After condo association owners in foreclosure
brought down the neighborhood by skipping out on maintenance condo fees, a
new payment plan has been arranged to ensure the condo association can
collect what's due.
Mullings Winston is a resident living in nasty conditions. "It's
just getting out of control ... This grass hasn't been cut probably for
the last two months," he said.
Winston said rats have also infested the building.
He is one of many residents frustrated at the Oaks, a condominium
complex located off of 126th Street and 25th Avenue in Miami Gardens.
They have busted lights, an emergency fire alarm hanging by its wires.
Security gates and meter rooms have been left wide open. The safety
risk is loud and clear, leaving sirens going off at all hours.
The management blames their problems on unit owners in foreclosure
who have not paid their condo fees. Typically, the condo association expects to
receive $11,000 for all 60 units. That had fallen to just $3,000, and
they said they're doing the best they can to keep the condo association community
from closing, a fate residents suffered at the Coral Gates Apartments,
in Northwest Miami-Dade, on April 22, or the dozens of families left
without water at the Mirassou Condominiums.
Ben Soloman, the condo association's attorney, said, "People that we know
are being affected by this. Their dues are going up, their assessment
is going up and it affects the property value of these units."
Those who are paying their condo fees said they are putting up
about $200 a month, and there is always talk that price will go up to
pick up the slack for all the condo deliquencies that no one
seems to be paying for, but there is a solution. Thanks to the
re-interpretation of a state statute, tenants will now send their rent
check to a third party, instead of the landlord. The Condo Association will
then take their fees from there, leaving the owner out of the equation.
Once the practice is approved for one unit, all of them can follow.
"Hopefully within six months to a year, we'll have the association back
on it's feet again," said J. Flores of the Florida Property Management
Group.
Residents said they can't wait to see the changes. "Of course," said a woman as drove into the property.
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