Judge: Parking restrictions "unreasonable" | 10connects.com | Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater: "Odessa, Florida-- A Hillsborough County homeowners' association now faces thousands of dollars in legal fees after losing a lawsuit against one of their residents.
The board of directors representing The Eagles, a deed restricted community in Odessa, was trying to keep A.J. Vizzi from parking his Ford pickup truck in his home's driveway."
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Thanks to Beth Young for sending the link to this interesting situation. It gets a bit complicated becasue there seems to have been a discrepancy between the rules the board was enforcing and the rules Vizzi received when he moved in.
2 comments:
Not really. The relevant issue was the meaning of the restrictions at the time the owner purchased. The restrictions were amended. The court pointed to amendments to the restrictive covenants to illustrate that even at the time the owner purchased in the HOA, there was not a prohibition against pickup trucks.
Although the judge has ruled that the "master association's" interpretation of the restrictive covenants is unreasonable and not enforceable, the remainder of the case (i.e., attorney fees) is put on hold while certain issues are being submitted to arbitration. Namely the owner has challenged the authority of the unelected board members of the "master association" to have brought this suit in the first place. This issue will be arbitrated after which the judge can address the remaining issues in the case such as attorney fees. Wouldn't it be nice if the "master association" demi-gods were forced to pony up after their $100,000 assault on this homeowner?
It would certainly be a change of pace, as judges seem inclined to side the HOAs.
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