowed to let Homestead’s Keys Gate Golf Course “go brown” — has not relented.

True to his word, the golf course today is indeed brown. But it’s not just a matter of dead grass.

Piles of tree branches and trash have overtaken tee boxes. Ponds and water hazards are surrounded by knee-deep grass. Once-emerald fairways are now filled with weeds and sand. Dilapidated bathrooms with collapsed roofs are adorned with yellow police tape. Since the course closed, city officials have dealt with nuisances like slithering pythons, zooming ATV drivers and several burglaries.  Read more:

Cartersville resident Gregory James Heath is charged with 60 counts of theft by taking.

CARTERSVILLE, GA — A local accountant has been charged with stealing money from a homeowner’s association for more than a year.

Investigators with the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office arrested Gregory James Heath, 43, of Cartersville on Wednesday in connection to the case.

According to Sheriff Clark Millsap, detectives with the agency’s Criminal Investigations Divisions launched a probe into reported thefts of money from the HOA between July 2015 and August 2016.

Heath is the owner of H&H Tax and Accounting, the company employed by the HOA for accounting duties.  Read more:

Article Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times

By D’Ann Lawrence White

Published February 13, 2017

RIVERVIEW — Tina and Luis Lopez have owned their Rivercrest home for 12 years, raised two children there, even taken part in community events including the holiday decorating contest.

Now, they’re just one step away from eviction — not for failing to keep up the payments like so many homeowners during the Great Recession but for missing one annual homeowners association fee that amounted to no more than $150.

Worse yet, they even have a canceled check showing they made the payment.

Still, late fees, lawyers costs and liens that have accrued in the seven years since then — combined with a notification system that favors the homeowners association over the homeowners — landed their property on the auction block.  Read more:

Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
By Tony Doris

Published February 16, 2017

A major West Palm Beach condo association is urging statewide prosecutors to bring charges against former members of its board of directors who, Florida condominium regulators say, misspent more than $1 million of association money.

Dane Leitner, attorney for Whitehall Condominiums of the Villages of Palm Beach Lakes Association Inc., wrote to the Office of the Attorney General Feb. 8, saying association members want criminal charges brought so they can seek restitution for the 20-building, 480-unit complex on Village Boulevard.

As reported Feb. 5 in The Palm Beach Post, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Bureau of Compliance determined that former board members committed “major” civil violations of condo law, giving themselves jobs and salaries, spending association money at casinos and using reserves to cover operating expenses.

“Since 2014, our firm has attempted to inquire about the status of the criminal investigation and help facilitate the investigation with FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) and OAG (Office of the Attorney General), but it does not appear that either department has made substantial progress, nor does it seem to be a priority,” Leitner wrote.  Read  more:

SAN DIEGO – Property manager Robert Walsh and his firm, Cornerstone Management Professionals, were charged with four counts of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud a homeowners’ association of $247,000. Walsh made his first appearance in court today.

The indictment alleges that Cornerstone and Walsh falsely represented that Cornerstone could properly submit bids to the homeowners’ association for construction projects, and in submitting such bids, the defendants concealed the lower bids to make it appear as if Cornerstone was the low bidder in order to be awarded the projects.   The indictment seeks forfeiture of $247,000 of illegal proceeds.

The indictment further alleges that on March 26, 2015, the defendants sent an email, seeking a change order from the homeowner’s association to cover the cost of asbestos removal.  According to the indictment, the defendants then sent an email to the contractor working on the project on April 28, 2015, falsely representing that there was no asbestos present in order to induce the contractor to conclude the demolition project without involving an asbestos abatement firm so that the defendants could retain the entire value of the change order. Read more:

Article Courtesy of  The Palm Beach Post
By Tony Doris

Published February 7, 2017

State regulators say former board members of the 20-building Whitehall condos on Village Boulevard misspent more than $1 million of their association’s money on themselves and shifted hundreds of thousands of dollars from reserves to cover budget shortfalls without authorization from unit owners, violations so serious that investigators forwarded evidence to state prosecutors.

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By Brenda Medina

Published February 8, 2017

The Florida state agency that regulates condominium associations does not work to protect the tens of thousands who live in condos, resulting in extensive fraud, mismanagement and conflicts of interest among the boards and management companies that govern them, according to a Miami-Dade grand jury report issued Monday.

Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel

By Lauren Ritchie   

Published February 4, 2017

Three years ago, a Mount Dora attorney who has been a member of the Florida Bar for 35 years but never really practiced law got annoyed by the builder-controlled homeowner association at Sullivan Ranch, where she lives. Sara MacKenzie thought that Centex Homes, owner of vacant lots in the subdivision south of State Road 46, should have been paying its share for those lots into required reserve funds — fees that today are estimated at $1 million. She sued.

And so it began.

The battle with Centex, owned by one of the largest homebuilders in America and represented by a politically high-powered, well-respected Florida law firm, stretched over three long, painful years in which MacKenzie, 71, struggled to litigate a complex question in an extremely specialized area of law. MacKenzie and her bank account were up against the company owned by PulteGroup, which reported $816 million in pre-tax earnings in 2015 along with a $2.3 billion reinvestment in growing the company.  Read more:

Article Courtesy of WTSP Channel 10 News Tampa

By Kendra Conlon

Published January 31, 2017

A Riverview family could soon be kicked out of their home, all because they missed a $150 homeowners association payment.

“This is my life that I worked so hard for, and for them to just come in and take it,” says homeowner Luis Lopez.

10News told you how that $150 payment spiraled into thousands of dollars in fees and fines. Then, the Lopez’s HOA sold the family’s house out from under them at auction. They’ve been able to remain in it while fighting the sale.

Tuesday, the family had their final day in court begging a judge to let them stay there.

“We all make mistakes, but the unfortunate thing is if it does go in their favor, we’re going to lose our home. We’re going to lose our home, and I don’t want to lose my home,” says Tina Lopez.

Tina and Luis Lopez and their two kids have called the Riverview house a home for 12 years, but this could be the last. Their future is now in the hands of Hillsborough County Judge Joelle Ober, after they pleaded with her to stop the auction sale of their home.

“This all started with just a $150 payment that they said they never received,” says Luis Lopez.

The family says the Rivercrest HOA didn’t notify them of the missed payment for four years, and attorney and late fees skyrocketed the total to more than $4,000.  Read more:

INDIAN LAND, S.C. – Outraged residents in Indian Land reached out to Channel 9, saying their homeowners association told them to take down their U.S. flag.

Estates at Audubon Lake Estates neighbors are upset after a man in an unmarked car was seen taking pictures of houses.

It appears he was hired by the HOA.

“He says we’re out here taking pics of folks with flag violations and I said, ‘the American flag violation?’ And he said, ‘Oh yes,’” resident Jim Williams said.

The veteran couldn’t believe it and he quickly alerted neighbors with a post on Facebook.

Some residents said they received notice that they had broken the rules.  Read more: