HOA going to far

[Floridagail]

I saw this article this morning. HOA think they are God. How come no lawsuit to forclosure is done. The man owes over 100K HOA fees. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,5244037.story

[justbroke]

Well, it is a technical and legal question. Florida law does allow the HOA to "restrict" access to shared and common services. The HOA may think that the "gate" is a common service. However, I think that the HOA is just being obstructive and trying to make it harder for the homeowner, who has NOT paid his HOA dues for some time, to easily use shared and common services and areas.

As for why don't they just foreclose... I'm sure everyone is asking the same thing. Regardless, the HOA is allowed to restrict access to common area and deny common services. However, that means pools, community center, gym and things like that. I don't the legislature intended it to mean the "gate". But the argument will be over the word "common".

Interesting case indeed.