|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Residents fight over mobile home park
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Thursday, April 5, 2007 |
LARGO – Opponents have successfully blocked, at least for now, the proposed purchase of one of the state’s largest mobile home parks, Palm Hill Country Club, by its 1,096 homeowners.
A Largo police officer had to be called in by homeowners in case things got out of control during the ballot counting that took all afternoon April 3. Allen Rudden, the park’s homeowners association president, said each of the 948 ballots cast, some by proxy, had to be verified and totaled.
Confusing the count, he added, was that many homeowners had asked to have their proxy votes changed after they had been first cast.
The final tally, Rudden said, was 618 votes for the takeover, 330 opposed. He said the association needed at least 724 votes for the homeowners to pay $76 million for the 165 acres of land.
After announcing the tally, Rudden announced the association would continue to press for the purchase despite the vote. He banged his gavel and stormed from the park’s clubhouse.
This left the opponents, and some of the association supporters stunned, according to Dale Foster, who was one of the opponents who formed a group called “No Way” in March to fight the proposal.
“Now it will wind up in the hands of the courts,” Foster said. “And, unfortunately we (opponents of the purchase) will be paying legal fees for both sides.”
He explained that association funds were being used by the board of directors for any legal action while “No Way” hired an attorney with private funds.
Rudden agreed that the issue was now headed into court.
“The majority voted in favor of the purchase,” Rudden said. “We owe it to those people to do more than just let it go the way it is now.”
He and Foster agreed that Rudden’s plan to continue the fight was backed by the association’s board of directors.
Both sides of the issue have claimed the other side has misled the homeowners.
The homeowner’s association attorney, Joe Gaynor of Dunedin, explained that his clients recommended the purchase because in three years rents paid by each homeowner could rise significantly, pricing some homeowners out of the park.
“We’ve seen several homeowners who are living on about $600 a month with just $10 left over at the end of the month,” Gaynor said. If their rent suddenly rose from the current $64 a month to more than $300 a month they would have to sell their homes, he said.
And, that is exactly what is in store, Gaynor claimed. The association’s lease, signed in 1996, requires a rent adjustment in 2010. The lease establishes rents at 8 percent of the land’s property value. The association’s calculations show the rents for each homeowner would go up from this year’s $64 to more than $300 a month after the 2010 adjustment.
On the other hand, the purchase would cost each homeowner $400 a month, Gaynor said. And while he expects the property value to rise continuously, rents would continue to rise every 15 years of the 99-year lease.
Gaynor said the purchase contract includes finance provisions for those who can’t afford an increase.
Gaynor said that in financing the purchase, the homeowner’s association has set aside enough money for 83 homeowners who need assistance. Each of them, he said, will be given a no-credit-check reverse mortgage on their homes which will fully pay off their share of the purchase price in 15 years.
“There would be no out-of-pocket cost to those who need help,” Gaynor said, adding each of them would just stop paying their lot rental every month.
Foster said the hardship assistance would only be for those who live in Palm Hill all year and other restrictions would make it available to almost none of the homeowners.
Those opposed also have claimed Gaynor is overstating the property value and potential rent increase.
The property owner, the local Taylor family, has an appraisal setting the park’s value at $81 million. Opponents dispute that valuation, pointing to their own appraisal that says the property is worth only $24 million. The opponents contend Gaynor hasn’t negotiated the best price for the property because he will receive a percentage of the selling price as his fee. Gaynor will receive no fee if the sale isn’t approved.
Gaynor claimed the opponents used “scare tactics and misinformation” to collect votes from homeowners.
|
Article published on Thursday, April 5, 2007
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tampa Bay Newspapers
9911 Seminole Blvd.
Seminole, FL 33772
(727) 397-5563
Open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
|
|
