Recession Turns Homeowner Association Fights Brutal

Florida is full of condo complexes run by homeowner's associations. After you've bought and paid for your condo, all you have to do is pay the monthly maintenance fees and you get trim lawns, a snappy billiards room, and a clean shuffleboard area. But as the economy stews in its own juices, the AP reports, some seniors living on a fixed income are having trouble making these monthly payments - and no wonder, with special assessments of $6,000 - and are getting foreclosed on by their own neighbors for as little as being 60 days past due on their fees. Some of them have also stopped making payments in protest over things like the rats, and the sewage raining on their head:

To wit, from the article:

But that was Inlet House before the rats started chewing through the toilet seats in vacant units and sewage started seeping from the ceiling... [and] before the homeowners' association levied $6,000 assessments on everyone — and then foreclosed on seniors who couldn't pay the association bill, even if they didn't owe the bank a dime.

Not to mention that the condos they bought for $79,000 are now selling for $3,000, and for less than what they're paying in monthly fees they could rent a nicer place down the road. It's war out there.

Neighbor vs. neighbor as homeowner fights get ugly [AP]

from Ben Popken @ The Consumerist