Why I think people leave Florida after five years -- not because of the hurricanes. A HOA story

[MineralMan]

31. My mother-in-law lived in a small group of twin home townhomes.

Once she had to move into assisted living and then memory care, my wife, who had power-of-attorney status decided to sell her townhome, so she'd have enough money to live out her life with good care and no financial worries. We got the realtor who sold us our home to list the townhome. She also ended up finding a buyer, which was a good deal for her. We painted, re-carpeted and did some kitchen remodeling to update the place, and it found a buyer at asking price pretty quickly

The buyers were a Black couple with a disabled adult child. The husband was a thoracic surgeon. The house was ideal for them, because it had a main floor bedroom with a separate bath that was ideally situated for their child, along with a main floor master bedroom with a bath en suite. There was a third bedroom and bath on the lower level that they wanted to use for a live-in caregiver for their daughter. We thought everything was good, and the sale was headed for escrow.

Then, the HOA presented us with a letter that disclosed a supposed fault with the driveway. Another townhome located near a ditch alongside the road had had its driveway subside about 3". There were no signs whatsoever that my M-i-L's driveway had any problem at all. We had to disclose the letter to the buyers, legally, so we did. We got a contractor in to provide an estimate for mitigating the problem, if it developed. His inspection of the property didn't reveal any issue, but he said "it could happen." His estimate for mitigation was about $10,000. No problem, I told my wife.

Talking to another resident in the development, we learned that everyone had gotten that letter, but that they had been told there was very little chance that any work would need to be done. We weren't told that at all. The other resident kindly told us that the HOA did not want a Black family moving into the development. They would be the first Black family there. The other resident also told us that the President of the HOA told him to just ignore the letter and that it wasn't meant for him.

So, to get the sale to close, my wife signed an addendum to the purchase agreement that would set aside the contractor's estimated cost of mitigation in escrow for three years, in case the the work was actually needed and there was evidence of subsidence. The sale closed, and that development got its first Black family.

That was six years ago. We got the money back that had been escrowed three years ago. The driveway is still just fine. Two more Black families have purchased townhomes in that development since then.

I do not care for the whole HOA thing. Not one bit.