This letter was sent to Mr. Lee, the new president of the Board.  He said that he thought it was a great letter and he faxed it to Tamar Shendell, asking for her comments.  As far as I know, Ms. Shendell never responded.

March 11, 2001

Mr. Gary Lee

Palmetto Pines Home Owners Association

Dear Mr. Lee:

As a home owner in Palmetto Pines, I would like to point out something that the Board needs to consider in its oversight of Palmetto Pines.

All home owners, when they moved in, were given deed restrictions that affected their property and ran with the land.

The previous board made two sets of rules and regulations, one in the 90's and the other in August 2000. The difference between the two was that the rules in 2000 were written as part of the by-laws. By-laws are written to give guidelines as to how a corporation is run. They can be changed by a simple vote of the board. By-laws do not carry the weight of deed restrictions, since the board does not control the property it is trying to regulate. It would be the same if this board made a rule that McDonald's was going to open at 6 AM and close at 9 PM from now on. Since the board doesn't own McDonald's it has no say in what McDonald's does and therefore can't enforce any rules against McDonald's. In the same way, the board doesn't own the individual homes in Palmetto Pines and therefore can't enforce any rules against the homeowners. The difference with deed restrictions is that the developer made the deed restrictions for his land when he owned all of it and wrote that the restrictions run with the land, unless amended by 2/3's of the homeowners (as stated in state law, when documents are silent).

Just reading the difference between the rules and regulations written in the 1990's and the by-laws written in August 2000 shows the wisdom of this system.

Tamar Shendell, at the February 13 meeting, stated clearly that the board had the right to make or remove by-laws by a simple majority vote of the board. She also said that by-laws did not carry the weight of deed restrictions. At that point the room erupted with home owners calling for the board to vote to remove the words "pick-up truck" from the by-laws, since pick-up doesn't appear in the deed restrictions and we have been having frivolous lawsuits over pick-ups for twenty years! As usual, the board didn't "pick-up" on the animosity that was escalating and move to remove anything from the by-laws that carry no weight in the community.

Our deed restrictions limit the activities of the home owners association to assessing $2 per month for maintenance of the canals and waterways - NOT the canal banks! In the by-laws of August 2000, under Article XI, no. 4, it says: "The Association may include in its annual assessment or may specially assess, if necessary, to provide bulk cable television, radio, satellite and other electronic communication and information services for all homes in the Palmetto Pines community. Non-use of such services shall not entitle a lot owner to avoid the obligation for the portion of the assessment (or special assessment) attributable to such services." This is a HUGE departure from the original intent of the deed restrictions, made with absolutely NO authority and is unnecessary, since we already have cable that we pay for as we use it. This is tantamount to Adelphia Cable or DirectTV charging everyone of us whether we use their services or not.

If this board doesn't address this issue and see a clear delineation between by-laws for running a corporation and deed restrictions that affect individual owners, it runs the risk of reworking the by-laws into more and more restrictive rules. If it tries to enforce these by-laws, the board also runs the risk of being sued for filing frivolous lawsuits. No one has the right to tell a home owner how to live on his own land (except by deed restrictions). Ask yourself, "How much interference by others are YOU willing to endure as you try to live in your house on your property?"

Sincerely,

Elaine Hulse