Independence, Winter Garden Florida HOA

Asking neigbors to park in their space and other

2009-03-08T17:06:00.003-04:00

Hello. Could you please make an effort to park at your own door and/or driveway/garage? This causes us problems especially when we have to unload groceries (even more so if it’s raining). Is there any rational reason why you do this on a daily basis? I believe you guys have three cars, at least two of which are pretty much constantly parked either straight at my door and/or under my window, many times both.

Just so you know, my husband has had eight surgeries to his left foot due to a severe accident; he has another scheduled soon and has to pick up his handicapped sticker because he’ll be unable to move around for several months so we really need our spot to be clear as much as possible because he cannot walk well now and will not be able to walk at all soon. I had an ambulance come the other day for a problem that happened to me where I could not walk at all due to total loss of balance and the fire personnel and ambulance had to wheel me out on a gurney swerving around cars because my whole entrance was blocked while the rest of the street including your area was completely empty.

In the HOA covenants it also clearly states no one is even supposed to park overnight in the streets (so much for that because no one cares) but it is a violation of the HOA rules. I ask you to please park in your own area especially since it’s always empty. If you like, I can provide you with a copy of the rules.

I don’t appreciate anyone looking inside my house either so I have to constantly keep my blinds closed. This never happened before; everyone parked in their own spot. I am baffled as to why since you moved or come to this community (as I really do not know if you are a resident, owner, visitor or renter) you chose to make my front door and/or window your private parking space(s). I’m sorry, I really don’t intend to sound rude but it’s been over a year that I have lost my space to park at my own entrance/walkway to my home and I never thought I would have to actually write this. I simply do not understand why anyone would so carefully and neatly block another’s door/window where they do not reside. I don’t do this out of respect. It’s a bit invasive to others’ privacy and personal property and it just makes it difficult for people to walk into their homes when they have difficulty walking in the first place.

On a side note, since I am writing you, we’ve had a lot of problems in the community lately, including people touching others’ property, moving it around, like our trash bins (i.e. my property) someone moved them to block my exit from my driveway (something very dangerous if I need to leave in a hurry in an emergency, let alone bothersome to have to get out of my car to move them so I could leave my home) The trash cans do not go at the end of the grass border between homes (this is no one’s property, it’s the separation between homes) but on each resident’s own driveway, and that is where I put mine, on my very own property. Someone actually had to trespass on my property to maliciously take my bins (also my property) and set them in a row to block our exit from the driveway. Anyway, I ask you that since you live so close if you saw anyone do this, to please let me know because we filed a police report after this happened numerous times following instructions of our HOA Management and Board of Directors who told us to do so. We’re also installing cameras. It would never occur to me to touch anyone’s property in such a way, let alone trash. It’s just bizarre that I would have to worry about something so disgusting as trash and trash cans. If I saw someone doing this to you, I would definitely let you know. I’ve let the other neighbors know too.

Also, we’ve had several burglaries in the community too (in broad daylight and with the alarms supposedly activated by the way) We’re asking all residents to be vigilant and not leave their doors/garage doors open or unlocked and to report any suspicious activity including vendors soliciting as this is a no-soliciting/no-trespassing community and vendors are a perfect way to stake out an area. It’s for everyone’s safety. This used to be a very safe neighborhood but we presume strangers come in because it’s secluded and they think no one pays attention, so it’s important we all keep a watchful eye.

I sincerely hope you understand.

Thank you.

Janet

Blocking my home

2009-03-08T15:02:00.002-04:00

On Feb 23 an ambulance came to my home and took me to the ER because (and I am still in the process of finding out) I may have suffered a stroke. What happened? My door and window area yet AGAIN were blocked. In the middle of not being able to walk at all, they had to wheel me out in a gurney doing so very clumsily due to my whole area being blocked with other people's vehicles while the rest of the street was completely empty.

Today, March 8 (just like every other day of the week) my door is blocked and yet the whole street is empty. I do NOT do this to anyone EVER. I do NOT understand for the life of me why people do not think before they do these things. Does anyone know? It completely baffles me.

Oh, and by the way, it is strictly against HOA rules to have any sort of commercial vehicles parked inside the property. Yesterday there were commercial TRUCKS parked in the streets (that have no business inside the community)

Useful Resources

2009-02-14T02:49:00.004-05:00

Click on the title (useful resources) to submit complaints in the state of Florida regarding HOA Management Companies
Below are the direct links to website and also the two forms needed

http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/pro/cam/forms.html
http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/dbpr/le_portal/dbpr-0070-1.pdf
www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/pro/cam/documents/cam-4307_enterable.pdf

Florida Dept of Business Professional Regulation

80% Gets you out of the hellhole

2009-02-11T10:54:00.000-05:00

OH! and forget Homeowners Insurance!

2009-02-10T18:54:00.001-05:00

It's NOT included in our fees! WHY? Because they said they'd be saving us money. OK... not only is this UNTRUE because now we have to pay for this separately, but OUR HOA FEES ARE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN WHEN WE DID HAVE INSURANCE!!!!!

More Issues Same Day

2009-02-10T18:30:00.002-05:00

And a bit later this evening, the other car from the same household that parks at my door everyday yet again. AND you can see here where they have plenty of space at their own door PLUS the fact that they have a two car garage AND a driveway where they can park and should park anyway. This is the latest update today, Feb 10 @ 6:00 PM I've given you the address already per your request. These people are not even owners.

I am also installing a camera to see who is meddling and moving MY property, MY trash cans from MY property (MY driveway) to maliciously block MY exit from MY garage.

You are to uphold the safety and rules of the community and you do nothing of the kind.

Add to this that my husband has been having recurring incredible pain in his foot, which he's had EIGHT OPERATIONS ON! He can barely walk! and has to go to the doctor for this but cannot miss work. WHY do we have to put up with this crap???? If you do not believe me that he can barely walk, you can contact his job and ask there.
Why does he have to walk more than he should when these people can park at their own door or in the space that is provided in the house??? It's in the rules that people are supposed to park in their damn driveways!

OPEN LETTER

2009-02-10T17:18:00.003-05:00

Here is another video from TODAY. Obviously nothing was done! Why should I continue to pay HOA fees if no one does anything to enforce the rules? Just asking, because I am paying for a service I am NOT getting. Last night another truck was parked overnight at my door. Today this car once again from the same people who park at my place everyday.

And about the ice-cream truck which is trespassing has anyone actually stopped to think that these people may give out information on the activity of each neighbor in the community and pass it on to someone so they can break in in broad daylight? What a perfect excuse to roam around the streets and stake out the premises. How funny that homes were broken into when the truck reappeared. I confronted them myself and he was arguing that "no soliciting" sign meant "no prostitution". With that criteria, then should we put up a sign that says "No murdering on premises"?

No trespassing means if you don't live here, you are not to come unless you have loved ones you visit, not to sell anything. No soliciting means you should not solicit business (i.e. knocking on doors or blasting music to sell your products) And I remind you that the covenant explains that there should be no business operation on premises. If we allow one truck, we'll get 100, selling all kinds of things, but again, it's US that have to do the dirty work.. so why am I not getting paid to manage this? Why do I have to pay someone who doesn't do what the covenant explains they should do?

Just so you know, and I am sure you do already, the whole neighborhood (of those who own homes) are disgusted with your service or lack thereof. I am not the only one.

You took away our home insurance to make the fees cheaper and YET they have gotten MORE expensive and we now have to pay insurance separately. What you're doing is known as fraud, and believe me, it will be stopped.

I had my cable disconnected on Feb 4 and I was up to date on the fees. I still have not had it reinstated and yes, I now have not paid Feb but the point is, you disconnected my service BEFORE the fact.

HOA Rules BROKEN- Management does nothing

2009-02-10T16:19:00.003-05:00

The following are several pages in the HOA covenant that show some of the rules broken daily in this community and management does NOTHING to enforce them, although IT IS CLEARLY stated that IS THEIR JOB!

Remind me, why is it that we pay $300 a month again? Is it to cut the grass only?

Click on the images to get a larger view and be able to read.

Please pass the word on to your neighbors who own homes here.

Open Letter to Leland Management

2008-12-20T22:50:00.002-05:00

Black truck is parked once again at the entrance, been there all day and all night. I got the plate like you asked me and have a copy of a picture I took on my cell. black SUV; Plate is: xxxxx (undisclosed in this post)

On the corner of Pleach and Pasturelands, there is LONG line of cars parked ON top of the line of the actual Stop Sign facing the opposite way, all the way all the way to the middle of the block. They've been there since this morning blocking the ENTIRE northward side of Pasturelands. We tried to turn left from Pleach to Pasturelands to go to our home and because that side is completely blocked, there was a car on the only other free side dropping off people (at the same house that has all those cars) so we had no way to enter the road. We just got stuck there and had to back out from a PUBLIC street. Why do people have driveways?

Again, when we call the police they tell us WE SHOULD BE PAYING FOR PATROL, almost like a bribe! I can't believe if the streets are public, why they expect us to pay them, but then again, we pay almost THREE-HUNDRED dollars in HOA's and your response is to call police, but the police says to call you, to pay them, to get them to patrol or they can't come out. WHEN IS IT GOING TO BE SOLVED?

I am logging everything that is going on. I am putting up a website with all the things that have been happening from parking to at least two home break-ins (that I know of) in a couple of weeks, just a week ago. And one of these people had the alarm service we're supposed to get with the HOA's and it never went off. One of the people suffered substantial loses and this all happened in the middle of the day.

Gun shots! there are constant gun shots in the middle of the night. In a month, we've heard at least three or four gunshots a night fired on several different occasions and it's but a few blocks from our home. What the hell is going on!! They are NOT firecrackers; we know the difference. These are shots in the air. Who are these people renting or selling property to? Not to mention at least the five times the helicopters had to come out.

There was a man recently protesting about all this at the front entrance and you guys tried to get rid of him with the police. The police did come in that instance [because you're management] but they did not remove him because they said he's entitled to protest. Well, I am putting up a blog and making the community aware of it (even if I have to pay for photocopies of the blog) so they can go and post their own things too. We had a blog and when people started making comments of dissatisfaction, the blog was taken down.

We're being stiffed. Almost $ 300.00 for what exactly? NO BODY ever answers this. We don't even have Christmas decorations for crying out loud. We're about the only community that has no lights.

When I was late with my payments w/HOA's due to extreme hardship, we paid up, and yet a month later we got our cable disconnected along with others who hadn't paid, but we were paid up, AND NO one could have the decency to pick up the phone and let Brighthouse know it was the management's mistake. We were late previously, yes, but we had been paid in full for over a month YET we had no cable and no internet for over FIVE days because everyone refused to call them, and we were even hung up on more than once because someone was in a hurry to pick up and get home after our tenth call and it was not even 5 PM.

I am quite sick by now. In fact our loan company has been trying to stiff us and we have lawyers right now because they don't even have our original note amongst other things, but I feel like telling them just to foreclose this place and be done, so then your property value further decreases. This place is NOT worth the misery even if in the long run we're vindicated from the loss of monies by the courts.

Nothing personal with you, Mel, but I've had my personal property handled and destroyed by strangers. I never have a damn space at my door to unload my groceries despite that I never park at anyone's doorstep. We get constant speeders everyday. I am scared to death to be in my home in the day now because of the burglaries (and I do NOT have a car to escape, my husband has our only car now for work) I would have to confront the burglar, and the alarms apparently are no good anyway. We hear shots in the night. I think I moved to the slums only to pay an exorbitant amount of money to be in a dangerous place. What gives?

I do NOT have Mr Tony's email. Can you please forward this to him too? Since we're paying two different companies, just saying. And WHY is that anyway? Why so much overhead and yet the responses are always "WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING, SORRY FOR YOUR TROUBLES"

$300.00 has got to be an illegal charge for grass cutting, BASIC cable and internet only!

PARKING?

2008-12-20T21:37:00.004-05:00

Dirty People touching others' trash

2008-12-15T11:24:00.004-05:00

This has been our third incident with our trash starting about six months ago. We are VERY careful to put our trash out on OUR our driveway, never interfering with anyone's private land, and twice already for some odd reason, we found our trash can(s) spread out on our driveway. A third time, it was actually run over by a vehicle.

On Wednesday night, Dec. 10, my husband took the trash out at 7 PM approximately, and went out again to deposit another bag at around 8 PM and found someone had once again taken our can and placed it in the middle of our driveway, blocking the exit of our car. If we have an emergency, this person has just blocked our exit path.

We didn't report it to the police the first time, but we told our HOA and they said to tell the police (because AGAIN even though driveways ARE HOA territory, they can't do anything about it)

Once again, I want to make clear that our cans are ALWAYS ON OUR driveway, not even touching borders or median between homes, so we do not know what is the motive for
this.

POLICE REPORT FILED!

Revolt Against HOAs

2008-12-14T19:12:00.002-05:00

http://revoltagainsthoas.9f.com/index.html

go to the link

Gun Shots

2008-12-14T18:29:00.003-05:00

Dec 14 @ 6:15 PM approx., at least three gun shots heard inside the community (eastward to my home) toward the main entrance and/or Pleach Street. This is at least the second time in a month I heard shots. The last time I was awoken by shots.

GREAT! Now we're crime ridden!

2008-12-14T12:57:00.001-05:00

So I guess at least TWO homes were broken into in broad daylight now. One about two months ago and one last week. And the latter HAD ON THE ALARM SYSTEM PROVIDED BY THE COMMUNITY AND IT NEVER WENT OFF!!!!!!

Motorcycles going over 60 m/hr

2008-12-08T17:54:00.003-05:00

Several motorcycles going over 60 m/hr and no one does anything about it. Oh, it's not HOA's concerns because the streets are public. As far as I know the driveway streets are not and they do this there too.

If you call the police, they tell you we have to tell HOA's to put an officer full time to monitor, or they simply don't come at all. We pay almost $300.00 and FOR WHAT? I want to know what do we pay this for? Getting grass cut? I'll do that for pennies. Forced upon internet and cable? We can get better deals on our own. Our town homes painted? I have yet to see mine get painted and the house is over three years old. AGAIN, WHAT DO WE PAY HOA'S FOR?

You could at least go all out with the Christmas decor, but not even that! We don't even have the torches anymore!

CARS ABANDONED?

2008-10-18T23:11:00.001-04:00

I have noticed cars that seemed to be abandoned on the premises for weeks now. They are parked in odd places and never moved. What can be done about this? I also notice that someone has taken to the habit of parking at the entrance where it's so obvious there is not to be any parked cars. How can they not notice that if NO other vehicles are parked in an entrance to a community, that is not a designated parking space? So much for guarding the property. This is getting to look like a slum and very inviting to unwanted characters.

Ridiculous Overhead- No one helps

2008-09-15T11:51:00.016-04:00

I saw an SUV with some teenagers parked ON the grass by the side of the lake at the entrance, swimming and jumping in the lake water. There is NO road to that piece of land so they had to have driven their SUV all over the grass to get to that spot to jump in the lake. I don’t even know if these people are residents. Did anyone do anything? Is it my job to call the police? I don’t think so since although I form part of the home owners, I don’t get paid like Leland, the Master, and Sutherland to manage or monitor anything.

When you go to the pool, most of the time everything is out of control; kids are diving, even their guardians dive right behind them (prior to running) in an area where it clearly states NO DIVING. Is it my (or our) job to get into an argument with a neighbor to do the right thing and stop acting like they live in a zoo? Dogs run free without leashes (Orange county regulations prohibit that by the way) animals poop everywhere and their owners aren’t polite enough to pick up after them. I’ve had my Christmas light cables cut on my own property, I’ve had my trash cans moved when they are on MY driveway and once even run over by a car. Why are people so uncivil? Can’t they pick up a trashcan that was blown away with the wind? I’ve done this dozens of times to avoid destroying someone else’s property. And why is there no control? Honestly, why do we pay HOA’s again?

Just for the record, check out this site for a gorgeous community in TN:
http://www.cameronfarms.org/faq.html

Look at:
How much are the HOA dues?
Dues are $31.00 per month. The dues can be paid monthly, quarterly or yearly. Homeowners may pay in advance as much as they like, but there is no discount prepayment.

Then look at the images of the beautiful homes on that property and exactly what the HOA’s cover.
http://www.cameronfarms.org/pool.html
What is the money used for?
The dues are used to: 1) maintain the common grounds including the pool 2) install and maintain street signs 3) to pay for liability insurance for the neighborhood and the association 4) to hire a management company to see to the day to day management of the neighborhood 5) pay for several social functions per year 6) and for any incidental expenses and improvements that are needed from time to time.

Note they have someone who manages the neighborhood on a daily basis, something which we do NOT have. If we pay over $200.00 for internet and cable, then I want to be able to get my own services and pay $30 or less since we don’t have anyone working to monitor the neighborhood, and every time we complain about something, we’re told to take care of it ourselves. Where’s my salary then?

UPDATE: At 1:18 PM today, Sept 15, 2008, I received a call from Brighthouse explaining that the service was scheduled to be reinstated on Sept 12 but instead was canceled and delayed until today. I wonder if my complaining about the absolute POOR service our HOA management had anything to do with that? This sounds like illegal activity to me.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/community_windermere_blog/2007/01/should_winderme.html#comments

Purpose

2008-09-14T00:45:00.000-04:00

Our original page for the Independence Community was deleted. My understanding was the person in charge could no longer take care of it.
As a resident, I decided to put this blog up, not only as a tool but also for others to post their questions and concerns.
When we had the other page, apparently the first thing that was deleted, even before the site was taken down, was the section where everyone voiced their concerns or complaints in regards to the community or management. My goal is for our voices to be heard since after all, we are the residents and the ones who pay management[s] for "services".
Where else could we actually express ourselves?
Thank you and I will try to update this as much as possible. Meanwhile, you may leave any questions/complaints/concerns in form of a comment.