I haven’t decided to pay a lawyer just yet to look further into my case. There are a few different reasons I have not moved forward with the lawyer. Before we get into those, let’s take a quick look at where we are at with everything going on. As a real estate investor, dealing with things like this will be a common occurrence. It might not always be a HOA that you have to deal with, but there are always things popping up that will cause issues.
Many individuals won’t buy in communities with HOA’s. I completely understand and respect that real estate investment strategy. Especially when you are going through and reading all of this, it doesn’t make you want to buy a property with a HOA. In my opinion there are good and bad things about HOA’s. The HOA haters will point exactly to this and say this is why nobody should buy in a HOA. I will give my limited view on HOA’s in a later post.
Time To Jump Into Where We Are In The Saga
The latest and greatest update was the response email I sent to the HOA. The response outlined my disappoint in the HOA and how they have handled the situation. This is an unprecedented time for the entire world. I am a firm believer that you learn more about people during tough times than you do when things are going well. To that point, these are tough times and the HOA and Board have been exposed to how they will handle tough times.
If you haven’t been fully caught up yet, start from the beginning to get all the craziness and context of everything that has happened to this point. Links below!
- Part I: Calling HOA To File Lawsuit!?!?! Short Term Rental Update – Ol’ Faithful
- Part II: S**t Is Getting Real – I Posted In My HOA Homeowner FB Group And Got People Fired Up
- Part III: Security Turned The Guests Away This Morning – I Watched The Whole Thing From Inside The Gates
- Part IV: Lawyer Time – I Spoke With A Lawyer Over The Weekend, And Here Is What They Said
- Part V: Lawyered The S**t Out Of The Final Email To The HOA & Board
- Part VI: The HOA President Responded With The Board Decision – Prime The Popcorn
- Part VII: Time For Legal Advice From A Local Florida Attorney – Will See What Guidance They Provide
- Part VIII: Ready To Pull My Hair Out On This HOA Issue! – But Time For A Political Response
Trust me, it is worth the time to get caught up and hear the story from the beginning.
Why I Am Not (Yet) Moving Forward With A Lawyer
I have never been in the situation I am currently in. It has been a tough situation for many reasons. First, you have everything going on with the virus and the media. This has definitely scared a lot of people and rightfully so. Second, we had a governor who wrote and signed into law one of the most confusing Executive Orders signed into law in Florida. I thought my 8th grade reading level would be able to interpret a document of law, but I was wrong.
Lastly, I am trying to deal with a HOA that has historically been very difficult to deal with and horrible in their communication. I hadn’t seen any of that until going through this experience. An article I will write tomorrow will show even more into how horrible they are at communicating.
Here is why I am not planning to move forward with a lawyer just yet. At the end of the conversation with the local lawyer I asked for her advice on what to do. She immediately scrolled down to the bottom of the Executive Order to see when it was set to expire. The expiration date of the Executive Order was set for a few days out. She told me there wasn’t much point of paying her $385 per hour (or a “cheaper” associate $220 per hour) to dig further into the law and my HOA Bylaws to see what could be done.
The lawyer did mention there is a chance the Governor of Florida signs an extension of the Executive Order prior to expiration. No need to fret. She said to let the time pass and reach back out to her on the day after expiration.
How Much Would A Lawyer Cost
If I were a betting man, I would say the lawyer would use 4-5 hours of billable time to go comb through all the documents they would need to.
For the high side of that, at $385 per hour, I would be looking at $1,925 in money spent for the lawyer to look through everything and provide her assessment of the situation.
There are a few other loopholes I have not explored yet which I will write about in a later post. This could go a few different ways, so I don’t want to write about it until I have a clear understanding if I am going to explore that option.
In The Meantime, We Wait
For now, we wait. There isn’t much worth doing until the Executive Order expires.
Want to hear something crazy though?! Just 5 hours after my email response to the board telling them how horrible their communication has been…..guess what happened?
An email was sent to all homeowners. And boy did the f**k up another piece of communication.
In tomorrow’s post, I will share the entire email to you. Let’s just say I was amazed about how bad they are getting their wires crossed. Not only that, but how they ended the email was absolutely laughable! JUST WAIT!
Things are still heating up!
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Thanks again for all the support and continuing to come back each day for new updates in this saga!
To read the next blog post in this saga, click the link below!
Part IX: What I Think Of My HOA – The Unedited Version
This is a great bblog