Condos squeeze deadbeat residents
Rosa Mendoza’s upstairs neighbor quit making his condo association payments almost a year ago. He bought another home and let his unit slide into foreclosure.
What irks Mendoza — no, infuriates her — is that, as the foreclosure process drags on, the neighbor continues using the Miami Beach condo as a weekend getaway, even keeping his sailboat tied to the dock.
”What I would love to do is untie that boat of his and let it float away,” Mendoza said. “I would never do it, but I fantasize about it.”
Well into the second year of South Florida’s foreclosure crisis, deadbeat condo owners are taking a heavy toll on associations like Mendoza’s. Owners in or facing foreclosure often stop paying their condo fees that are needed to pay for essential utilities and services. That leaves other residents on the hook to pay the difference.