Widow gets no sympathy from condo association on hurricane assessment

Article Courtesy of  The Sun Sentinel

By Howard Goodman

Published February 9, 2006

 

Wilma was rough on Nancy Deegan.

But that gale was short-lived compared to the stormy situation she now faces with her homeowners' association.

Deegan, a 72-year-old widow, lives on the third floor of Building 5 at the Village Royale on the Green complex in Boynton Beach. She has owned her two-bedroom unit for seven years.

She lives with Ralph Brundage, 72. She divorced him in 1959, but now that his health is bad, his memory is shaky and he can't live independently, Deegan watches over him.

"He's getting sicker by the minute," Deegan says.

Back in October, Wilma tore through Building 5 with quite some fury. Deegan and Brundage were among the evacuees. They shuffled from one shelter to another, as far away as Stuart, before being allowed back home.

That's when they learned that they'd been hit with a $2,500 assessment to help repair the roof and other damage to Building 5.

Deegan told the Village Royale Emerald Green Association that she didn't have $2,500.

She and Brundage live on Social Security -- a combined $2,000 a month, she says. Deegan says they have virtually no savings.

She offered to pay in installments. She says she sent in $500 and promised to pay $200 a month until everything is paid.

No good, the association said. The money had to be paid at once.

"They're going to take out a lien against me and take the house," Deegan told me, panic in her voice. "I'm really frightened that I'll be out on the street."

Great. Can't you see the headline? Elderly woman loses home after building loses roof.

Al Stepner, association president, says Deegan's fear is unfounded.

"We're not throwing anybody out on the street," he told me. "No way in hell."

That's good to hear. But it's hard to see a quick solution to this mess.

Building 5 sustained at least $1 million in damage from Wilma and subsequent rains, Stepner said. Some 20 of its 72 units were so waterlogged they have to be essentially demolished and rebuilt from the studs up, he said.

The association had to raise $170,000 to cover the insurance deductible and get roof repairs going, Stepner said. Each homeowner was assessed based on the size of the unit.

Stepner and the association treasurer, Connie Roth, said it might have been possible to work out a payment schedule, but Deegan got a pro bono attorney. That ended the possibility of discussing the problem with her, Stepner said. "She becomes the aggressor in this thing," Stepner added.

Deegan disputes that account, saying she paid what she could -- $500 -- and went to Legal Aid only after receiving a letter dated Jan. 3 that threatened her with words like "lien" and "possible foreclosure."

Now lawyers are doing the talking.

Stepner and Roth said the association indeed intends on placing a lien on Deegan's place. That means the assessment (plus interest, late fees and legal fees) will have to be settled before she ever sells her unit.

No one's contemplating foreclosure, Stepner said, "unless the situation becomes very nasty."

As opposed to the medium-nasty the situation is now.

Deegan sees no reason to pay more than $200 a month. The board isn't budging. But neither has it given a good explanation of why installments won't do.

It's a stalemate that might end up in court. If it does, and Deegan loses, she could be liable for $20,000 to $30,000 in legal costs, warns Robert O'Connell, the Boca Raton lawyer who took her case.

"I can understand that the association needs the money, and they need it right away," O'Connell said. "But they have to be a little accommodating with people who don't have the financial wherewithal.

"Just be reasonable -- not unreasonable."

Almost makes you wish for the relative calm of a hurricane.

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