[Indydealmaker]

Originally Posted by coolkayaker1

I appreciate the links above and will study them. Thank you, iloveTV. (PS I looked them over--they are for now, not the post-Morse future. Please direct me if I missed that part). Thanks, Mulligan, but as a native Massachusetts person myself (born and raised in western MA, lots of time in Worcester--love it, but for the snow), you and I know taxes.

Residents cannot, as TNLakePanda points out, know the amount of business subsidy provided by developer to restaurant/shop renter. The subsidy comes in a private business interaction between developer and renter. Although businesses can appears to be flourishing, it can be because of a developer providing attractive rents. When the developer is done selling homes, they next sell the strip malls/retail shops, the new owners attempt to make money from the retail space alone (they have no homes to sell), and the house of cards falls: retailers exit, vacancies open, property tax and business sales taxes decline, homeowner's taxes rise, home values decline, etc.

We have a family friend who owns a gorgeous condo in a large, six-year old development in Ft Meyers, FL where they have a restaurant, private retail rentals (e.g. private shops on premises), two large pools, tennis courts, etc. Now that the units are 90% sold (and the developer is 90%+ out--a legitimate developer, highly regarded, who followed the prescribed succession plan), her condo fee has spiked from $500/month to $1200/month in only 36 months--it was stable in the prior 3 years (when the developer was footing the bill on the upkeep), and it's still going up! The condo association is now trying to sell off the restaurant and retail privately to get control of spiking monthly costs, and wondering whether they need two large swimming pools, trying to renegotiate the cleaning and maintenance contract for their "village square" area, etc. It's, in a word, a fiasco.

Just background to know where I'm coming from. The bonds for TV, undoubtedly, have gone up precipitously from first developments to current Brownwood--much much faster than CPI.

Perhaps TV has a more carefully thought out plan than hers, specifically when the Morse family exits TV, and includes projected costs.

Seriously, I'll be quiet now and listen. lol Sorry so long. Thanks for any information.

Your friend may do well to spend some time reading the Florida Condo Statutes. Condo associations do not have carte blanche on fee increases.

If the board adopts an annual budget in which assessments exceed 115 percent of assessments for the previous fiscal year, 10 percent of all voting interests may petition for a unit owner meeting in order to adopt a substitute budget.