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Loathe thy neighbor
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer
INDIAN ROCKS BEACH -- His condo neighbors say it's an eyesore. Lou Rector calls it his act of civil disobedience. His 600-square-foot yard is overgrown. He tosses any spare palm branch he can find onto it. Then he adds leaves and other debris to the mix. Throw in a bicycle, and Rector's got an old-fashioned protest brewing in his front yard. "This is absurd," Rector admits. Rector, 53, doesn't mow his lawn because his condominium association makes him pay someone else to do it. But he contends that the condo board can't make him use the hired lawn man because according to his condominium's deed, he owns his lawn. He once called the Sheriff's Office when the lawn man tried to mow his lawn, and had the lawn man issued a trespass warning. "It became a matter of principle. It's my property," said Rector, who lives at La Hacienda condominiums on East Gulf Boulevard in Indian Rocks Beach. "I cut the trees and I cut the palms and I've got to pay this guy to do a mowing job?" So far the principle Rector is standing on has cost him more than $10,500 in lawyer fees and court judgments. At one point, the condominium board garnisheed his personal checking account to get the money he owed. Lawyers told the judge they did so because Rector had "no visible assets," even though he has a boat at his dock and a BMW in his garage. "That's when this thing got heated," Rector said. Now the issue is back in court, with Rector trying to get an injunction to stop the association from passing a budget that includes a line item for lawn maintenance. Lawyers for the association say Rector already lost this case in court once. "You can't litigate it twice," said Steven Mezer, a Tampa lawyer who represents the condominium association. Meanwhile, life around the condos is uncomfortable, with Rector's messy lawn and charges from neighbors that he is harassing them. Rector has claims of his own against his neighbors. The city of Indian Rocks Beach even tried to step into the fray when, this summer, Rector's grass became so high that neighbors started complaining. After realizing the complications, the city elected to let the courts handle the situation. Rector admits he once slit a neighbor's garden hose because it had crossed over Rector's property line while the neighbor was watering his lawn. Rector points out, however, that he warned the neighbor before he did it, and the neighbor started the problem by photographing Rector cleaning fish on his dock. The condominium board recently restricted when musical instruments can be played. Residents had complained that Rector was playing the piano at odd hours to bother his neighbors. Rector said he never intended to bother anyone with his practicing. But he adds that the controversy over the piano indicates how bad neighborly relations have gotten at the condo. "I play the sweetest, loveliest music," he said. "These people used to sit in my back yard with their coffee and listen to me play." Besides, Rector says, this dispute isn't about his personality but his property rights. The situation began a few years ago, when Rector was changing his homeowner's insurance and was asked whether he had any uninsured contractors doing maintenance work. The lawn man didn't have insurance, so Rector began withholding his payments to the board and started mowing his yard himself. For 18 months, he paid $147 in condominium fees instead of the required $160. He deducted $13 based on the condominium's budget for paying the lawn man. Then, the condo board sued to foreclose on Rector's property. Rector paid them the assessments the condo said he owed, then sued. He tried to convince a judge that the board has no authority to determine who can be on his property, even if the person is sitting atop a lawnmower. "I own the land," Rector said, "and no one has the right to tell me to pay someone else to mow my property." But La Hacienda's lawyers don't even try to claim the condo owns the lawn. They say the contract with the lawn man, who owns two condominiums at La Hacienda, was signed so long ago that Rector has no right to challenge it. And who signed the original contract hiring the lawn man in the mid 1990s? Rector himself. "Of all people, he probably shouldn't hurry to complain about this," said Mezer, the condo's lawyer, "because he participated in the contract." Rector says that shouldn't matter. That the contract he signed was illegal. That he only did it because the board outvoted him and he was the president at the time. "I want the neighbors to focus on the real issue," he said. "I'm a property owner, and I have a right to mow my own property."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Dr. Delay Letters |
