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PAYING FOR VIEW?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
October 20, 2017
We’ll hear that a lot: Owners are upset – and are even willing
to go to court over it – because a developer wants to change
their VIEW – a view they even paid for extra. No
more view on the 18th hole you paid for an extra
$20,000 when buying into the community?
Yes, the ruling of the court in the Victorville West Limited
Partnership v. The Inverrary Association lawsuit may help
the “little guy” as Eric puts it. Nevertheless, the owners who
won the lawsuit can already be sure about one thing: Their view
will change – rather sooner than later.
So far – to my knowledge – all the cases in which property
owners fought developers and golf course owners, the owners
always lost the view in the end. Good property is valuable in
most areas of Florida – and golf courses are losing their value
real fast due to the fact that golf seems to have lost its
attraction among Florida’s newcomers.
The owner of the golf course has many options to bring the
owners hostile to his/her plans to their knees. In Tampa owners
settled after the golf course owner stopped maintaining the golf
course and made the appearance of the un-used golf course very
unsightly.
Paying extra for “VIEW” is a horrible idea. The view can change
in a heart-beat. Did you see the stories about lakes
disappearing because of sinkholes? I can assure you: That
immediately changes the “Lake View”! Who are you going to sue
then? MOTHER NATURE?
How about developers building high-rises between you and your
“view?” Some of these lawsuits are going on in courts since many
years. And what’s your argument to fight the building of this
high-rise?
“JUDGE, I PAID EXTRA FOR THE VIEW?”
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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