Article Courtesy of  The Miami Herald

By JONNELLE MARTE

Published April 2, 2006

Things haven't run smoothly for the Puerta del Sol community since the rental apartments converted to condos with the average purchasing price of $176,000.

Owners said the maintenance of the buildings has deteriorated over the past six months, and the conditions have pushed the condo association to switch property management companies.

''For the past two months, I started to see that the grass wasn't getting cut,'' said Carlos Arguelles, who bought a condo in the 9900 block of Kendall Drive last June. ``There's trash all over the place, and the pools were closed.''

According to residents, the two pools in the community have been murky and polluted for months and some of the fences bordering the neighbors need to be reinstalled.

A Feb. 13 note from the County Permitting and Inspection Center is posted on the door of the clubhouse warning residents that using the pools may ''endanger'' their ``health, safety or welfare.''

The problem got even worse last month when the residents spent more than two weeks without electricity in their clubhouse, hallways and other common areas.

''I didn't feel safe. My wife would come in and couldn't even see walking up the steps,'' said Marvin Perriot, 24. ``It [made me] kind of nervous because it was pitch black.''

Board members for the condo association held an emergency candle-lit meeting at the clubhouse where many residents angrily vented their frustrations.

According to Arguelles, board members told residents they had a deficit in their account, which they suspected could be due to a scandal involving the management company they had at the time, Florida's Property Management Group.

Since then, they have hired All Florida Management and an attorney to help them straighten things out but have not taken any action against the former company.

Gregory Charles Ward, the attorney hired by Puerta del Sol's board, confirmed only that he has taken the case.

But a representative from Florida's Property Management Group said Tuesday the conditions in the community were due to mistakes in the association's budget.

''Basically, the budget was not adapted to the actual expenses,'' said Yami Hernandez, office manager for Florida's Property Management Group. ``

Hernandez said the budget ''was never done with the water line item'' and some tenants were not paying their maintenance fees. Drawing up the budget is the board's responsibility, Hernandez said.

Association President Marisol Aguiar, Vice President Matthew Lines and Treasurer Enrique Altuzarra declined to comment.