A HOMEOWNER will continue to fight his HOA over the renovation of a communal bathroom after reportedly facing fines of $9,000.
Brent Seaman and other homeowners from Jacksonville, Florida, have taken issue with a project approved by the board of the Belleza Ponte Vedra Condominium Complex.
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The conflict between some of the residents and the HOA reportedly erupted following a decision in December 2020 by the HOA to convert the women’s bathroom in the clubhouse into a staff-only bathroom.
Costing $4,700, the project was approved by the board due to COVID restrictions.
However, it meant that the female residents of the complex were reportedly forced to go elsewhere to use the facilities.
“The women [living here] did not have access to a women’s bathroom,” homeowner John Duffy told WJAX-TV.
“And the response was if they wanted to use a bathroom, they could go home.”
As a result of this decision by the board, Duffy reached out to St Johns County about the project which found that the board had not secured the correct permits to make the change.
An image shared by WJAX-TV shows an alert of violation dated July 5, 2022, issued by the County which has since been resolved with the bathroom correctly permitted.
However, Duffy and fellow homeowners filed a complaint in the summer of 2022 with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (FDPR) after learning about the alleged violation.
One complaint shared with the news outlet claimed that the Board approved the work “despite the objections from most of the residents.”
It added that following notice of the violation, the HOA started “using the community attorney to block having to put the bathroom back to its original state.”
In March last year, the department ruled that the HOA would not be prosecuted due to a lack of evidence.
However, this was not the end of the matter and the HOA then reportedly issued a letter to the community naming the five complainants.
The HOA accused them of making “false and misleading allegations” and as a result said it would be collecting legal fees from them.
These fees then started showing up on their monthly bills with Seaman being charged almost $9,000.
“We simply filed a complaint,” he told the news outlet.
“The board wants to punish every single person who simply had questions.”
Under Florida law, a HOA must win a court case in order to claim back legal fees which Belleza did not do as it did not file a lawsuit and did not win in court.
A letter sent to Belleza from the attorneys representing Seaman reportedly claimed that he was asked by the HOA to pay $8.885.83 in “legal fees and late fees in connection with the nonpayment of the Association’s apparent legal fees incurred.”
If they think I’m leaving over this, I’ll sue them back to the Stone Age.
Brent Seaman
Seaman’s attorney accused Belleza of “egregious conduct” in its response to the homeowner’s complaint.
“There is no legal basis for recovering legal fees pre-litigation and the continued personal attacks against Mr Seaman would never warrant charging Mr Seaman for these alleged attorney fees,” the letter obtained by WJAX-TV stated.
“I understand Mr Seaman has now been refused the right to vote at the next member meeting and has been resude access to common amenities enjoyed by all of the other members. This…is egregious conduct by the Association.”
”LUDICROUS POSITION’
Another letter from the attorney of another homeowner accused the HOA of adopting a “ludicrous position” in relation to the complaints.
“The HOA has taken the ludicrous position that because the HOA chose to create conflict, chose to use its attorney to represent Ms. Salcedo [HOA Property manager], and chose to pay its attorney to represent Ms. Salcedo for her mistake that the members are somehow liable for these mistakes,” the letter states.
“There is no legal basis for charging attorney fees to members of the community for the mistakes of the property manager that were properly reported to the appropriate authorities.
“Further, there is no legal basis for seeking pre-litigation attorney fees from my clients or any of the other individuals.
“In short, this is a fraudulent claim for attorney fees especially since the accounts of my clients have been falsely billed.”
However, a month after the letters were sent the Belleza, the HOA reportedly issued a cease and desist order accusing the homeowners of “defamatory, harassing and illegal conduct” against Belleza and Salcedo.
Now the property owners are worried about losing their homes altogether as the board could place liens on their units if the fees go unpaid.
“This is a much more serious issue than people give it credit for,” consumer protection attorney Lourdes Ferrer told the news outlet.
The homeowners impacted by these so-called legal fees are concerned that even if they pay the charges it may not be the end of their problems.
“Even if we were to pay the legal fees, we might get even more because if we don’t know what we’re doing wrong, we might still be doing that conduct,” Duffy said.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Seaman defiantly told the news outlet.
“If they think I’m leaving over this, I’ll sue them back to the Stone Age.”
The HOA’s attorney issued the following statement to WJAX-TV:
“There are several fundamental inaccurate factual statements and serious false accusations being made against Belleza.”
However, the news outlet had stated that there has been no further comment about what “inaccurate statements” and “false accusations” were made and that the management of Belleza maintains it follows state law.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Belleza and Seaman’s lawyers for comment.
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