A large part of becoming a homeowner is having to pay for expensive repairs to your home. But what if you are informed you are responsible for repairing a community fixture that does not belong to you, such as a park fence?
That is Sirrita Rubiano’s dilemma. During Hurricane Milton, her South Park III community’s plastic park fence collapsed. Some of it backs up to her house.
Rubiano told ABC Action News WFTS Tampa Bay that she has been asked to pay $7,000 in repairs to fix it, which she does not afford as a single mother or widow.
Who pays for the infrastructure?
Rubiano emailed the Community Development District (CDD) board to request that they cover the expenditures. CDDs are rather widespread in Florida, and they use property taxes to finance, run, and maintain community-wide infrastructure and services.
Rubiano pays more than $2,000 in property taxes each year, and her CDD board has an annual budget of $1.3 million to maintain the community.
“This is something that I feel like they could easily remediate,” Mr. Rubio added.
Inframark, the business that manages the CDD, claims to have a “unwavering commitment to resident satisfaction with comprehensive services and support.”
The CDD board advised her that the repairs were her duty, not theirs, despite the fact that fence repair was on the board’s recent agenda, and records show that the CDD has previously paid to remove or repair fences between residences and communal properties.
In fact, Rubiano questioned why the board wanted her to pay for fence repairs this time when she was not requested to do so following Hurricane Ian, when the same fence collapsed and was restored.
The board responded that it could have been good Samaritans who rebuilt the fence following Hurricane Ian, and that it was her responsibility to pay this time.
Draw the line on a fence.
According to Florida attorney Stephen Hachey, fence conflicts are one of the most regular complaints he receives at his legal practice. He suggested Rubiano get a survey to establish if the fence is actually on her land.
If the community wanted to lawfully erect a fence on her land, they would need to obtain an easement. However, county records do not reveal one.
“Her options are either — one, pay $7,000 out of pocket to get the fence repaired, or two — pay a couple of hundred dollars out of pocket to get a survey showing the fence isn’t on your property,” he told me.
Rubiano claims she cannot afford either option.
ABC Action News contacted the CDD to request documents on Rubiano’s park fence, including invoices from when it was installed to when it was repaired, as those records should be made public. However, as of this writing, the CDD has not yet reacted.
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