[twinklesweep]

Originally Posted by ilovetv

It's interesting that, of all the lawyers advising, leading and defending the POA members and residents in the settled lawsuit and on current issues, none of these lawyers has apparently advised roof owners to use the less expensive "people's court" option of Small Claims Court actions they could file without a lawyer's fees. But then, the lawyers' past and future legal fee potential would be much less if all individual homeowners took their own roofing cases en masse to "the people's court".

"A Small Claims case is a legal action filed in county court to settle minor legal disputes among parties where the dollar amount involved is $5,000 or less, excluding costs, interest, and attorney fees. Because Small Claims court is considered a "people's court," it is not necessary to have an attorney to file a claim. Forms to file a small claims case are available at the County Civil Department at the Clerk's Office and here on our website. Attorneys are not precluded from this court, but are not required."
Small Claims - Sumter County Clerk of the Courts

"...The case concluded last week in Lake County, where Circuit Judge Lawrence Semento approved a settlement agreement that requires the developer to pay about $40 million over the next 13 years to replenish accounts used to maintain facilities and pay pool monitors, after-hours golf ambassadors and Neighborhood Watch staff.

The settlement also requires the defendants to pay $50,000 each to Dreidame and four other named plaintiffs and $6.7 million to the plaintiffs' brother-sister legal team, Dougald McMillan and Carol McMillan Anderson."

Villages developer to pay $40 million for recreation upgrades to settle a lawsuit - Orlando Sentinel

These are two completely different situations. The $40 million settlement served "to replenish accounts used to maintain facilities and pay pool monitors, after-hours golf ambassadors and Neighborhood Watch staff." This lawsuit was based on collective issues that affected (and continued to affect) the community as a whole, as opposed to individual homeowners with individual construction issues. That the leadership of the POA who virtually made this lawsuit their lives for however long it took were paid a token out of the settlement, and likewise there is nothing inappropriate for the lawyers (who always do well no matter what...) to have been paid for their services.

The present Owens Corning issue affecting individual homeowners (as opposed to the entire community) might appear to lend itself better to a small claims approach. That the lawyers who were so successful using the class action suit approach are urging its use again is not out of line, however. Nothing succeeds like success, on top of which why should they not be concerned over their potential income? After all, they too are not doing public service work altruistically; I would doubt they have the same "deep pockets" as the developer (who has seen to it that the relevant Villages committees are not to be supportive of those affected homeowners). So, the lawyers' orientation is on class action suit.

This doesn't mean that collectively we property owners need to agree with this approach, considering the completely different nature of the issue. Those homeowners who are affected may wish to choose the class action route based on the success of the earlier suit, though they must keep in mind that the numbers of those involved will be much smaller than an entire community as was involved in the earlier one. On the other hand, those homeowners who individually are affected by the Owens Corning debacle who recognize the potential effectiveness of individual small claims filings are free to follow that route. It's already been made clear that shockingly there has been and likely will be no support from the relevant Villages departments who appear to be taking the side of Owens Corning while throwing the affected individual homeowners under the bus, so to speak.

So the end result is that it is up to the affected individual homeowners whether to consider coming together, with the support of the POA (and let's face it, support is not coming from any other quarter...), and file a class action suit, keeping in mind the success of the earlier one but also being aware that settling it might (would?) take a long time; or they can pursue individual small claims actions in Sumter County, perhaps choosing to coordinate their filings either simultaneously or spread out, deciding among themselves which strategy will take a greater toll on Owens Corning and thus hopefully provoke a settlement on the part of this company (that doesn't need the bad publicity either). Just because lawyers are not suggesting the small claims approach doesn't mean that it's not a potentially good one. After all, we aren't lemmings; we're quite capable of making our own choices!

[llaran]

Why is it bad to report golf cart accidents? they are highlighted, I think, because the Daily sun never reported them. Many people call the Daily Sun "The Happy Paper' Apperently the POA was/ is needed when there are items which need to be addressed and unfortunently pressure need to be applied ie, the vinyl siding issue or the Owens Corning roofing. At least if your siding was a problem you found you weren't alone.

[Madelaine Amee]

Well I saw this month's POA paper as a step up - I thought it looked very professional and I loved the addition of color.

I intensely dislike the use of the sentence: "If TV is so terrible, why do they continue to LIVE here????" It would appear to me that if one has an opinion which is the opposite of yours they should leave!

[ilovetv]

I intensely dislike the use of the sentence: "If TV is so terrible, why do they continue to LIVE here????" It would appear to me that if one has an opinion which is the opposite of yours they should leave!

I didn't say they should leave. I wonder why people want to live in a place they apparently see as a constant GRIND in need of lawyers to defend against a villain!

[Advogado]

Originally Posted by llaran

Why is it bad to report golf cart accidents? they are highlighted, I think, because the Daily sun never reported them. Many people call the Daily Sun "The Happy Paper' Apperently the POA was/ is needed when there are items which need to be addressed and unfortunently pressure need to be applied ie, the vinyl siding issue or the Owens Corning roofing. At least if your siding was a problem you found you weren't alone.

Agree. In addition, the deterrent effect of the very existence of the POA has probably helped maintain a somewhat level playing field in dealings between the Developer and the residents. Furthermore, the POA Bulletin and now the ************** seem to have caused the Daily Sun to start reporting on important events that may detract from the Developer's sales image of The Villages-- for example: the IRS investigation (although the Daily Sun has yet to publish any kind of objective article about it), crime, and golf cart accidents.

[Warren Kiefer]

Originally Posted by ilovetv

if you had actually read all of my comments on this thread, you would have seen and realized that it was not the issues mentioned (about which i agree with the poa), but the "tabloid, sensationalized layout" that "is scaring newcomers and new buyers into thinking they made the worst mistake of their lives by buying/coming here".

also, never once did i say the poa should not exist, nor that they were wrong in the class action lawsuit about rightly making the developer do what he was supposed to do for our community facilities. nor did i ever say that lawyers and the leaders of the lawsuit filing should not be paid. I agree with the article i linked above from the time of the judges' decision, saying this was "a case of david against goliath". I'd be the first to say "sometimes you have to fight fire with fire"......and sometimes you have to fight the big guys' lawyers with lawyers getting paid just as much.

I did, however, say that now, the lawyers for the poa are at least allowing--if not not promoting--the possibility of a class action suit for the homeowners' labor costs of re-roofing with owens-corning-provided new replacement shingles......when the individual homeowners could quickly and efficiently file a small claims action for these costs, without paying hefty lawyer fees and without waiting years to get relief.

Sometimes opponents purposely miss the point in order to promote theirs, and that has happened in this thread with some of the accusations made or implied about my posts.

are you aware small claims court isn't free??? I seem to recall there is a maximum amount that can be filed.

[Warren Kiefer]

Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee

Well I saw this month's POA paper as a step up - I thought it looked very professional and I loved the addition of color.

I intensely dislike the use of the sentence: "If TV is so terrible, why do they continue to LIVE here????" It would appear to me that if one has an opinion which is the opposite of yours they should leave!

Amen to this comment. I hate it when I hear people say," If you don't like it, you should move".. Those who decided to not run away from a problem are the same people who made it better for all of us, even those who spew this "like it or move" opinion. We all should be thankful for the POA and those who fought the battles for us. I challenge all the Pollyannas to come up with one thing the VHA has directly done for the Village residents.

[mickey100]

I would say the op is entitled to her opinion , but in my opinion the POA isn't "scaring" newcomers or potential buyers. They are presenting the facts. If I was considering buying, I'd like to know the facts before I purchased. I have never understood why that threatens some Villagers.

[looneycat]

that most of the posts in this thread carry the same type of vitriolic contempt of the POA as they profess the POA publication to have, JUST SAYING....

[Madelaine Amee]

Originally Posted by ilovetv

I didn't say they should leave. I wonder why people want to live in a place they apparently see as a constant GRIND in need of lawyers to defend against a villain!

It would appear you have no understanding of why the "law suit" was a necessity at that time.

[Doctommft]

Stop reading headlines and read the story which I find informative especially if my roof had defective shingles. On the last page, the explanation of the reason recycling was discontinued at the postal stations was that people are either stupid or lazy. Recycling, something that everyone agrees is the right thing to do, is ruined by the residents (yes, a minority) of The Villages.

[OBXNana]

We thought long and hard before making a purchase in The Villages. We didn't want to hear only the good things or bad things. We wanted to have all the facts and made a decision based on keeping an open mind. We weighed the options of what was important to us and we're moving forward with the purchase.

We appreciate the link provided to the POA. It helps us understand this thread.

[ilovetv]

Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee

It would appear you have no understanding of why the "law suit" was a necessity at that time.

It would appear you did not actually read what I wrote above:

"....... Also, never once did I say the POA should not exist, nor that they were wrong in the class action lawsuit about rightly making the developer do what he was supposed to do for our community facilities. Nor did I ever say that lawyers and the leaders of the lawsuit filing should not be paid. I agree with the article I linked above from the time of the judges' decision, saying this was "a case of David against Goliath". I'd be the first to say "sometimes you have to fight fire with fire"......and sometimes you have to fight the big guys' lawyers with lawyers getting paid just as much......

......Sometimes opponents purposely miss the point in order to promote theirs, and that has happened in this thread with some of the accusations made or implied about my posts."

[LV943]

First of all, I am a newcomer and a homeowner of The Villages. I get the POA in my driveway, and it's the only paper I will read. It didn't scare me away from moving here. It provides important information to homeowners no other paper will attempt do. I am one of the affected by the OC Roofing issue, which is a work in progress. The golf cart accident article was not a surprise to me. I'm sure I will get flack for this, however, this needs to be said . . . ALL golf cart owners should receive "Rules & Regulations" on how to drive a golf cart in The Villages. They do not have the right of way when merging onto a road. I pay for my Florida license plates to drive on the roads here, a golf cart does not, unless it's street legal. Please YIELD and make sure you have room to merge instead of just "cutting off" the car behind you. If you can't merge, then stop and wait until you can. Common sense. I realize I live in a golf cart community, but I also believe the rules have become too relaxed regarding golf carts. I have been visiting The Villages for two decades, so I have seen the past and the present regarding this issue. Kudos to the articles in the POA.

[pbeinetti]

I had an issue with TV that was not being resolved. It involved a number of people in my neighborhood who were extremely upset that no action was being taken, even though there were frequent requests over the course of several years. I, and my neighbors, were constantly ignored by TV management. One day I decided to contact Elaine at the POA, as a last resort. Literally, within hours, the head of TV property management was on my phone asking for a meeting. Within days a strategy was put in place to address the issue, which resolved the problem over the course of several months. Would the VHA have intervened on my behalf? Laughable! What recourse would I have had? For those of you who 'flip out' the POA, you have no idea what you are talking about.