Condo Residents Throughout South Florida Face The Boot As Delinquent Water Bills Force Cities To Consider Service Shutoffs

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• Diela Narrabe may be forced to leave her Deerfield Beach condo next month, even though she's done everything right. Narrabe is one of 28 unit owners — out of 168 — in the Deerfield Palms condo association who still pay their monthly maintenance fees, which are used to pay the community's water bill.(1)

• Residents owe the city $90,000. If they don't pay $12,929 by the first week of March, the city is threatening to turn off the water. Because the community has master meters rather than individual unit gauges, the city can't separate owners who are current on their bills from delinquent customers. If the water goes away, so will Narrabe, a golf club employee and mother of two who says she could not afford both her mortgage and rent on another place.

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• Associations with unpaid utility bills also are an issue in Coral Springs, Lauderhill, Boca Raton and Tamarac, and the problem is likely to spread as joblessness and foreclosures keep climbing.

For more, see Deerfield Beach may shut off water at condo that owes $90,000 (At Deerfield Palms, only 28 units out of 168 pay maintenance fees).

See also:

• WFOR-TV Channel 4: Condo Crunch As City Threatens Water Cutoff (Foreclosures, Unpaid Dues Strain Condo Boards),
• South Florida Sun Sentinel: Deerfield condo residents face water cutoff.

(1) According to the story, Armando Fana, director of the Miami office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, estimated more than 80 units in Deerfield Palms are in some form of foreclosure. The community cannot afford a lawyer to chase maintenance fees, said condo board president David Brenelus; nor could the association purchase foreclosed units and pay those monthly fees. homeowner association