Please, Please sue me for revealing your ((secret)) truths

First of all allow me to assert that this writer and this writer alone is responsible for the content of this blog. While it's true that I have confidential sources who live within Devon-Aire Villas #3, I do not live within that community. I receive information from various sources, including the State of Florida websites available to everyone, and personal interviews with persons who do and do not live within the community. Before making any statement here, I check for accuracy with as many sources as possible. Statements are supported by documentation and photographs.

Recently a second letter was sent to confidential sources accusing certain persons of “defamatory statements” regarding management practices at Devon-Aire Villas #3, with threats of a lawsuit against those persons for providing information used in this blog. While that letter was in transit, I had a conversation with a representative of the State's Attorney's Office regarding the first threat to file a lawsuit against those providing bits of information about which I've written. During that conversation it was confirmed that making threats of a lawsuit in order to coerce someone to withdraw a public statement is indeed an act of extortion. Hence, it has been confirmed through the State's Attorney's Office that my sources have been subject to extortion because they provided information that has been made public.

What riles those who make these threats is exposure of facts. Some of these facts include the amount of money that has been collected in HOA dues and fees that has not been accounted for in financial statements and records. The following is taken directly from the web page of Florida Property Management Group, the entity that has taken control of Devon-Aire Villas #3 HOA funds:

Experienced certified FPMG accountants and bookkeepers manage our all-inclusive financial programs. They furnish intelligible reports to community associations and property owners on a regularly scheduled basis.

 Customized computer applications - individualized for each community - provide clear, concise and accurate monthly reports with an emphasis on the collection of maintenance fees. Each community is guaranteed personal services from its assigned "accounting team."

Over the past six years, the period of time that FPMG has controlled HOA funds for Devon-Aire #3, not one financial report has been provided to owners of the community. During that period, at a rate of $396 per year in dues for each of 273 units, totaling $108,108 per year and $648,648 over six years should have been collected. Granted that several units paid no dues while subject to foreclosure, even details of that information has been withheld from homeowners of the community. Currently, it is believed that FPMG collects $14 per unit per month for “managing” the HOA assets. That amounts to $3822 per month. It claims to “earn” that money by providing:

Monthly financial reports; Balance sheet; Income statement; Support schedules; Bank reconciliation; Payment envelopes or statements; Fee collection; Computerized check preparation; Board-signed checks; Budget preparation; Fidelity bond




Attendance at all board meetings; Written management reports; Implementation of board policy; Property inspections; Timely correspondence; Supervision of staff and sub-contractors; Job specifications; Architectural and rules enforcement; Insurance review; Committee coordination; 24 hour emergency line 

To be blunt, these services are not provided by FPMG on behalf of Devon-Aire Villas #3 homeowners. What comes to mind is a possible case of fraud and theft that is ongoing, and its consequences dire enough to be desperately avoided by making threats against those who expose it. 

As of this date seventy-five business days have passed since documents were requested of Florida Property Management Group regarding Devon-Aire Villas Homeowners Association #3. Florida Statutes requires that these records be provided by the end of the tenth business day. Failure to provide records after ten days then becomes a matter of fines imposed at a MINIMUM rate of $50.00 per day, according to Florida Statutes. Because multiple records have been requested, still not provided, there are multiples of $3,750 owed to homeowners who had requested those records last November. That minimum amount keeps growing each business day.

Nevertheless, in a very bizarre twist, those homeowners who requested records and have not received them have been threatened with a lawsuit “by the HOA” which allegedly hired a lawyer using HOA funds to protect the reputation of those in FPMG, a private company, who are refusing to comply with laws governing those who manage HOAs. It is this writer's belief that use of HOA funds to thwart Florida Statutes is exceedingly brazen and probably violates Florida Statutes in the process. It is against all related laws to use HOA funds for personal benefit, and to use HOA funds to threaten a homeowner with a lawsuit for asking for records borders on extortion.

Under these circumstances, while this matter of possible or probable extortion compounds the circumstances under which an amount of approximately $640,000, belonging to Devon-Aire Villas #3 HOA, over a period of the past eight years, remains mysteriously unaccounted for by persons at FPMG, posts made previously on this blog are temporarily suspended.