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Who the hell said anything about indiscriminately rejecting a buyer?
You stated that condo boards lacked the authority to review the applications of prospective buyers and determine whether to accept or reject them, and that is categorically false. Now, you apparently want to backtrack from your initial claim and qualify it by use of the term indiscriminately.
Instead of trying to save face, it would be much more respectable if you just admitted that you were wrong and moved on from this issue.
Don't know why you are so hostile, instead of simply providing the legal statute that you so dogmatically declare allows Florida HOA boards to refuse buyers the right to buy a property in their Condo (indiscriminately or not). -- Based on my direct experience, no such statute exists. Prove your claim ... and let's move on from the issue!
Honestly there's probably a slew of Plaintiff oriented condo association lawyers would love to take your case and develop a case against a condo unreasonably interfering with a sale or withholding approval.
And when they win, they get their attorney's fees paid by the association. It may be time for you to consult with one.
Don't count on it. Plaintiffs' lawyers in this area like to sue developers with deep pockets when there are big deal construction defects. Not get involved in "who hit first" cases. And remember that when a plaintiff loses - he or she gets to pay the Association's legal fees. Of course - this Association has no reserves. Not much to collect against even if there's a successful lawsuit without a lot of muss and fuss execution stuff.
Also - I can see the case unfolding now (assuming a member of the marginal bar would take it on a contingent fee - unlikely). Little Ms. Out of Town says everything she's said here (to the extent it's admissible evidence). And her 90 year old probably not the sharpest knife in the block as a result of age snowbird father who thinks - for whatever reason - that he's entitled to his late girlfriend's condo cheap (even when one of the decedent's daughters is poor and lives in a trailer park) kind of backs her up (to the extent he remembers anything when the case comes to trial 4 years from now).
And then the condo president - who remember - is a retired FBI agent (and presumably a great witness - most FBI agents are ) - testifies that these people were hounding him night and day about approving a sale when THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A SIGNED CONTRACT. The out of town daughter even started complaining about the property before they had a signed contract. What is she queen of? And what does she expect in terms of property maintenance when condos here are worth peanuts now - $26k - our senior senior residents are choosing between buying the drugs they need - and their groceries - and they can't afford to pay into maintenance reserves.
And yes - maybe I blew my top at some point. But what would you do - members of the jury - with these crazy buyers and crazy sellers hounding you day and night. Before they even had a signed contract. Probably because the old man just wanted to get out of town when snowbirds usually leave - not like most of you fine citizens who don't cherry pick our seasons. I mean I don't get paid anything to do this thankless job. And these out-of-towners could have hired a local lawyer - paid him a few hundred bucks. And the lawyer would have done things right. And made my time of it easier. Like instead of the old man barging into my house with a signed contract (when they finally had one) when I was eating dinner - a lawyer would have just dropped the contract in the mail - and I/the Board would have reviewed it in due course. But I guess these snowbirds just want to take our free sunshine - and not support our local professionals. And they think that guys like me are their employees - not volunteers who are trying to make our communities work.
I would definitely want the defense side of this one . Robyn
Seriously, one question: why must you buy this condo? Regardless of the legal rights and wrongs, I can imagine there being other alternatives. And even if you win this battle, I could imagine other ways life could be miserable thereafter there thanks to capricious action from the president that you'd have to look out for.
He's a snowbird himself. He's only there for 4 to 5 months each winter. He wouldn't always be around. And no one else has anything against us. No one even knows me, the only time I've spent there was 5 days at Christmas. And everyone who knows Dad there likes him.
Honestly there's probably a slew of Plaintiff oriented condo association lawyers would love to take your case and develop a case against a condo unreasonably interfering with a sale or withholding approval.
And when they win, they get their attorney's fees paid by the association. It may be time for you to consult with one.
The Condo association doesn't have deep enough pockets to make it worthwhile on that basis.
But I am willing to pay a lawyer a few hundred bucks to at least write a letter of demand to the condo board's lawyer. I'll bet the condo association lawyer has no idea the fraud that this condo prez has been perpetrating. I don't think the other condo board members even know what the condo prez is doing! --- remember 3 out of 5 of them never even saw my application, let alone voted on it.
Hopefully the condo association lawyer, once informed, will talk to the board president and I would hope the other board members, and let them know they are on very thin ice legally speaking, and the best thing they could do is simply comply, approve our applications, and let the purchase proceed between the two parties who are in perfect agreement on this sale. Easily settled. No one has to sue anyone.
I have not seen the contract (don't want to see it either) - so I can't say it's valid. It's normal for a buyer to make a down payment in some amount to a seller when a contract is executed. But perhaps that's not part of this contract.
It's also normal (at least for me) for all parties to have more than 1 signed copy of a sales contract (or any other kind of contract). If you're going to play lawyer here - you ought to spend more time dotting the i's and crossing the t's. I personally wouldn't have delivered anything to anyone. I would have sent the application by certified mail to the condo association.
Your father didn't want to pay the relatively small amount of money that lawyers charge to do routine residential real estate transactions. A lawyer would in all likelihood have handled this in a more professional way. And saved both you and your father time and energy. You're not going to get any sympathy from me. Robyn
She wants it because it's a unique property and a VERY GOOD BUY. Her father wants it because it is his HOME. He lived there with the woman he loved who died very recently and unexpectedly, given she was more than a decade younger than he. Having dealt with a parent whose spouse has passed, I know how mental a grieving person can become about even value-less material objects ... let alone one's dwelling. He is 90 and disabled and not in a position to move. The OP is trying to help him. Given how much criticism people come under at C-D when they don't look after the welfare of their aging parents, it seems to me that someone should be pinning a medal on Ellemint.
I have not seen the contract (don't want to see it either) - so I can't say it's valid. It's normal for a buyer to make a down payment in some amount to a seller when a contract is executed. But perhaps that's not part of this contract.
It's also normal (at least for me) for all parties to have more than 1 signed copy of a sales contract (or any other kind of contract). If you're going to play lawyer here - you ought to spend more time dotting the i's and crossing the t's. I personally wouldn't have delivered anything to anyone. I would have sent the application by certified mail to the condo association.
Your father didn't want to pay the relatively small amount of money that lawyers charge to do routine residential real estate transactions. A lawyer would in all likelihood have handled this in a more professional way. And saved both you and your father time and energy. You're not going to get any sympathy from me. Robyn
In retrospect, (and in the future) I would have handled this differently----but there was little reason to think this would go off-track like this. I had no idea of the depth of this Condo Prez's animosity, and no expectation that he would lie and deceive us. We had buyers and sellers who had agreed on everything, there wasn't anything to negotiate. The sellers had a lawyer who was handling what we thought was to be a simple sale between buyers and sellers.
My Dad and I did not hound the condo board prez. I made one phone call to him to verify his e-mail the morning I sent in my application. And one call after I was rejected to ask what's going on; he didn't answer; and they had no answering machine. I e-mailed him twice, first, to send in the application, and second, after the rejection in which I basically said I couldn't understand that there were any grounds for rejecting me to make this condo purchase.
I've been involved in real estate transactions before and never had anything like this happen before.
I understand why it would be best for your Dad. That said, I think you have actually done more harm then good toward making the deal happen.
You admit you fought the requirements from the get go.
You admit you did not provide what they asked for. Right or wrong, your refusal soured the deal from the get go.
You were advised in the beginning to get legal assistance to aid/help make it happen You have refused to do so plus you have tried to play lawyer.
I believe in your life you have won the battles but lost the war and still do not understand how you lost the wars.
I am sorry for your Dad if the deal goes south, but I believe the blame is in your lap.
I didn'tfight the requirements with them. I supplied them with I.D. that they said they were satisfied with.
I did not put my bank account number down on the application, but why could they not have called me and told me that they wanted it?---one quick e-mail, or phone call, so easily solved.
I gave them references; they didn't contact them. They used some hysterical comments from one of the sellers herself as my "bad" reference, which is a clear conflict of interest.
I have contacted a lawyer, a couple of lawyers, ever since my application was rejected. They all said basically the same thing, that the next step is a "letter of demand" to the association's lawyer. But we can't send that out until my Dad has also been disapproved.
Dad submitted his application yesterday or day before. He used his next-door neighbour, who is on the board, as one of his references. The Condo Prez promptly said that she could not vote on this matter or sit in on any meeting because of conflict of interest (not that they have meetings anyway.) Yet for me, he used a "bad" informal reference that wasn't even a reference, from the seller, and somehow that's NOT conflict of interest? My other "bad" reference was the seller's husband who stood on the driveway and didn't say anything, and whom I have met for about 5 seconds in all my life.
The condo Prez insisted that Dad give him the original of the signed sales contract, and when my Dad asked for it back today, the Prez said, "I'll drop it off later." and never did.
The Condo Prez does not hold meetings; and for me he did not consult 3 out of 5 board members in disapproving my application.
How can the blame be in my lap? Seriously? How could a lawyer have prevented this condo prez from doing what he did, when it took me over a week to find out the details of what actually happened concerning my application? In the future I will get a real estate lawyer to handle things and in this case I didn't hire one immediately, but I don't think much of the blame is on me. I think we're dealing with a vindictive bully--the condo prez.
Don't know why you are so hostile, instead of simply providing the legal statute that you so dogmatically declare allows Florida HOA boards to refuse buyers the right to buy a property in their Condo (indiscriminately or not). -- Based on my direct experience, no such statute exists. Prove your claim ... and let's move on from the issue!
The relevant Florida Statutes are listed here and so far, I have been unable to find anything that would help clarify my situation.
There are a lot of lawyer's blogs and articles saying that condo boards have to have sound reasons for rejecting a buyer; and the Florida Condo Ombudsman's office told me that only two reasons really stand up in court:
- criminal background
- financial problems
....neither of which are a problem with me. But I can't find anything in the actual laws.
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) - testifies that these people were hounding him night and day about approving a sale when THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A SIGNED CONTRACT. The out of town daughter even started complaining about the property before they had a signed contract. What is she queen of? And what does she expect in terms of property maintenance when condos here are worth peanuts now - $26k - our senior senior residents are choosing between buying the drugs they need - and their groceries - and they can't afford to pay into maintenance reserves.
. Robyn
