HOA's in Hillsborough County (crime, lawyer, landscaping)

[Jin44]

Are HOA's supposed to be registered with the County? I recently did a search of my HOA and could not find it on the Hillsborough County website.

[Innertuber]

Maybe it's a voluntary organization. If you have conditions and restrictions and it's registered non profit then I would think it should exist.

Try the office of Neighborhood Relations
272 5869

Maybe they could help?

[Jin44]

Thanks. Already called them and they say that it is not a requirement. I live in a Community which the developer has majority and wondered why we were not listed. We have been experiencing an increase in crime over the past couple of months and it is the residents that have been addressing this issue.
We live in a gated community, but the perimeter is not closed, which frankly, is pointless. Our developer has advertised it as a gated community, and when questioned states it is a gated community, not a fenced community. We, as residents, are trying to have better perimeters and have been forced to actually fence it ourselves. I find it ridiculous that we have to use the gates for access and egress, but the criminals can either drive in or walk in.
The Hillsborough Neighborhood office said that there is nothing they can do to help us.
To mention that there has been questionable accounting going on. Our landscaping bill dropped nearly 2/3 since the bank took control of the developers accounting practices.

[algia]

The "developers" generally hold control over the HOA until every lot/house is build and sold and the community is 100% finished.

After that, the residents have an option to manage the HOA themselves or continue to use the management company used by the builders. Where we live, Green Acres is the management company, this is an CDD community and the residents didn't have much choice until that expires. (CDD also has an option to be renewed keeping the community CDD intact, that means they can keep develop stuff on this property)

In your case, it sounds like a total scam...you may want to get a lawyer involved because if the HOA has NOT been transferred properly to the homeowners, the developer needs to address EVERYTHING. Get police reports of these crimes and with that you can go after this developer and have them finish the fence around, it is NOT your responsibility to finish that if they advertised it as a "gated community".


Call Green Acres (Google it) for reference and explain to them what is going on and ask that they clarify all the general details (like you, the homeowner having to add a fence when in fact it should be the developer's problem etc) or see if they can tell you who is the managing company that was used...then find a lawyer. The developer had to have a managing company...if they managed it themselves...that's a bigger problem.

Originally Posted by Jin44

Thanks. Already called them and they say that it is not a requirement. I live in a Community which the developer has majority and wondered why we were not listed. We have been experiencing an increase in crime over the past couple of months and it is the residents that have been addressing this issue.
We live in a gated community, but the perimeter is not closed, which frankly, is pointless. Our developer has advertised it as a gated community, and when questioned states it is a gated community, not a fenced community. We, as residents, are trying to have better perimeters and have been forced to actually fence it ourselves. I find it ridiculous that we have to use the gates for access and egress, but the criminals can either drive in or walk in.
The Hillsborough Neighborhood office said that there is nothing they can do to help us.
To mention that there has been questionable accounting going on. Our landscaping bill dropped nearly 2/3 since the bank took control of the developers accounting practices.