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Man, homeowners association in war of words

It started with a dispute over a bill. Now he's angry, he's got a newsletter and it's getting ugly.

By EMILY NIPPS
Published December 10, 2006

TAMPA - The newsletters went to 1,100 homes in the Pebble Creek neighborhood one day in late October. They had the familiar clip art logo of a heron perched in some grass and The Pebble Creek Newsletter masthead.

But this was no friendly neighborhood bulletin. This was the first edition of "The Dark Side," written by Robert T. Kelly, who lives on Otterwood Avenue and is, apparently, the wrong guy to mess with.

The Pebble Creek Homeowners Association hired Kelly earlier this year for a number of handyman jobs, including repairing the community's south entrance wall. That was where the trouble started. There were disputes about the bill, which was more than the association wanted to pay. Harsh words were exchanged.

Then in late September, Kelly got a final notice from Pebble Creek's property management company, warning him to replace his grass or else. He says it was the first and only notice. What's more, the grass had already been replaced a few months earlier.

Kelly snapped. He spent a week and hundreds of dollars crafting a six-page battle cry, targeted mostly at the homeowners association president.

Tanya Heires has created yet another enemy and continues to divide this community with her Gestapo-like antics and misrepresentation of the facts, Kelly stated on Page 5 of his newsletter. She utilizes the Pebble Creek Newsletter like the very rich and powerful utilize CNBC to mislead the public about what's going on in our economy and markets.

The Pebble Creek Homeowners Association fired back with a letter from its attorney, threatening legal action against Kelly for running a business out of his home in violation of Pebble Creek bylaws.

It also said Kelly was "creating a nuisance via harassment of members of the board" and broke a federal law by putting some of the newsletters in U.S. mailboxes.

That only infuriated Kelly more. Acting as his own attorney, he sent an eight-page response to association attorney Antonio Duarte, threatening to sue the association for selective enforcement of the bylaws. He attached a list of 80 other Pebble Creek residents that had business licenses registered to their home addresses and urged Duarte to go after them as well.

"Your letter has neither deterred nor intimidated me," Kelly said in his letter.

This is just the beginning. He said he filed complaints with the Florida Bar and the American Civil Liberties Union. He hinted that more newsletters are coming.

He sent write-in ballots to everyone in Pebble Creek, urging them to vote him onto the homeowners association board. He lost, with fewer than 20 votes. But Kelly is suspicious of the voting process and plans to go door-to-door to survey people about their ballots.

"He's somebody that has a lot of time on his hands, apparently," Duarte said, speaking for the association. "I told the board members to ignore him and he'll go away. It hasn't worked."

If Kelly keeps it up, the association might have to file suit, Duarte said. One homeowner approached Duarte at the last board meeting and said that Kelly walked up to her at a garage sale and handed her the newsletter.

"She said, 'I don't want this,' and he got very belligerent," Duarte said. "Maybe I can't pursue the business aspect in a lawsuit, but the nuisance aspect is there. People are scared of him."

Pebble Creek homeowners should hope it doesn't get that far. Attorney's fees come out of their pocket, as happened with a February lawsuit involving a homeowner and the association. The dispute was over who should pay for a $2,000 resodding job and resulted in more than $100,000 in legal fees for homeowners.

In most cases, a letter from an attorney is enough to quell a neighborhood issue before it gets out of control. But not in this case and certainly not with Kelly, who has vowed to fight the association board members until the bitter end.

"I want them to come crawling on their hands and knees," Kelly said. "I want an apology and I want them all off the board."

Kelly believes he is saving the community from ruin and that no one will stand up to the board like he will. He's doing this, he said, for the homeowners.

That's puzzling to the homeowners association, because Kelly doesn't own his home.

He rents.

[Last modified December 10, 2006, 00:53:19]