Hernando County Press Release

June25, 2008

Southwest Florida Water Management District Extends Water Restrictions
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 24, 2008

The Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board voted unanimously today to extend the current Water Shortage Order, which restricts lawn watering throughout the District to one-day-per-week, through Sept. 30.

The Governing Board chose to extend the term of the water shortage order because impacts from the two-year drought continue despite the start of the annual rainy season. In particular, regional public supply systems, including Tampa Bay Water and the Peace River/Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority, remain at-risk due to low storage. Tampa Bay Water’s supplies have not returned to pre-drought conditions and the Peace River/Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority continues to rely on two emergency authorizations to help meet current water demand.

“We need people to continue to be vigilant,” said David Moore, District executive director. “We appreciate their efforts to conserve through the dry season and we need them to continue. Now is the time to try and help our water resources recover.”

One way residents can help is by reducing their lawn watering during the summer rainy season. Residents are encouraged to skip their watering day if they’ve recently received rain.

The Governing Board took into consideration that despite recent rain, the District continues to experience depressed hydrologic conditions.

Although the District’s 16-county region has received about five inches of rain so far this month, this represents only 67 percent of the normal amount for June. For the 24-month period of June 2006 through May 2008, the District wide rainfall deficit is 17.2 inches.

All 16 counties within the District are experiencing below-normal groundwater
Governing Board extends water restrictions conditions. In general, groundwater conditions are currently categorized as moderately abnormal.

The Withlacoochee River is experiencing substantially below-normal conditions and lakes throughout the District are two to five feet below the bottom of the normal range.

“While the recent rains have been beneficial, we have not seen enough improvement in the water resources to lift restrictions,” said Lois Sorensen, the District’s demand management coordinator. “Fortunately, residents do not need to water their lawns now that it is raining.”

The water shortage order, which has been in effect since Jan. 16, 2007, was slated to expire June 30.

The order has also been expanded to include all of unincorporated Marion County. This is consistent with the District’s Interagency Agreement with the St. Johns River Water Management District. Marion County is divided between the two water management districts, with the boundary roughly being Interstate 75. Staff from both water management districts worked together earlier this year to develop the new uniform lawn and landscape irrigation measures.

The order includes restrictions that apply to the use of water from public and private water utilities as well as the use of all wells and surface water sources (ponds, rivers, etc.).

The following is a schedule and summary of the restrictions unless your city or county has a different once-per-week schedule:

Addresses with “house numbers…” May only irrigate on…
Ending in 0 or 1 Monday
Ending in 2 or 3 Tuesday
Ending in 4 or 5 Wednesday
Ending in 6 or 7 Thursday
Ending in 8 or 9 Friday

For more information about water restrictions, the drought and how you can conserve water, visit the District’s web site at www.WaterMatters.org/drought.

Questions concerning water restrictions can be answered during normal business hours by calling 1-800-848-0499 or 1-800-423-1476, extension 4498.

www.WaterMatters.org/drought.

Neighborhood Grapefruit FYI !!

Henry and Judy Waller have fresh grapefruit they would like to give away to anyone in Preston Hollow who would like it. Please contact them at 352-848-0954 if you would like some of their delicious fruit.

Preston Hollow Neighborhood Alert !!

A Preston Hollow resident who lives on Forest Wood Court had gas siphoned from his vehicle the other night. If you park your car in the driveway please be advised that this is happening not only here but in other neighborhoods in Hernando County. If you can't park your car in the garage please think about buying a locking gas cap for your vehicle.

Mosquito Awareness Week - June 23-28

Press Release

Mosquito Awareness Week - June 23-28
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Mosquito Awareness Week
June 18, 2008

The Hernando County Mosquito Control Department has announced that June 22-28 is National Mosquito Awareness Week. With the summer heat and rain comes those pesky mosquitoes, which are not only a nuisance when trying to enjoy the outdoors, but they also present a health hazard. The staff at Mosquito Control wants residents to understand the importance of monitoring their own property to make sure they are not inadvertently harboring a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The Mosquito Control staff emphasizes that, while spraying for mosquitoes is a service they provide, it is really the last line of defense in controlling the mosquito population. Understanding the mosquito life cycle and learning how to eliminate mosquito egg-laying sites around their homes will help residents reduce the number of mosquitoes in their own neighborhoods.

A wealth of helpful information is available at http://www.hernandocounty.us/mosquito/. In addition, you may contact Mosquito Control at 352 754-4060 for assistance if you have a mosquito problem and to arrange for a staff member to speak to your civic club or neighborhood association on mosquito control issues.

HOA Informational Article in the Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2008

Bob Tankel wants you to know that he's not Snidely Whiplash.

As an attorney for more than 500 homeowners associations, Tankel is foreclosing on people's homes for unpaid association dues with surprising frequency. Although some are investors, others live in the homes and lose them because of a few hundred dollars in back dues, he says.

That makes Tankel an unsympathetic figure. He jokingly says people sometimes compare him to Snidely Whiplash, the top-hatted villain with the handlebar mustache in the old Dudley Do-Right cartoons.

But Tankel insists he's not a bad guy and doesn't want to take people's homes away from them.

Instead, he is looking out for the interests of homeowners and condo associations, which also are victims of Florida's housing mess, he says. The huge spike in mortgage foreclosures has left many deed-restricted neighborhoods dotted with vacant homes. Homeowners who remain often put off paying their association dues to save money.

Those residents who faithfully pay their association dues are forced to pay extra to make up for people who don't. That's unfair to them, says Tankel, who has practiced community association law in Dunedin for 26 years.

Here's a look at the rise in homeowners association foreclosures through the eyes of one of the lawyers on the front lines.

Do you get a lot of angry calls from homeowners?

We do get a number of angry calls. I don't recall that we've been threatened with physical harm, because our goal is to defuse the situation. People who come in my office who are angry, if my staff can't deal with them, I'll ask them to step into the conference room, discuss it with them and just lay it out for them. My clients the HOAs are geared toward resolving these things. Clients have no interest in owning someone's home or kicking someone out.

The last thing I want is a physical confrontation for anybody. Some angry people might go home and take it out on their president. I have had association presidents that have had slashed tires and threats and so forth.

Are people surprised that their homeowners association can foreclose upon them?

People who buy into these communities don't read the fine print, and the fine print says that if they don't pay the association it has the right to sue them personally for the amounts that they owe. And it has a lien, or claim, against the property. They can actually sell the property to satisfy the debt, no different than a mortgage.

How often are you taking a delinquent homeowner's home to foreclosure sale, and how much has that changed?

What I can say is that three years ago I had one person working on foreclosures, which is I what I call the start of the legal process, and one person working on all the efforts prior to the start of litigation.

Now I have two paralegals just for homeowners association collections, one paralegal for condo collections, one paralegal just for defense of mortgage foreclosures, one paralegal overseeing the process, and probably another floater who works as needed and follows through with the foreclosures. So if you go by staff, it's five times the staff.

In my experience, we would sell a home on the courthouse steps once every couple years. Now we're taking six to 10, maybe six to 12 a year, maybe as many as one a month to foreclosure sale. Because there's a lot of them that are working their way through the system, it takes at least six or eight months after you start before you can get to the courthouse steps.

You advise your association clients to seek foreclosure against delinquent homeowners. Why don't you just file a lawsuit for a money judgment? Isn't that more humane than taking someone's home?

Florida has a lot of protections for debtors. When you have a judgment against someone you still have to execute the judgment, which means you have to find assets that you can sell to satisfy the judgment. Frankly, I don't seek judgments against people because a judgment is just that - a piece of paper.

When you've got a situation where a person doesn't pay, the association can either foreclose and sell the home on the courthouse steps or get a judgment. When you seek foreclosure, you know that the home is not going to move to Alabama. The home is not going to go bankrupt. You know that the home is not going anywhere. We just go after the home.

If you seek a judgment against someone and they go bankrupt, the judgment may disappear. The most powerful tool that an association has is foreclosure.

If a home doesn't sell at a foreclosure sale, the homeowners association sometimes buys it. What do they do with it in a depressed real estate market?

In this market, the value of the home is almost universally less than the mortgage. In the situation where the association takes back title, that's a perfect opportunity for someone in the association to step forward and become a real estate investor. Buy the judgment from the association and seek a short sale of the mortgage from the mortgage company.

When the association finds itself as the unfortunate owner, I recommend they either try to rent it on Craigslist, or in the alternative, actually deeding it back to the bank immediately. In other words, take the position that the bank now owns it and has to pay the back assessments to the extent allowed by the law, and the law is changing.

Don't attorney's fees in foreclosure cases often exceed the amount of past-due homeowners assessments?

Attorney's fees routinely exceed the amount that is in question. And judges, I think, have a hard time with that - when I end up in the judge's chambers and we're at the summary judgment and I have my affidavit of costs and fees that can run in a routine case $1,500 or $1,800, maybe $2,000, and the amount due is only $400 or $500.

The critics of the association lawyers who say you're taking people's homes away and you're profiting out of whack to the amount due don't understand the process. It's hard work, it involves analysis of title. It's fundamentally the same work as if it was a $10 million mortgage.

Crime Watch FYI !!!

Last Thursday 6/12/08 a resident in Preston Hollow was awakened by a man's voice outside his bedroom window at 3:50 in the morning. The Sheriff's Office was called and a Deputy responded but didn't find the intruder. Please be aware of this situation and call 911 if you hear or see someone that doesn't belong in the neighborhood. Randi Rosmarin who heads up our Crime Watch was notified.

Sign Up for Two Very Important Information E-lerts

If you click on the two links below you can receive email e-lerts from the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and the Emergency Management Department. By signing up for these two e-lerts you will receive useful information updates from both of these departments. These are two easy ways to keep yourself informed about what is going on in Hernando County.


Sheriff's Department e-lert


Emergency Management e-lert

Update on Wyndsor Place

Dave Parker, president of East Linden's HOA, has let me know that they have secured a legal firm interested in pursuing a class action suit against Wyndsor Woods.

That firm will meet with interested parties on Wednesday, June 11, at 7 p.m., at the VFW hall across the street. They will be prepared to sign contracts; the scuttlebutt from Dave is that they will be looking for approximately $2,000 overall (this is a contingency agreement), thus somewhere around $100, depending on the size of the group. I believe East Linden has 10 or so participants, as do we.

If you have neighbors with an interest whose e-addresses are not shown above, please let them know of this meeting.

See you there.

Randi T. Rosmarin

norskierandi@aol.com