HomeMy WebLinkAboutTrouble on the Home Front-1990 Trouble on
the home front
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By Mike Berry s,.., '1� � �- ^,_. � .
OF THE SENTINEL STAFF �� m ♦f ^
OVIEDO — Charlie Warren thinks F:, . ,9 A A ,.•
it's his right to have a satellite dish be- � �
side his house. After all, he said, it's i '" �'-
been up for three years. , +r� yf'
But the Alafaya Woods Homeowners ‘ ,
Association feels differently and last
summer ordered him to take the dish ,t
down. Wednesday night the associ- fir '
ation's board fined him $1,000 for his
repeated refusal to comply. An angry
Warren is taking the matter to court. "-..h
It's a common dispute in Seminole , ��
County these days. Mandatory in . y°
many new subdivisions, homeowner
associations are viewed by some as "•
vigilant defenders of the neighbor- I
hood's common welfare. To others - : "
they are tyrannical nuisances, intoxi- >•
cated by their own authority.
Warren is in violation of his associ- '`,
ation's covenants, or rules, which pro- "°„"4. ,.,-
hibit outside television antennas.What ti •+`,so „ ?*
upsets Warren, he said is that he was ,,„:,, __•. °
told only last summer to take his dish r,77-7;''''', „..k `' q`
kzwr..w.i l.V ..v` fi
down, two years after erecting it. He's - _° x
•
,
also upset that no one ever talked to kMx` ' .
him personally.
They just started sending me nasty % ' �, J� "
letters,"he said a., ^*7 — ■
Dorothee Puc, a new Alafaya Woods GARY BOGDEN/3ENTINEI
Please see HOME. 12 Charlie Warren is fighting effort to have his satellite dish removed.
900 / -Zc
HOME because they never got approval to homes, campers, clothes lines, and
move in from the Lago Vista Town- "loud noises by children," in the sub-
house Association, which screens ten- division.And any home improvements
From 1 ants for acceptability. or landscaping changes, even the
Last summer Ed Gregory of Winter planting of a tree, must be approved,
Springs was fined $1,000 for painting said Bill Reischmann, a lawyer repre-
resident, has had no confrontation his house mustard yellow, in violation senting Warren in his satellite dish
with the homeowners association, but of the color scheme dictated by the battle.
said she has been uncomfortable since Highland Homeowners Association. Homeowners agree to the covenants
receiving her first newsletter in De- Such conflicts are inevitable. Home- when they buy their house. But the
cember. owner associations are now mandatory chances of someone—especially a real
"They publicize people who live in any new subdivision with a common estate agent anxious to close a sale —
here by name and address and call area,such as a pool or open space. The explaining all the rules to them are
them violators and then fine them ex- courts have backed up their right to minimal,Reischmann said.
traordinary amounts of money," she collect fines. "Nine times out of 10 they think
Homeowners often resent these as- they have a standard, run-of-the-mill
The former president of the associ- sociations and their boards because vanilla house. They think they can do
ation, Keith Townsley, said Warren they misunderstand them, said Ernie what they want to their house — a
was asked to remove his satellite dish Hatton, past president of the Seminole man's home is his castle.It's not true."
when a neighbor complained. No one League of Homeowners' Associations Reischmann, who sometimes repre-
had noticed it before,he said. Inc. and head of the Cedar Ridge Corn- Bents homeowner associations, said he
"The homeowners associations munityAssociation. has no reason to believe Alafaya
aren't a policing unit," Townsley said. "People don't seem to understand Woods is poorly run. He just believes
They don't go out looking for trouble." that what you're doing is for the good the association has made mistakes in
He also said it has not been policy to of the neighborhood," Hatton said. Warren's case.
list the names of violators in newslet- "You don't get paid for it." "They're doing their job. Their board
ters, though that has happened acci- "People see the board as some sort members are voluntary and they get
dentally. Usually only addresses are of authority group. They don't realize nothing but grief. But, there's a bal-
listed, he said. And homeowners only they are the association." ance of interests."
find themselves in trouble when they Hatton finds that those who corm As associations grow in number and
deliberately break the rules and don't plain to him about the rules have usu- authority, it will be increasingly up to
consult their association,he said. ally done little to help the neighbor- the courts to decide how to keep that
"I don't recall anyone with a reason- hood. His response is to try to recruit balance.
able request being turned down." them onto some committee,he said. Reischmann and other attorneys are
James Curry, attorney for the associ- It is the developer of a subdivision y
pushing for laws that would force
ation, said written notices to violators who makes the rules about what can or homeowners and neighborhood associ-
may seem cold and formal. But there cannot be done to a house. A home- ations to solve disputes internally,
has to be a paper trail should someone owner association is simply charged through arbitration rather than litiga-
refuse to comply,he said. with enforcement,Hatton said. tion.
Alafaya Woods has not been alone in The covenants can be strict, though "you feel sorry for them. These peo-
creatin g resentment. they are shared by many associations. ple are neighbors and they're enemies.
Jerry and Charlene Carlini are being Alafaya Woods, for instance, has It's all the result of people living too
evicted from their Casselberry home rules against car repair, trucks, motor close to each other,"he said.
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