Florida ROC : Florida Mobile Home & RV Lawyer & Attorney : Scott Gordon : Lutz Bobo Telfair Eastman Gabel & Lee Law Firm : FL Condo & Homeowners Associations

I didn't want January to end without welcoming a new resident-owned community into the fold.

Just before 2010 came to a close, Tropicana Mobile Manor in Fort Myers was bought by an association of homeowners formed to purchase the park and convert it to a resident-owned cooperative, Tropicana Co-op, Inc.

Tropicana has 470 total spaces and the purchase price was $33,810,000.  More than 160 residents bought membership shares in the cooperative to help finance the purchase and Bank of America provided the blanket loan.

The closing occurred on December 17 and the residents were guided through the process by Marty Pozgay and his Florida Community Services Group.

Congratulations to the residents of Tropicana.  Welcome to the ROC family and we'll look forward to seeing your board members at future seminars and meetings of the Southwest Florida Resident Owned Communities.

As many of you know, between our seminars at Spring Creek Village in Bonita Springs, Venice Isle Estates in Venice, Skyway Village in Palmetto, my recent presentation for the Mid-Florida ROC meeting at Hawthorne in Leesburg, and attending several annual meetings, January has been incredibly busy and I have been asked many very interesting questions by attendees at these events.  I promise to discuss several of those questions on this blog during the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I want to thank all of the communities that hosted our presentations and also want to thank Skyway Village for inviting me to their open house for their beautifully renovated clubhouse and Windward Isles in Sarasota for allowing me to share in the celebration of their 25th anniversary of becoming a resident-owned community.

2011 is shaping up as a banner year for ROCs in Florida and we're glad that Tropicana has joined us!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

I'm surely not alone in trying to understand the tragedy that occurred just over a week ago in Tucson.   Regardless of one's political views, it's certainly worth considering the clear lack of civility and common courtesy that seems to be the rule rather than the exception throughout our country today.

Several days after the shootings in Arizona, I attended a meeting at one of the communities we represent in Southwest Florida and was saddened to observe a level of disrespect and rage that simply has no place in ROCs.   After the meeting, several residents mentioned to me that had I not attended, the meeting would have been disrupted by a number of unit owners.   Several other members approached me after the meeting and stated that I had been "duped" and hadn't heard the "other side" of the story.

As an attorney that represents many community associations, I've often had to explain to unit owners that we don't have "a dog in the fight".  In other words, my role is not to take sides on any particular issue being considered by a community--I may point out factors to an association's board of directors and membership that should be considered but assuming that the actions being discussed by the association do not violate any state, federal, or local laws, my job is to help ensure that the process that leads to the result is proper and legal.

Board members are volunteers and it's very troubling to attend unit owner meetings where residents fail to treat a director with even a minimal amount of courtesy and respect.    When a board member is shouted down or where his or her name is met with hisses or jeering, I find myself wondering what causes unit owners to demonize one of their neighbors and refuse to listen to any opinion other than their own?

How can a resident owned community survive if members no longer treat other members with simple courtesy and respect?   Does any resident want to live in a community where issues are allowed to fester and be fed by rumor mongering and unfounded criticism of the motives of board members until those issues explode?   Wouldn't that resident much rather live in a community where issues are resolved by civil discussion and debate?

Every member of a resident owned community has the right to attend almost every association meeting and can inspect numerous records of the association.  For example, Florida Statutes Sections 719.106 and 719.104 call for open cooperative association board meetings and access to a cooperative association's official records.

At the same time, every association member has an obligation to be fully informed about issues that come before the board, and to treat all board members--and all unit owners--with courtesy and respect.

In a month where we cope with the carnage in Tucson and commemorate the life and death of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., I truly hope that we all rediscover the art of listening and treat each other with the civility that every one of us deserves.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

What better way to start 2011 than with an "op-ed" piece in the January 3 issue of The New York Times that undermines the idea that pets are beneficial to our health and happiness? 

"Fido's No Doctor. Neither is Whiskers." was written by Hal Herzog, a professor of psychology at Western Carolina University,  and I have a feeling that this article will generate some interesting discussions in communities throughout the country.  I'll probably be answering a few questions about Professor Herzog's arguments at our upcoming seminars.

And if you're already tired of dealing with pets and other issues facing ROC board members and managers this early in the new year, keep reminding yourselves that things could always be worse--as you'll see in this report and video from a television station in Houston, Texas.   Thanks to my colleague Janet Romano at Florida Shores Bank for forwarding this story about an embattled community and its apparently out of control HOA board.

Let's hope that all of our ROCs have a very peaceful, civil, and prosperous 2011.  We'll look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming seminars!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link