Norm Gundel, 69, was one of three named plaintiffs on the suit. While the fees went back to the early 2000s, plaintiffs were only able to ask for the return of fees going back to 2013 because of the statute of limitations. The bond was approved by the CDD but formally withdrawn by the developer in 2018 after a community uproar. “(I)n this case, the illegal club membership amounted to over $5 million per year in the most recent years,” Andersen wrote in an email to the Sentinel.Īndersen said the fees qualified as mandatory since the developer had cited failure to pay them as a cause in foreclosure cases in the community. The Florida Homeowners Association Act prohibits developers from creating deed restrictions that generate perpetual profit for mandatory memberships. But lawyers argued that the fee of about $86 per month per household was already a violation of Florida statutes regarding HOAs. “I was the lone voice against it for a while,” she said.ĭue to her position, Epstein was not a litigant in the lawsuit.Īvatar had proposed using one of the club fees to finance the bond sale to the CDD. She ran for the CDD board in 2016 on a platform opposing the deal. “It saves every homeowner in the community approximately $1,000 per year, and refunds those same illegal fees all of the way back through April 2013,” he said.įor copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Orlando Sentinel.Epstein, 68, had lived in Solivita since 2005. Norm Gundel, 69, who was one of three named plaintiffs on the lawsuit, told the Sentinel the judge's ruling will be a boon to the community. The fees went back to the early 2000s, but the statute of limitations means plaintiffs were only allowed to ask for a return of fees dating back to 2013, the newspaper reported. The community's lawyer said the developer told him it plans to appeal. Taylor Morrison told the Sentinel in an email it would not comment due to the litigation. The company was a subsidiary of AV Homes, which was purchased by home builder Taylor Morrison in 2018. The lawsuit said residents paid HOA fees, along with two separate fees to the Solivita Club, which maintained the amenities owned by the developer. However a valuation of the amenities by a certified appraiser found them only to be worth roughly a quarter of that.Īs attorneys reviewed the proposal, they found what they believed to be improper fee collections by the developer.
The lawsuit represented more than 5,000 residents of the Solivita development in Poinciana, which spans parts of Polk and Osceola counties.ĭeveloper Avatar Properties proposed a bond measure in 2015 to sell a clubhouse, pools and tennis court to the resident-run development for $73 million, the newspaper reported. 2 judgment issued by Polk County Judge Wayne Durden, according to Carter Anderson, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “It’s been a long battle,” Lita Epstein,who chairs the Poinciana Community Development District, told the Orlando Sentinel.Įach resident could receive up to $10,000 following the Nov. – Residents of a 55-plus neighborhood in central Florida have been awarded nearly $35 million in a civil case following a judge’s ruling that they were charged improper homeowners’ association fees.
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