Renter says kids not welcome at Jonathan's Bay

Article Courtesy of The News-Press

By Melanie Payne

Published October 31, 2016

 

A year ago Lisa Lobaugh and her family rented a coach in Jonathan’s Bay in south Fort Myers. When their lease was ending they told the agent who managed the home they wanted to live there one more year while searching for a house to buy in the Fort Myers area. The landlord agreed. There was just one hitch. The homeowner’s association said, “No.” The Lobaughs’ lease couldn’t be renewed.
     

This was a head scratcher because the landlord could rent to someone else, just not the Lobaughs. They got the run-around about why the HOA wanted the Lobaugh family out. But Lisa Lobaugh, the landlord and the agent who rented the place think they know why. It’s because the Lobaughs have two children, ages 12 and 6, who are sometimes joined by friends and relatives, use the pool nearly every day.

The family moved here from Pennsylvania and the constant sunshine and having a pool is a novelty that hasn’t worn off. The problem is not the children, she said, it’s the community’s attitude toward children.

“It’s not a kid friendly environment,” Lobaugh said. She said that families with children move in, but the hostile environment forces them to move. “I want to tell (these families), don’t unpack your boxes. It’s one year and you’re out.”

The Lobaughs’ landlord, Paul Walsh, said he’s been getting the runaround when it comes to why the Lobaughs can no longer rent in the community just off U.S. 41.

Walsh said he was first told that the paperwork was late and that’s why he couldn’t rent to the Lobaughs. Then they told him that the Lobaughs didn’t follow the rules.

But that was the first time he had heard of any rules violations regarding the family. Why wasn’t he, as the landlord, informed? Walsh thinks these excuses are a ruse. “It definitely is discrimination,” he said. “But how to prove it?”

I thought I might just ask. So I called and left messages with the president and the vice president of the Jonathan’s Bay Association but neither returned my calls.

Lisa Lobaugh discusses what she considers discriminatory treatment in the community of Jonathan's Bay. Lobaugh said renters with children aren't welcome.


 

Walsh rented to the Lobaughs through a real estate agent, Clay Bresnan with Maxim LLC. Bresnan said he was told by the manager that a homeowners’ association board member didn’t want the Lobaughs’ lease renewed because “she parties too much at the pool.”

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