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SCHOA can be tough in Sun City when necessary

Takes legal route for resolution as last resort

Posted 8/11/20

Sun City Home Owners Association officials prefer to settle covenants, conditions and restrictions violations as quickly and easily as possible, but sometimes the task takes them down a more difficult and lengthy path.

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News

SCHOA can be tough in Sun City when necessary

Takes legal route for resolution as last resort

Posted

Sun City Home Owners Association officials prefer to settle covenants, conditions and restrictions violations as quickly and easily as possible, but sometimes the task takes them down a more difficult and lengthy path.

Those examples, though few, have a negative impact on neighbors who wants to see violations cleared up quickly. Jim Hunter, SCHOA board president, said that reflects negatively on the organization.

“We hear people saying that SCHOA isn’t doing anything about violations,” he said. “It is frustrating.”

An issue with a home on Cumberland Drive lasted more than five years before it was finally resolved and the property cleaned up and constant traffic at the home during all hours was eased. But the resolution did not come until SCHOA officials went to court and incurred thousands of dollars in expenses.

SCHOA officials are now going through another issue at a home on Balboa Drive. This one has been a thorn in SCHOA’s side for 10 years, according to Tom Wilson, SCHOA general manager.

The home, in the 9200 block, is owned by James Crespo. SCHOA officials undertook an operation in August 2019 to clear the side and back yards of the home. The yards were filled with odds and ends, including old lumber, outdoor furniture in disrepair, pool slides, a paddle boat and other items not being used. There were also two vehicles in the driveway that were inoperative.

SCHOA officials returned to the home July 31 for another cleanup. This time Mr. Crespo had erected panels around the side yard designed to hide the area from view. When workers, using bolt cutters, opened the side yard panel, the side yard was clogged with material, including a detachable camper shell that Mr. Crespo drug out, what appeared to be a rollbar, a large plastic garbage can and many of the same type of items as the previous year. The same inoperable vehicles were in the driveway, along with a trailer.

Mr. Crespo, through a representative, asked SCHOA officials July 31 for 24 hours to clean up the property. When that was refused, he hooked up the trailer and moved it off the driveway.

“We found a lot of the same stuff we did last year and a lot of new stuff,” Mr. Wilson said. “We cleared most of it out, but we’ll have to come back, I’m sure.”

Foreclosure of the property is an option, but not one SCHOA officials want to go to unless they have to, according to Mr. Hunter. SCHOA officials have started foreclosure paperwork for at least one property in the past, but have never reached the end of the process.

Both cleanup operations at the Balboa Drive home were conducted under court order.

SCHOA officials tackled another thorny issue in the last weeks. Residents Klaas and Margaret Bosker, who have a summer home in Michigan, own a rental home in Sun City. In April SCHOA officials sent notice the renter violated the parking provision with a commercial vehicle in the driveway. Six more notices were sent through mid-May, but the issue remained unresolved, according to Mr. Wilson. Cost recovery charges began with the third notice and accumulated $600 by the seventh notice.

However, the Boskers claim they did not see any of the letters until they returned to Michigan May 30. Mr. Wilson said the notices were sent there because that is the only address they had on file for the Boskers.

“We don’t send notices to renters, just the property owners,” he said.

The Boskers claim the truck in question had minimal racks, much like the luggage racks on SUVs, and was not used in a business of any kind. Mr. Wilson described them as ladder racks, although there were no ladders on them.

The sixth notice included a lien on the rental property.

The Boskers stated in an email their returned to Michigan was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Wilson said SCHOA officials negotiated with the Boskers and only required $300 for cost recovery to cancel the lien.

“They apparently agreed to that because they paid it,” Mr. Wilson said.

However, the Boskers continue to request their $300 be refunded.