Regulation rare for homeowners associations

MANATEE — A Gaelic good-luck charm draws a $2,250 fine.

Six yard decorations are deemed three too many. The penalty: more than $2,000 in fines.

Residents dispute the legality of monthly maintenance fees.

These are just a few examples stemming from unregulated homeowners associations in Manatee County.

There are an estimated 1,000 homeowners associations in Manatee and Sarasota counties — the exact number is unknown because they are not required to register with the state.

They operate virtually free of state oversight. The state only gets involved in homeowners association issues when they involve recall of officers or election of officers.

In 99 percent of cases in Manatee and Sarasota counties, homeowners associations go about their business of enforcing deed restrictions and taking care of common property in a quiet, smooth fashion, said Sarasota attorney Dan Lobeck. His firm, Lobeck and Hanson, represents roughly 500 associations in Manatee and Sarasota.

But then there’s that 1 percent of cases where an issue spins out of control within a homeowners association, causing a firestorm of controversy that tears neighborhoods apart, places the community under the unwanted glare of public scrutiny and usually casts the association as the heavy.

In many of these cases, strong personalities on both sides have poured gasoline on the fire, said Eileen Sugg, a board member at Tara. That neighborhood became a “1 percenter” last year when its homeowners association angered a group of residents who were against a renovation of the golf course and country club.

Those residents unsuccessfully tried to recall the board, including Sugg, and halt the renovation.

“It’s human nature,” Sugg replied when asked why a homeowners association sometimes explodes.

“Sometimes when people who are not used to exercising power and authority are given the opportunity, they become a little over-reaching,” Sugg said. “It is always best to settle these things in an amicable way instead of getting to the point where people are drawing lines in the sand.”

Such firestorms are exactly what’s happening in neighborhoods throughout Manatee County.

In Lakewood Ranch, Summerfield/Riverwalk not only has fined resident Joani Ellis more than $2,000 for having more than three decorative items in her neatly groomed Summerfield front yard — it has also, in the opinion of Lobeck, who is now her attorney, overstepped its bounds by preventing her from taking a seat on the board’s neighborhood committee, even though her neighbors voted her in.

Ellis, who got into trouble for having a handful of sea shells on a metal grid placed in a planter in her front lawn, plans on attending a March 25 Summerfield/Riverwalk board meeting where she will learn if her appeal to have her fines dismissed was approved.

If she doesn’t get satisfaction, Lobeck said his client will head to court and ask that her fine be dropped and her attorney fees be paid by the association.