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Article
and Video Courtesy of
WFTV
Channel 9 -- ABC
ORLANDO
-- Daytona Beach
Published February 9, 2010
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 WATCH
NEWS REPORT
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ORLANDO,
Fla. -- The power was back on Monday
afternoon for more than 300 Orange County condos. Earlier in the day,
Progress Energy shut off power to the Blossom Park Condos on Landstreet
Road (see map) because the condo association didn't
pay its bills.
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Without
power, people wouldn't have been allowed to live in their
homes.
Residents
were still riled up about Monday's nearly four-hour power
outage. Without power, the fire alarm system wasn't
operational and the lift station that pumps sewage for
residents wasn't operational. Now that power has been
restored, residents will be allowed to stay.
“Management,
they knew about this, they had to know about this,”
resident Henry Williams said. |
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According
to Orange County Code Enforcement, someone did. Officers paid a visit to
the condo association office on Friday to let office staff know Progress
Energy was planning to shut off the power.
Monday,
a spokesman with Progress Energy said the company has been working with
the complex since September to resolve payment issues. According to
residents, the bill reached more than $50,000.
“No,
it's not fair to us,” resident Debrann Negron said.
Many
of the property owners aren't local and rent their units. Some of those
owners had no idea the utility bill was unpaid. But some residents are now
asking for an audit of what has and has not been paid. According to the
state, those documents should be available for owner's inspection.
A
woman identified to Eyewitness News as a member of the condo association
board made a hasty exit from the parking lot. Residents said there will be
an election for a new board in a couple of weeks.
In
the meantime, a few of the largest property owners got together to make a
partial payment to Progress Energy. It was enough for Progress Energy to
turn the power back on.
“We're
paying what we're supposed to be paying. Is it right for hard-working
single moms to have to go through this?” Negron questioned.
The
state agency that regulates condo associations said there hasn't been a
marked increase in complaints about non-payment to utility companies, but
there has been a spike in complaints about empty units, which make it
harder for some associations to pay the bills.
This
isn’t the first housing complex to run into trouble. Similar situations
seem to be popping up across Central Florida. More than 300 residents at
the Cascades Condos nearly had their water turned off because of an
overdue $50,000 bill in September. Since then, the condo association has
fired its management company for negligence.
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