Another Homeowner Battling Misguided Condo Board

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that another Fort Lauderdale condominium association board of directors has again picked on the wrong person. A condo association at The Port Condominium, who originally prohibited one of its residents from attaching a small Jewish religious symbol known as a Mezuzah on her front door is now backpeddling and has allowed her to do so. Further, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's office, through its civil rights division, has jumped into the battle and has given the association until 5:00 pm Thursday to change its rules so all its Jewish residents can hang mezuzahs. If that isn't enough, R. Alexander Acosta, the U.S. Attorney in Florida's Southern District has announced that his office has assigned an attorney in the Fort Lauderdale office to take a careful look at the facts in this matter and determine if a federal lawsuit would be appropriate.

The association's rule prohibits anyone from attaching, hanging, affixing or displaying anything on the exterior walls, doors, balconies and windows, which are considered common property controlled by the association. Reportedly, however, it was not uncommon for some residents to hang Christmas wreaths on their front doors without anybody bellyaching about it.

This is another example of a condo association board of directors' common sense taking a "leave of absence", doing something ridiculous, and in the process, exposing all of the unit owners to monetary liability for damages from a possible Fair Housing lawsuit for doing something stupid, thinking that they could bully someone and get away with it.

It hasn't been a good week for South Florida condo associations. I reported Wednesday on a wheelchair-bound, 85 year old widow with a failing memory who is also getting bullied by a condo association because her caretakers haven't been screened and approved by the condo association's board of directors. In my view, all the unit owners in this case are being exposed to potential monetary liability for a possible Americans' With Disabilities Act lawsuit simply because of a condo association board of directors' inability to apply common sense to a relatively simple fact pattern. The wheelchair-bound widow has elected to fight back. See 85 Year Old Widow Battling Condo Association.

For more on today's story, see Florida attorney general orders Lauderdale condo to allow Jewish mezuzahs on doors (no longer available online).

For a prior story on this case, see Condo board's stance against mezuzah is totally meshuganeh (no longer available online).

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