Property Managers Appear to Be Prominent in Legal Battle for Free Guest Cards

Did you know that unit owners are actively engaged in a legal battle with the Association? This is obviously concerning. Upon deeper examination of the data, though, these petitioners appear to be affiliated with three major property management companies operating within the Roney (see data) who have joined forces to sue the Association, demanding, among other things, free guest cards.

Many of the units managed by these three companies, the data reveals, have patterns of high guest card usage. Common sense dictates that this can be a strong indicator of illegal overnight rentals. While the current Board has been frustratingly inept at enforcing rules regarding these rentals, in the eyes of those suing the Roney, this isn't enough.

Who are the Petitioners?

Guest card data shows that the majority of the units involved in the lawsuit are affiliated with Be My Guest, Live Miami, and Juventino Santillan. These entities are unit-owner run and are believed to act in the capacity of property managers at the Roney for large numbers of units.

Recently, troubling information has begun to surface about some of these property managers. Thanks to the amazing work of Code Compliance a unit owner was notified that their unit, which was rented to Juventino Santillan, receveid a code violation for being illegally sublet. It also come to light that this same unit owner may have been named as a petitioner in the legal suit without his awareness or consent. This clearly warrants further investigation by our Board and Association Counsel.

The owner of Be My Guest also received a citation from Code Compliance for violating the terms of their BTR license on one of his units - these terms prohibit rentals for less than 30 days. Property managers who are proven to violate our rules and regulations should not be tolerated and the Board should be taking clear steps to ban their operations from the Roney. Being a unit owner does not protect them from repurcussions of unscrupulous buisness activity.

Sanctioning property mangers does not require a fining committee. Even so the Board has so far refused to convene a fining committee and they have reduced guest card fees to $50. The combination of these two actions have only served to facilitate problematic illegal overnight rental behavior. Had they not reduced fees, this group of petitioners would owe the Association over $600,000 annually. Take a look at the data which includes details of the units involved in the lawsuit, guest card usage per unit, and their affiliations with property managers who stand to benefit the most from free guest cards, at the expense of their client's and the community's best interests.

We will continue to investigate these property managers and reach out to unit owners to make sure they are not being falsely implicated in this lawsuit. We will also continue to relentlessly pressure the Board and Association Counsel to take meaningful action to enforce our rules and regulations and protect the Roney from bad actors who abuse the property for personal gain.