On Saturday, June 20, 2015, Palm Beach Post staff-writer, Tony Doris, reported that condominium owners in Century Village’s “Sheffield O” condominium are under the very real threat of a condominium termination from an investor who is continually purchasing units in the condominium. Century Village is a 600 building, 55 and older (better) community. Century Village was developed in the 1970’s by H. Irwin Levy, a real life condominium superhero. Not only did he develop the community that combines affordable home ownership and community based activities for seniors, but 40 years later, he is ready to don a red cape and be a superhero by defending those seniors who chose to purchase units in his community and cannot afford the battle that may need to be fought to continue to live there.
Imagine moving to the Sunshine State and purchasing what you hope is your last home in an affordable community geared for seniors. Then, imagine being told your home is being sold against your will and you’ll receive only the present fair market value of your home, likely leaving you in debt to your mortgage company. How can such a thing happen you ask? Florida’s legislation regarding termination of condominium, section 718.117, Florida Statutes–that’s how.
The condominium termination legislation was primarily enacted to deal with several problems which include destruction due to casualty and circumstances which may create “economic waste, areas of disrepair, or obsolescence of a condominium property for its intended use and thereby lower property tax values.” Nowhere in the legislation does it address terminating the condominium for the benefit of a private investor. But, like any other piece of legislation, there are always unintended consequences. And, such an unintended consequence is why owners in the Sheffield O Condominium are justifiably worried.
All that it takes to terminate a Florida condominium is 80% of the owners to vote in favor of a plan of termination and not more than 10% of the owners to formally object to it. This process is referred to as an “optional termination.”
In the present version of the condominium termination legislation there is no requirement for the owners to be made, at least minimally, financially whole. So, the condominium termination plan could be put into effect and an owner could be forced to move out and still be on the hook for thousands of dollars still owed to their lender. One small silver lining is that, effective July 1, 2015, if the condominium is terminated under the optional termination process, all mortgages for those who homesteaded their home must be fully satisfied. While that won’t solve every problem, such as securing a new home for those forced out and coming up with a new down payment, at least the unfortunate owners being forced out against their will who are homesteaded in Florida will not end up upside down to their lender while having to find a new home. But there is no such benefit if the owner has not homesteaded their home.
According to the Palm Beach Post, the investor, “a Palm Beach Gardens resident who owns 15 of the 24 units in Sheffield O and has an interest in two more, wrote to the remaining owners in the Sheffield O Condominium that he plans to dissolve its condominium association and force them to sell to him at the price the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser puts on the units.” H. Irwin Levy was quoted as saying, “We’re going to take on this man, have a letter written to him, and whether he backs off…, we’ll see what happens but we’ll take on the cost so these people aren’t penalized for trying to protect their interests.”
To prevent problems, such as what may occur to the owners in the Sheffield O Condominium, the condominium termination legislation needs further amending to provide clear authority to the court to deny the optional termination when it’s clear that the termination is being undertaken to inure to the benefit of a private investor to extreme detriment of existing owners, unless the investor undertakes financial responsibility to secure new housing equal to or better than the terminated condominium plus moving costs for the powerless minority opposing the termination. In addition, the same benefits should be available to those who have homesteaded their property as to those who have not done so.
Here is a real brain teaser to consider: Recently, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Pudlit 2 Joint Venture, LLP v. Westwood Gardens Homeowners Association, Inc., Case No. 4D14-1385 (Fla. 4th DCA May 27, 2015), held that the safe harbor legislation (section 720.3085, Florida Statutes) adopted in 2008, which was before a borrower entered into its mortgage and before a third party investor acquired the property, did not take priority over the language set out in the homeowners’ association’s declaration, which provided that neither the lender nor a third party purchaser who acquires the property as a result of the foreclosure has any assessment liability for past due assessments. So, reasoning by analogy, given that condominiums are purely creatures of the legislature, meaning that without Chapter 718, no condominium would exist, how can the condominium termination legislation, which is relatively recent legislation, disturb the rights of condominium unit owners by terminating the condominium in a way not foreseen by the purchaser upon acquiring the unit and certainly not foreseen when the condominium was created? This is the point Levy was making when he was quoted by Tony Doris as saying “[the investor] certainly can’t change people’s rights to their homes retroactively.”
By now, it should be self-evident why H. Irwin Levy is deserving of Rembaum’s Association Roundup’s very first Award of Excellence. Not only did he develop the Century Village community over 40 years ago, but, more importantly, he is standing by its residents some 40 years later to try to prevent what he sees as an extreme injustice and apparently willing to fund it, too.
Kudos to Tony Doris for writing the story that appeared in the June 20, 2015 edition of the Palm Beach Post; kudos to the Editors who not only published this story, but put it on the first page; and most of all kudos to H. Irwin Levy for standing up for and standing with the owners of Sheffield O.