November 21, 2025 • 8 mins
Are HOAs in Florida out of control? Tampa Bay 28's Adam Walser joins us with a preview of their 'Home Sweet HOA' report on HOA boards and management companies. Residents claim they've been subjected to legal trouble and excessive fees over minor HOA infractions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now, let's go to the highline and bring in
Tampa Bay twenty eight investigative reporter Adam Waltzer. You can
find all of his reporting in a whole lot more
at Tampa Bay twenty eight dot com. Adam, thanks so
much for taking a few minutes to come on the show,
and I want to talk to you about this issue
involving HOA reform. We have a South Florida lawmaker looking
(00:22):
to perhaps bring forward some changes during this upcoming legislative session.
You've been doing some reporting on HOA horror stories across
the state, and you have a special that's going to
air on Monday night about all of this.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
That's all right, Ryan, it's called Home Suite HOA, and
it's just kind of a play on the fact that
everyone moves into what they think is going to be
their dream home and then they find out it's becoming
a nightmare because of the HOA. And we've heard story
after story from people all over Florida about this happening.
And we've seen these egregious abuses of power by the HOA.
(01:00):
We've seen people who've been fined, even one lady who
ended up spending some time in jail over what started
as an HOA violation. We've seen people paying tens of
thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars collectively for legal
fees for what seemed like ridiculous disputes over HOA board
(01:20):
elections and things of that nature. And I really feel
like that this is something that affects a lot of Floridians.
This has been a topic that we've probably received more
feedback on than just about anything. I was on Dennis
Phillips Live Facebook is and you know, weekly broadcast the
(01:41):
other day and talking about that, and all the messages
just lit up of all the horror stories we're seeing
all over the place. It's just a topic that I
think people need to believe the legislature needs to address
because these hoas have been given so much latitude and
there's so much digital abuse there.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
How is this happening where things like a twenty five
dollars fine for a dirty mailbox or something is then
turning into like I know, this had happened in the
neighborhood I used to live in, where people would have
a fine like that that they wouldn't pay and they'd
end up with like an eight thousand dollars lean on
their home. How do how does it escalate like that?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, it happens in small steps, but it often happens.
So what usually happens, especially in larger HOA communities, is
they'll hire a management firm who will go out and
do the nightly patrols and look for those violations and
issue citations and give those people a certain amount of time,
usually thirty days to correct the violation. And if they
(02:41):
haven't proven that they collect corrected that violation, then it
escalates and at some point the lawyer gets involved and
he charges the HOA four hundred dollars an hour. So
the HOA passes along all those legal bills to the
homeowner and then eventually week and end up in court
as a lean, which which we found in one of
(03:03):
the stories that we're profiling in our special And it
doesn't take much to set all this in action. Let's
say you get a violation and maybe gets lost in
the mail and you don't realize that you're not incompliance,
and then all of a sudden it has gone further
downstream and you are facing these legal challenges from the
(03:23):
HOA attorney that works for the management company, and they
kind of can work hand in hand, and pretty soon
what starts out as a minor violation can become something
major in your house can end up on the courthouse
steps for an HOA lead.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
We're joined by Adam Wallser, Tampa Bay twenty eight investigative reporter.
He's part of an upcoming special on HOA battles across
the state, which you'll be able to watch on Monday
night on the Tampa Bay twenty eight app. It's also
going to be streaming at Tampa Bay twenty eight dot com.
So tell us about this South Florida lawmaker who is
(04:01):
looking at some potential proposals for this upcoming legislative session
to deal with some of this.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
That's right. Actually, you know a lot of our reporting
got attention of the lawmakers. We ran a story back
in July about a woman who had some brown grass
on her property. She thought she corrected it, but didn't
actually understand the whole process. What happened was she had
received some citations, was told to show up in court.
(04:30):
She went to court and the judge told her, hey,
correct these violations in the next thirty days and report
to me and these things will be resolved. What happened
was she missed the court appearance, so they put out
a warrant for her arrest and it was a civil citation,
but she ended up being arrested while taking your daughter
to school, and she spent a total of seven days
(04:55):
in jail without bond. She couldn't get anybody because it
was not a criminal violation. She couldn't find a judge
to issue bond. So finally her sister in law, who
was a paralegal, ended up going and filing an emergency
petition with the court. They took it to a different
judge who immediately set this woman free. Meanwhile, the HOA
(05:16):
attorney came to court to argue that she shouldn't be
let out of jail until her.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And I'm sure you know she was spending all that
time in jail, jail. She was spending time in jail.
She wasn't watering her lawn and so it was probably
getting brown.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, and was this was actually you know, during a drought.
She had a gigantic tree in her yard that was
sucking up all the water and nutrient. So it was
very difficult for her to maintain right well.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And in a drought, you can only water your grass so.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Often too, so figure it out. The water company, the county,
who may find you for watering yr lawn. And then
you've got the hy who's going to potentially throw you
in jail for not watering your lawn. And in that
same neighborhood we found the guy who had had to
rest his lawn like three times in a year. He
(06:09):
said it cost him almost ten grands you know, good bye,
And he kept having to put down more and more
sod and the HOA police would come by and inspect
and say, oh, that's not good enough, You've got to
replace it. One woman painted her house three times in
ten years. They talk about expenses, and because they didn't
meet their requirements or whatever, she repainted it. They came
(06:32):
back and looked and said, oh, there's still some painted spots.
You got to repent it again. So it's this kind
of stuff that really has people outraged. And after our
reporting on the brown grass, this thing went viral on
YouTube and ended up with over a million and a
half hits and then on TikTok and Instagram and everywhere else.
And one of the lawmakers from South Florida, one carlos Porus,
(06:55):
saw some of this, and in fact, he saw some
of the reaction in one of the comments on me
on the social media was I would rather live under
a bridge than under an HOA. And he actually put
that quote in his pressure announcing that he's looking at
at trying to do some serious reforms. And there was
a local group that actually went to Tallahassee earlier this
(07:17):
week and they were barching and in supportive of some
of these reforms. You know. Representative for us was to
band these things all together, but that's not a really
realistic venture because something like forty five percent of all
Floridians either live in an HOA or a condo association community,
so that's nine point five million people. And obviously hoa's
(07:40):
wind run right, serve a good purpose. They keep they
enforce the rules of the community. They keep people from
allowing their property being in disrepair. But sometimes these things
are not enforced, you know, unilatterly, you know, the the
HOA may pick on one neighbor or and and you
know give their other brand a path and that's part
of the problem here, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Adam Wallser Tampa Bay twenty eight investigative reporter that upcoming
special on these Hoa Battles. It's going to be Monday night.
You can watch it if you're in the Tampa Bay
area on Tampa Bay twenty eight. You could also catch
it at Tampa Bay twenty eight dot com and you
can stream it live on the Tampa Bay twenty eight app.
Adam really appreciate the time, looking forward to the special.
Thanks so much for coming on.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Right now, let's go to the highline and bring in
Tampa Bay twenty eight investigative reporter Adam Waltzer. You can
find all of his reporting in a whole lot more
at Tampa Bay twenty eight dot com. Adam, thanks so
much for taking a few minutes to come on the show,
and I want to talk to you about this issue
involving HOA reform. We have a South Florida lawmaker looking
(00:22):
to perhaps bring forward some changes during this upcoming legislative session.
You've been doing some reporting on HOA horror stories across
the state, and you have a special that's going to
air on Monday night about all of this.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
That's all right, Ryan, it's called Home Suite HOA, and
it's just kind of a play on the fact that
everyone moves into what they think is going to be
their dream home and then they find out it's becoming
a nightmare because of the HOA. And we've heard story
after story from people all over Florida about this happening.
And we've seen these egregious abuses of power by the HOA.
(01:00):
We've seen people who've been fined, even one lady who
ended up spending some time in jail over what started
as an HOA violation. We've seen people paying tens of
thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars collectively for legal
fees for what seemed like ridiculous disputes over HOA board
(01:20):
elections and things of that nature. And I really feel
like that this is something that affects a lot of Floridians.
This has been a topic that we've probably received more
feedback on than just about anything. I was on Dennis
Phillips Live Facebook is and you know, weekly broadcast the
(01:41):
other day and talking about that, and all the messages
just lit up of all the horror stories we're seeing
all over the place. It's just a topic that I
think people need to believe the legislature needs to address
because these hoas have been given so much latitude and
there's so much digital abuse there.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
How is this happening where things like a twenty five
dollars fine for a dirty mailbox or something is then
turning into like I know, this had happened in the
neighborhood I used to live in, where people would have
a fine like that that they wouldn't pay and they'd
end up with like an eight thousand dollars lean on
their home. How do how does it escalate like that?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, it happens in small steps, but it often happens.
So what usually happens, especially in larger HOA communities, is
they'll hire a management firm who will go out and
do the nightly patrols and look for those violations and
issue citations and give those people a certain amount of time,
usually thirty days to correct the violation. And if they
(02:41):
haven't proven that they collect corrected that violation, then it
escalates and at some point the lawyer gets involved and
he charges the HOA four hundred dollars an hour. So
the HOA passes along all those legal bills to the
homeowner and then eventually week and end up in court
as a lean, which which we found in one of
(03:03):
the stories that we're profiling in our special And it
doesn't take much to set all this in action. Let's
say you get a violation and maybe gets lost in
the mail and you don't realize that you're not incompliance,
and then all of a sudden it has gone further
downstream and you are facing these legal challenges from the
(03:23):
HOA attorney that works for the management company, and they
kind of can work hand in hand, and pretty soon
what starts out as a minor violation can become something
major in your house can end up on the courthouse
steps for an HOA lead.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
We're joined by Adam Wallser, Tampa Bay twenty eight investigative reporter.
He's part of an upcoming special on HOA battles across
the state, which you'll be able to watch on Monday
night on the Tampa Bay twenty eight app. It's also
going to be streaming at Tampa Bay twenty eight dot com.
So tell us about this South Florida lawmaker who is
(04:01):
looking at some potential proposals for this upcoming legislative session
to deal with some of this.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
That's right. Actually, you know a lot of our reporting
got attention of the lawmakers. We ran a story back
in July about a woman who had some brown grass
on her property. She thought she corrected it, but didn't
actually understand the whole process. What happened was she had
received some citations, was told to show up in court.
(04:30):
She went to court and the judge told her, hey,
correct these violations in the next thirty days and report
to me and these things will be resolved. What happened
was she missed the court appearance, so they put out
a warrant for her arrest and it was a civil citation,
but she ended up being arrested while taking your daughter
to school, and she spent a total of seven days
(04:55):
in jail without bond. She couldn't get anybody because it
was not a criminal violation. She couldn't find a judge
to issue bond. So finally her sister in law, who
was a paralegal, ended up going and filing an emergency
petition with the court. They took it to a different
judge who immediately set this woman free. Meanwhile, the HOA
(05:16):
attorney came to court to argue that she shouldn't be
let out of jail until her.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And I'm sure you know she was spending all that
time in jail, jail. She was spending time in jail.
She wasn't watering her lawn and so it was probably
getting brown.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, and was this was actually you know, during a drought.
She had a gigantic tree in her yard that was
sucking up all the water and nutrient. So it was
very difficult for her to maintain right well.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And in a drought, you can only water your grass so.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Often too, so figure it out. The water company, the county,
who may find you for watering yr lawn. And then
you've got the hy who's going to potentially throw you
in jail for not watering your lawn. And in that
same neighborhood we found the guy who had had to
rest his lawn like three times in a year. He
(06:09):
said it cost him almost ten grands you know, good bye,
And he kept having to put down more and more
sod and the HOA police would come by and inspect
and say, oh, that's not good enough, You've got to
replace it. One woman painted her house three times in
ten years. They talk about expenses, and because they didn't
meet their requirements or whatever, she repainted it. They came
(06:32):
back and looked and said, oh, there's still some painted spots.
You got to repent it again. So it's this kind
of stuff that really has people outraged. And after our
reporting on the brown grass, this thing went viral on
YouTube and ended up with over a million and a
half hits and then on TikTok and Instagram and everywhere else.
And one of the lawmakers from South Florida, one carlos Porus,
(06:55):
saw some of this, and in fact, he saw some
of the reaction in one of the comments on me
on the social media was I would rather live under
a bridge than under an HOA. And he actually put
that quote in his pressure announcing that he's looking at
at trying to do some serious reforms. And there was
a local group that actually went to Tallahassee earlier this
(07:17):
week and they were barching and in supportive of some
of these reforms. You know. Representative for us was to
band these things all together, but that's not a really
realistic venture because something like forty five percent of all
Floridians either live in an HOA or a condo association community,
so that's nine point five million people. And obviously hoa's
(07:40):
wind run right, serve a good purpose. They keep they
enforce the rules of the community. They keep people from
allowing their property being in disrepair. But sometimes these things
are not enforced, you know, unilatterly, you know, the the
HOA may pick on one neighbor or and and you
know give their other brand a path and that's part
of the problem here, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Adam Wallser Tampa Bay twenty eight investigative reporter that upcoming
special on these Hoa Battles. It's going to be Monday night.
You can watch it if you're in the Tampa Bay
area on Tampa Bay twenty eight. You could also catch
it at Tampa Bay twenty eight dot com and you
can stream it live on the Tampa Bay twenty eight app.
Adam really appreciate the time, looking forward to the special.
Thanks so much for coming on.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
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