Monday, October 24, 2011

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By Sarah Elder
Published October 24, 2011
After eight years of litigation, a Doral condo complex is finally getting its pool back.
The pool in the Doral Place condominium, 5000 NW 102nd Ave., was auctioned off to Miami real estate company R-U-4 Real Inc. and For Sale By Owner Inc. in April 2003. Unpaid taxes on the property were almost $8,000 after the county seized control of the pool plus a half acre of land and sold it.

Continental Group, the management company for Doral Place, was sent notices for taxes dating back to 1998 and 1999, but the condo’s master homeowner’s association never received them. The association was unaware until a six-foot chain link fence and a “No Trespassing” sign blocked residents’ access.
Vicente Peña was president of the condo association in 2003 when residents lost their pool. Peña blames Continental.
“The negligence was their fault,” he said. “They were the ones that got us into this mess.”
Anthony Kalliche, general counsel for Continental Group said the management company doesn’t know why the last tax bill that never got to the condo’s board of directors. But Continental’s insurance company paid for the majority of legal fees for Doral Place — 90 percent according to Peña.
The association had to repay the back taxes and is now up to date, Peña says.
Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the condo in 2008, finding that the
In 2003, residents of the Doral Place condo found themselves locked out of their own pool. After eight years of litigation, now they have it back. 
swimming pool was condominium property and should not have been sold separately. The state Supreme Court refused to hear the case a year later.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court entered judgment for the condo association in August.
“It really was just many years of a bitterly contested matter that just wouldn’t go away,” said Frank Colonnelli, a lawyer for the association. Colonnelli, of Boyd Richards Parker & Colonnelli in Miami, represented Doral Place during the eight-year tug-of-war.

R-U-4 Real Inc. and FSBO were refunded the purchase amount of $51,867 plus interest.
“They turned down two initial high offers from the insurance company. They refused to settle,” Peña said.

Even though residents have had access to the pool since December 2003, improvements were not made during the legal battle. The cabana and restrooms have been out of service since 2007. Hundreds of residents will soon have a revamped community pool.

“In comparison to what it was, nobody uses that pool. The whole pool needs to be redone, the railing, the tiles need to be broken. The roof has holes in it,” said Jimmy Rivero, vice president of Doral Place’s new management company, Allied Property Group.

Rivero said the repairs are estimated at $400,000 and the goal is to have the remodeling complete by summer 2012. Rivero began by having the fence torn down on Tuesday.

Peña says the tax issues could have been easily overturned if Miami-Dade County had correctly listed the land as part of the condo’s shared property.

“What they failed to do was incorporate that property into the common areas. No one knows why that piece of property was left out of the common area of Doral Place,” said Peña.

Because of sovereign immunity, a legal privilege that shields the county from civil suit, the condo association cannot sue the county, Peña said.

The association is now suing Continental Group for negligence and breach of contract and will be seeking the legal fees left unpaid by Continental’s insurance company in the past eight years.
At an association meeting on Oct. 12, the board of directors offered a champagne toast after announcing the official restoration of the pool to Doral Place.
  
“I look back over the last eight years, and the amount of time I’ve spent on this is ridiculous,” Peña said.
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