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Condo residents sue to buy clubhouses

The developer of Kings Point says it will challenge the suit, which alleges that it denied residents their legal right to first dibs on buying the leased clubhouses.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published January 27, 2006

Residents of Kings Point have filed suit against their developer, saying that WCI Communities did not give them the option of buying their clubhouses and recreation facilities as required by state law.

Last week, WCI issued a statement saying that residents were "tricked" into filing the lawsuit, and promised to fight it on several grounds - including an assertion that the state law is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough Circuit Court on Nov. 30 on behalf of 72 different Kings Point condominium associations, states that Kings Point residents tried to buy the recreation facilities in July 2004.

In August, the lawsuit says, WCI rejected their offer.

Resident David Olwin, who is the treasurer of the Fairfield Condominium Association, said he thinks he knows why.

"They're making so much money off of these clubhouses and stuff like that, and it keeps going up every year," he said. "It's a cash cow for them."

Rent for recreation facilities is passed along to residents as nearly a third of their maintenance fees, said James Ayotte of the Acadia Condominium Association. If the associations could purchase the facilities, they could more easily control the maintenance fees.

According to state law, developers must give residents an opportunity to purchase leased facilities on the 10th anniversary of the lease, said Fort Lauderdale lawyer Allen Levine, who represents the associations.

Moreover, he said, if developers want to sell the facilities to anyone else before that time, they must first give residents the option of purchasing the facilities at the same price.

In the lawsuit, Levine wrote that WCI sold portions of the Kings Point facilities to one of its subsidiaries, Sun City Center Golf Properties Inc., in 1999, without giving residents an option to purchase them.

The residents are asking a judge to force WCI to allow them to purchase the facilities at a price to be determined, if necessary, by arbitration, and to pay court fees.

Last week, through its lawyer, Thomas Roehn of Tampa, WCI filed a motion with 12 arguments in favor of dismissing the lawsuit.

Roehn wrote that the residents had not voted to purchase the facilities if given the opportunity to do so.

Without such a binding vote, Roehn wrote, the lawsuit is "nothing more than a theoretical exercise." If the residents won, he wrote, the court could "be faced with plaintiffs who say "Never mind' or "We didn't really mean it."'

Moreover, he argued that the state law cited by Levine is unconstitutional under the Florida and U.S. Constitutions because it infringes on WCI's contractual rights. He also called the law "unconstitutionally vague, ambiguous and hopelessly contradictory."

Roehn also argued that residents were "induced" into filing the lawsuit by Paul Hunt, president of the Federation of Kings Point Associations.

Hunt could not be reached for comment for this article.

In a statement, WCI president and chief executive officer Jerry Starkey said, "Given the long, beneficial relationship between WCI Communities and the residents of Kings Point, we were a bit surprised that the residents of Kings Point were tricked into supporting this lawsuit."

"We plan to fight this lawsuit vigorously and set the record straight," he added.

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 09:01:02]