The HOA Attorney Exposing What Most Residents Don't Know | Erik Perez

Oh my god. Listen Jay, I'm liking this Jay. I got a shout out to my new producer back there, Jay. And look and looking very sharp.

Very like a producer outfit.

A lot of a lot of the people in this office should start, you know, taking pointers from from from my man Jay.

He's been taking pointers from you.

No. Well, that's fine. But, you know, but he he just got here from me.

He just got here from Japan.

Yeah.

Anyway, well, we're back. We have another episode and we got a good one here. We got Eric Perez in a day in Miami podcast and Perez

Mayor Mayor Mayor

Pis mayoral if you wanted to say it in Spanish.

You know what? I like it better in Spanish. My Spanish is much better. Peris mayoral. It's very mayoral.

We've been on a hot streak this year. We've gone like back to back to back.

But don't be don't be patting yourself on that.

No, I'm saying good guest. This is good guest. We have good guests.

Yeah. No, no. This is This has been very

This is elite.

Elite. Yeah. Elite. So, and then very hot topics. And this is one of my actually favorite topics. I'm actually the president of my association.

Oh, don't be saying that too loud. Right now, there's a lot of stuff going on with that.

Actually, I got I got service for you right here.

That would have been a good one. I mean, listen, that would have been good right here. We'll be recording that.

You know, it is it is a hot topic. It is a hot topic. It's on the news. I mean, we just saw something happen yesterday.

And you know what? A lot of people don't understand how it happens or why it happens or you know so this is a good one. Eric and for those people who don't know you tell us a little about yourself.

Well my name is Eric Perez. I am one of the shareholders at Perez Mayoral PA and one of the co-founders of the law firm. And our law firm is located in Coral Gables Florida. And what we do is we represent homeowners against their HOAs and condo associations. oftent times issues will arise that homeowners will face with our homeowners association and a few of them would uh are for some examples are basically maintenance issues. So sometimes and and this is a call we get almost on a daily basis. Sometimes you live in a condo association uh and the association may not be maintaining the roof or the exterior wall. Uh we live here in South Florida as you know rains almost every day here

and as a result of the rain uh there's water intrusion coming into homeowners units. the homeowner will contact the property manager or the board members or the board president and the board president will tell them to go kick rocks or call your insurance company and then that's how we get those phone calls where the homeowners want their home repaired. You know, they worked hard, that's their investment. So, that's uh one of the primary types of cases that we handle, but we also handle a lot of cases involving just general governance disputes. You'll see associations all the time harassing homeowners with fines. You know, I've seen thousands of dollars in fines for silly things like putting a chair on your front porch uh or having uh something on your front lawn that the board president may not agree with. Sometimes it's a personal vendetta that uh a board member may have with a homeowner. So, we represent homeowners on maintenance disputes, governance disputes, assessment disputes. Oftent times homeowners are in foreclosure and the associations are tacking on fees that are just outrageous. you know, hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in attorney's fees for a homeowner that's been in foreclosure for just a few months. Um, so we represent homeowners in those types of disputes and we only represent homeowners. We get calls from associations pretty often and we turn those down cuz we are the homeowners representation law firm and and that's really all we do. Uh, we advocate for the homeowners and all the disputes that they may face.

Yeah. Listen, you're the homeowners association's worst nightmare and that's your tagline. Well, but yeah, but yes and no because sometimes I mean at the end of the day some of these people that own these places, you know, some of those people don't have the full resources sometimes to find the church.

Yeah. How does that work?

You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Do they bring a retainer? How do you work?

So it's a very good question. So

before you say

if you are having situation right now with your homeowner association, how can someone reach out to you and how does the process work for them to actually retain you?

Absolutely. So, if you're facing an issue with your homeowners association as as u as the question that was asked, you may think, "Oh, this is a very difficult battle. This is an expensive battle. This is impossible. I won't be able to fight this." You know, I'm going to go ahead and let the association just invade my rights essentially is what these associations do. And and they don't they control you and they don't let you fight back. But, um it's actually more economic than you may think. And there are certain types of cases that we take on a contingency fee basis which means that we don't get paid on the front end. We only get paid if we win the case.

That's very important for everybody to to know that. That's very important because a lot of people get intimidated by that and then you know they think we're the smaller fish. You know it's people that work day you know dayto day to make ends meet and then they say how am I going to fight these big you know corporations that own these things. So, that's very important and that's great that there's attorneys like you for that.

And I'm sure that not all homeowner association attorneys probably operate the same way you guys do. You know, they're probably there's probably, you know, predatory attorneys out there that just taking in, get the fees, hey, nothing can be done and cows out.

Oh, absolutely. So, there's we inherit a lot of cases from prior council, prior attorneys that were working up the case that clearly don't have the experience and the knowledge to deal with these sort of cases. They may just be friends with the homeowner. They may have mutual friends with the homeowner and the case becomes an absolute catastrophe before we ultimately inherit it from the prior attorney and we have to come in and fix things. So often times there's attorneys that handle these sort of cases that this is not necessarily what they do. They take their best shot at it and um you know homeowners are taking risks when they hire those sort of people. Uh conversely we do this at scale. We have hundreds, we've handled thousands of cases representing homeowners. You know, this is what we do every single day, hundreds of times a day. So, to answer your question in terms of what the process is like, so once you contact us, uh you will be set for a consultation sometime within a day or two, and you'll have a consultation from a seasoned attorney, someone with at least 10 to 15 years experience who will go through your case with you. Okay? And once you have that consultation, the attorney will explain what the options are. Sometimes the option is pursuing a contingency case where you simply sign up, you hire us, and we sue your association for property damage. Usually the property damage disputes are the contingency ones. Now, if it's a governance dispute, something like fines, assessments, uh things of that nature that are not related to property damage, then we take those cases on an hourly retainer agreement. Now,

you don't have to be there's a misconception out there that you have to be a rich person to hire an attorney. Absolutely. That's exactly what we started with. Yeah.

Yeah. You absolutely do not have to be a rich person to hire an attorney. Uh as a matter of fact, uh our consult our our our hourly rates are lower than the average uh similarly sized law firm. Um and there's no telling when these disputes get resolved. It's not uncommon for us to send out a letter and the dispute gets resolved after a couple hundred in attorney's fees.

Yeah. You know what, Eric? One of the things that really, you know, that I like is the fact of going back to what you said that if you come and see you guys, you're going to you're going to talk to actual attorney that's seasoned in this, you know, because it's very important for people because I can tell you from past experiences with anything that you go to go see a law firm or attorneys and they start you off. Nothing wrong with the fact of, you know, the the the maybe the PA or somebody just, you know, starting, but there's, you know, you want to go there and feel that, you know, you're going to give your case to somebody that really knows what they're talking about and not the fact of I'm going to go ahead and, you know, advise our our senior attorneys. I like the fact that you say that everybody's, you know, you're you're going to see and you're going to attend to the person immediately and those people, especially what we've been seeing. I mean, right now, we were talking off air. Look at everything I just saw yesterday. our our state attorney's office do a press conference with something else that was going on. You know, I think that had to do with a homeowners association as well. No. And the fact of a lot of that things going on that maybe these people are not, you know, they're they're they're keeping the money but they're not to your point, they're not, you know, giving the services back to the homeowners,

you know. So, I mean, is is that something in the sense that that is we're seeing in a constant basis? I mean, I'm seeing this whole thing of the state attorneys cracking down on this. Yeah. Yeah.

To to add to that, like I think people like us that were kind of more involved, you know, we might know how Elbe or how the hustle is done, you know? So, I want you to tell the people out there that maybe don't, you know, they're working their day-to-day lives. They're not worried about this stuff. How is it that someone could take advantage of a homeowner association in the case that we just saw that just happened in Miami Beach? Like, what are the things that people do um that would require getting you guys involved? So these situations that you see on the news are actually more common sadly than one would think. Uh you know I've I've having done this for many years I've seen it all. You know I have some we have some outrageous stories of situations involving you. We'll get the stories later. But

I've seen

we don't have to say companies. We could just say you know

I mean I've seen uh hard rock bet charges on HOA balance sheets. I've seen I've seen payments to uh family members of members of the board.

Uh straight up payments like straight up from straight up straight up checks from the association to board members.

Do they at least say they did something?

No, they don't really.

Well, the hard rock bed is a

they try to like get some more returns for the company association. Guys, we're going to get this painting job. You know, I going to put $20,000 on. Can we all vote on this please? Who votes on voting on I'm betting on these people?

Give us some more. This is crazy. I would never have expected that.

So, to answer your question, I mean the as a homeowner where you need us is when you see the association starts asking for more money than they already have. If you see you're getting hit with a special assessment, if your assessments are going up year-over-year and you're asking yourself, why are these payments going up? You know, nothing's changed. The amenities are the same. The conditions of the property are the same. Why am I paying more money? Well, there's a chance that the association may be misappropriating the common fund or misspending the association's money. And so, as a as a homeowner, what a lot of pe what home a lot of homeowners do not know is you have the right to demand an inspection of all of the association's records. Okay? And that includes the bank statements, that includes any contracts the association has, that includes anything related to financials uh involving the association. So, as I was telling you earlier, I've seen uh hard rock bed charges. I've seen check checks to family members. Um I've seen overpayment, just things that are not supposed to be as expensive as as uh as as was paid by the association. So, contractors who are charging like 10 times the standard price. And why are they charging 10 times the standard price? Well, you know, the the the assumption people make is that it could be a kickback 100%. So, we see that type of these types of things all the time. Listen, I'm the president of my association. I was telling you guys earlier and I think I have a good association, you know, um management company. They've always and even then they go and they get three quotes and I will still go just cuz I don't know who they're working with and I don't know what the deal is. I'm sure they're getting commission, which is fine, whatever, you know, I don't know that's legal or not legal. Um, I will still go and get a quote on my end just to be sure that those three quotes are around the same line item. Most people don't get don't participate in in in that. Is it possible for like should homeowners be participating in that? Do is that happening during the monthly meetings? Um, how can people get more involved if they want to make sure that this is not happening to them?

So, like anything else, you know, there's good ones and bad ones. There's good associations and there's bad associations. You didn't know me until today, so you're probably in a good one. Yeah.

U but as a homeowner, what you need to do is empower yourself. You need to take control of your rights within the association. And as I mentioned earlier, you have the right to inspect all association records within a condo. You also have the right to submit written inquiries. And the association must respond to your questions

within a certain amount of days or

within a certain amount of days. Exactly. Right. So, you have statutory rights as a homeowner. You can request records. You can submit written inquiries. If you live in a condo association, you can attend the meetings. Okay. I've seen situations where homeowners are actually kicked out of the meetings. Okay. I had a situation where home

I can see that happening.

I can see that and you know sometimes it'll be uh you know an an overly aggressive you know interesting character type homeowner

who's not going to get heated up in those meetings.

Absolutely.

You know I I could just see it happening.

Yeah. So you know sometimes the associations will try to kick you out of those meetings or sometimes they'll tell you you can't record. Okay. and you're in a public setting,

unless there's a rule against it, you can absolutely record within a public setting.

I haven't seen the meta glasses. They can just put on metal glasses,

right? Throw on the meta glasses. If you're a homeowner, buy metag glasses and go to the meeting.

Brother, do you do do you see do you see like do you see more areas in the county? Like, let's talk about, you know, Day County. Do you see like more of these cases coming up in Kendo or in Bickl or in downtown or Homestead? Like, where do you see a lot of stuff?

Are we are we profiling

Halia? Why? Why? Why? I love Hyalia.

So, so speaking uh with regards to Hleia, I I can tell you we've had some very good success stories out of Hy Alleia where there's been a board that has just been absolutely taking advantage of homeowners and a homeowner from several homeowners from Halia have contacted us in the past in in many different situations where we put pressure on the association by requesting records, by submitting written inquiries, uh by sending out demand letters and things of that nature. and we've been able to get those sort of board members to step down and replace them with the good members of the association that want to be on the board and run things appropriately. So to answer your question, there is no specific location or municipality where it has more instances of HOA abuses than other. We have cases in Tallahassee, we have cases in Tampa, we have cases in the Keys. Um so all across the state of Florida, uh there are these sort of issues for homeowners. I will say that um Florida is actually the second biggest state as it pertains to HOAs. California is number one, Florida is number two, but per capita, Florida is actually number one. So in terms of how many people there are, Florida is number one for HOAs.

Question, did we see a lot of increase in that after what happened in in the beach with the with the building?

Absolutely. That was, you know, the surf, you know, in the sense of

I mean, when you look at when you look at these pictures, when you when you look at the pictures of people that were sending pictures to the, you know, residents with the water, the the, you know, you can see the rebar from and the parking.

I mean, that was something that really had to say people need to wake up. And again, did you see like a whole bunch of more increase in the people of homeowners, you know, putting forth saying, "Look at my building, look at this building, and this, you know, the HOA is not doing anything about it."

Yeah, absolutely. 100%. I would say, you know, Surfside was absolutely a tragedy and and a shocking one, you know, an unprecedented one that arose here in in in Miami. And what I would say is that it changed not only kind of the the human psyche behind uh home ownership and living in an association, but the law now has changed multiple times as a result of Surfside. So there's been the initial changes in the law. There's been additional changes kind of going back and changing certain things from the original law that passed, right? Uh and right now uh this isn't necessarily as a result of Surfside although in part it may be uh but HB657 uh is now being debated and discussed among amongst legislators. Um

explain that what's Yeah,

HB657 uh which was proposed by Representative Porus um who is a strong advocate for for homeowners and and a friend of ours as well u proposed HB657. It has essentially three major components to it. Okay, the first major component to it and kind of the sexy one that you'll see in the news all the time is that it allows homeowners to get rid of their HOA. So, you can actually eliminate the HOA and that's like the the

by voting or Right. Exactly. There's a process a voting process for that's really interesting.

That's a very interesting one. Now, there's a lot of positives and there's a lot of negatives that could come from that

to manage an association too, you know.

Absolutely. I mean, it's like essentially imagine getting rid of the board of directors of Coca-Cola or something like that. Who's going to take control? Who's going to run things? U who's going to make sure people are still in order and things like that.

Unless it's like a really lowmaintenance association, I don't see how that's going to

you. My my personal opinion on it is for the smaller communities that are like 20, 30, maybe even up to 50 homes, I I see it as a possibility.

Um but for the larger communities, just the logistics of you have a pool, you have

correct. I I would think it'd be very difficult. But in addition to that, they're also uh proposing a new homeowners court. So they're proposing a new division for just HOA in association related issues. So just like there's a family division, you know, family judges

fasttracks things,

right? It'll fasttrack things. I I presume the idea is it'll give it more reliability because it'll be the same judges making, you know, decisions on the same sort of issues. So that's one of the major components of it as well. And then lastly, and this is a thing not a lot of homeowners know about. Um there's something known as Kaufman language within association law. And basically what it means is that if your declaration has Kaufman language as the law changes, okay, you can get the benefit of the changes of the law. Okay. Some covenants.

Yeah. You're just not tied into whatever that was before that it will change automatically. Correct. You're not grandfathered on this issue or something like that

essentially. So as the law changes, you get the benefit of the new law. But not all covenants have that. So there are some absurd cases and situations that we have had in the past where a association was created in the 70s or 80s, okay, without Kaufman language and there's a dispute that arises with a homeowner and an association and the homeowner saying, "Well, this new law passed. This benefits me. I should be able to enforce my rights with this new law." And we have to look at the covenants of the association. Tell the homeowner, unfortunately, that doesn't apply to you. We have to look at the law in 1970 or 1980 when your association was created and that's what applies to you.

And where where are we with that thing, right? Where where are we with that HP?

So, it's being uh discussed and changes are being proposed. It's in uh

so we still haven't passed that. That's just that's where that's in Tallahassee.

That's in Tallahassee still. And there's also uh SB906 and SB908. Okay. uh which essentially what the legislators are trying to do is create uh an association of budsmen essentially a kind of like complaint line homeowners can go to to have their questions uh answered and to potentially address some issues but you know yeah but you know what I like about this we you know and this is the stuff that I that that I try and get our our viewers and our listeners to understand these are things that people don't even know that's going on because half of this community doesn't even know what's going on in Tallahassee

you know I mean not that we're here to like but We try, this is what we're trying to do. We try to inform people what's going on. I think it's important, very important

for, you know, all our day in Miami family to understand what what is he, is he a representative, the the gentleman that you talked about?

Yeah, absolutely. You know, of what he's trying to propose. And I think it's important for people to know that if he's proposing this, he needs he needs that support, you know, for our viewers to say, "Hey, we, you know, call and and support him, you know, and call other representatives, call their representatives to support whatever, you know, a law he's trying to to to to make that happen because I think that's that that's important. Sometimes these things don't these things happen in Tallahassee and nobody even knows what happened."

No, this this type of stuff gets major support cuz, you know, it affects all of us, you know. But that I mean just what you're saying I didn't even know about that.

To add to that they the this year my association required me to do a test online in order for me to be continue being part of the board. Is that something new or has that this is the first time they do you know about that or no?

Yeah. So that's been in in the law for some time. You need to have the once you become elected to the board you need to have some classes that you take uh to make sure that you have the background knowledge to become

well I was here for seven years the first time they made me

I guess they weren't enforcing it. Maybe, maybe that. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe your covenants have language that says that you need to do it every time you're

Yeah. Or maybe you were skipping that test. I'm not telling anybody we're skipping the test, but that's besides the point, right?

I don't know. No glory president association. It's a mission sometimes. But you get the eye on it. So you know what's going on. And not for nothing. I've had occasions where contractors have come to me and say, "Hey." And I'm like, "No, listen." When the way they say, "Hey, listen. I'll give you something on the side." I say, "Listen, I appreciate it, but give the discount to association." Right.

And then I negotiate even further with them, you know.

Well, because regardless whatever's going to happen, one of those are going to say, "Hey, I took care of that president. You're going to get screwed one way or the other."

You know, one of the one of the questions I saw here that's interesting to me and I think it's great for all the the the Miami P. What you put here, what signs could Miami residents, you know, be ignoring before an an assessment hits them? Like, you know, what some of these people just get assessment, they go, "Whoa, what the hell was that?" You know, when did this happen? How how should one be more diligent about this?

Yes, special assessments are certainly a hot topic in the state of Florida and that's when most homeowners become concerned and reach out to people like myself. And what I would say is there's a few things you could do before it gets to that point to kind of protect yourself from the association. I would say step number one is you need to do your due diligence. You need to request association records. You need to identify the financials and you need to see kind of the story they show. Where's the money going? What do what does the budget look like year-over-year? Are expenses going up? Are expenses going down? Um, now you have the 20, 30, 40, 50 year reertification process. Take a look at your building and just from looking at it, you can tell are there going to need to be substantial repairs or not. Um, so um, you want to look at the financials, you want to look at the condition of the building. Um, you want to talk to your board members, you know, if you can submit written inquiries if you live in a condo association. Um, and what I would say is that particularly when you're buying within an association, cuz as you, as you all may know, um, almost all of the properties that are being developed now in particularly in Miami are usually in an association. Very few single family homes being developed, um, mostly condo associations and HOAs out west typically. And so, you want to look before buying, you want to look to the financials. You want to see uh what the budget looks like in the association. You want to talk to neighbors and ask them what it's like been living in that community. Um you know, more recently, one of the ones that comes to mind, uh when it was developed, um I have friends that live there that are homeowners, the Paramount building in downtown. When it was developed, it was like a dream. It was like a beautiful spa,

um you know, amazing gym, all facility, soccer field, you know, pool on the 50some floor all the way up there. beautiful view up there. And now they're getting hit with crazy assessments. Um, from what I've been told,

what's a crazy assessment?

I have a friend who pays 2,000 a month uh just to live there. Just the the regular monthly assessment. Yeah.

Damn.

Yeah.

That's heavy, man.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's becoming outrageously expensive. And before you invest in one of these properties and buy them either for your home or as an investment, you really should look at the financials of the community and take a look at the condition of the property and ask all the questions you need to ask before you sign on the line and close. And

is that something you guys you you guys your firm can help people as well?

Absolutely. We can we provide consultations on that all the time. Sometimes homeowners that uh two situations may arise for home for for individuals that want to become homeowners in an association. Sometimes they're having issues getting approval. Okay. I've had situations where, and this is a pretty crazy one. I had one where the association rejected the buyer because she had uh traffic citations. She had like three traffic citations.

No way. This is illegal. No.

So So it does not comply with the law. I I would say that there was no basis for the board to do that.

It It drove me absolutely insane. I lost my mind over the issue because I felt so bad for this lady.

I felt so bad for this lady. She was buying the property.

She was trying to buy the property, they would do the fact of, you know, I mean, if you tell me it was, you know, anybody, you know, misses a little light every once in a while, you know,

don't follow me. But to that point, I get the profiles. You know, I got to prove the profiles when they come into my neighborhood. Usually, I'm looking for something like really intense. And even then, I've seen people with like

whatever. I had a guy that had a drug charge like 20 years ago. I was like, well, I'm this guy changed his life, has a family now and everything. You know, you can't. wasn't he was selling drug because then you think oh he's going to sell here in the the premises but you know he took it so you know I think it was distribution but

bro you know you have a

he was at SOME TYPE OF PARTY

YOU ALWAYS NEED ONE of those guys in the association anyways no I'm just kidding listen um but I do assess them and I'm looking for like really serious things but on that topic can I really tell someone no if you do see something

so there's two things you need to know there's two laws you need to know essentially as a homeowner in a community you need to understand that the two laws that apply are the statute. Okay, so if you live in an HOA, it's chapter 720. If you live in a condo, it's chapter 718. And the secondary legal authority are the covenants. So the declaration of the association or the covenants of the HOA or the bylaws, all the rules together, those two documents are what governs really any sort of dispute that you have within your association. So if neither one of those two documents allow the board to do what they're doing, the board action is probably illegal. And what I was going to say is that with this particular uh home buyer, uh the the board was not only rejecting it, but they were being like indignant in the way they're rejecting it. They're like, "This person doesn't belong in this community. She has traffic citations

because of traffic citations."

So, it drove me so crazy that I went I I looked up the board members. Okay. I did a background search on all the board members.

I like it. I like it. Attorney

you're you're striking me with a little bit of an episode of Lamb Man. I like it. I like it. I like it. Go ahead.

I did a background search on all the board members. I did a background search on the attorney of the association. All of them had more traffic citations than she did.

That's right. That's amazing. And when you tell me traffic citation, what what traffic like improper U-turn, running a lie, taking Yeah. U speeding, you know, but nothing. I mean, no violent crimes. And when I say speeding, I don't mean like 50 hour over.

You know what? And and and I'll go to that question now, but now that you said that, imagine everybody that gets citations. I mean, right now going through the whole area of of of of schools with the cameras that even though you're after school hours, you know, it tells you you have to be at at a certain speed, you know, from this time to 3:30.

That's the biggest, you know, citation everybody's got. I mean, every other week, you know, MY DAUGHTER COMES, POPPY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED HERE. WHAT DO YOU YOU'RE GOING 20. What do you mean it says 30? No, you can't. It'll be at 15 between 7 to 3:30 in the afternoon. I mean, it's it's crazy how many people will not be getting so citations now with that thing. Crazy.

So, then you presented them with this evidence and then

um

what they say,

you know, and this is one of the main issues with these types of cases. I presented them with this evidence. Uh they didn't change their mind, unfortunately, and the homeowner didn't didn't end up there.

So, in that situation, the homeowner didn't want to pursue the matter further. could have sued them.

They could have absolutely been sued for that. Yeah, that they had no basis to do that at all. And and that's one of the problems with these sort of cases. Homeowners often times have to balance does it make sense for me to expose myself to litigation and the cost of litigation to pursue a matter that even though I'm right on to, you know, to pay the money to pursue it all the way to a conclusion sometimes is difficult for homeowners. So, that's one of the main impediments with fighting somebody with a fact or something like that. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, there there's a difference between there's like HO6 and HO3 or

So, these are types of insurance.

Insurance has nothing to do with like coming into an association.

Correct. These are insuranceances that you would buy depending on what type of property you live in.

If you're if you you're you're part of an association, a homeowner association um or you just bought into it. Do you suggest people to be part of the board and get involved? And if so, you know, how how is the best way for them to go about that? Because you kind of got to get it voted in or not. you can give us some some some feedback on that.

100%. I would say if you buy a property within a community association, if you have the time, you should try to get on the board. Why? Because that is the if if you have noble intentions, that is the way to really

Good way to you got to add that in there.

You must have no

emphasize on noble. you know, if you really want to steer your community in the right direction and you want to look after homeowners and you want to improve the community and increase property values, um, you know, by getting on the board, you have more control than you would have if you were just a member or homeowner in the community. You know, you said something so important and I know it's tough for a lot of people because a lot of people, you know, work dayto-day, they don't have the time, but you to your point, you have to get involved. You have to get involved in and anything and especially in these HOAs, if you really want to know what's going on, you have to make time. You have to go to those meetings if if if you have, you know, your partner or whatever. So, one of you have to go and just get informed because that sense of just saying, "Oh, what happened? What? Oh, this pass. Oh, what happened?" Nobody knows.

I've seen my my wife has an apartment up in Coral Springs and her association was she bought it like two years ago. It started like at 400. It's at $800 now. Yeah.

And it's really ridiculous. And usually the reason that they've been giving, at least in my case, my association raised like 15 bucks. um is they say that the rise of insurance costs is really what's uh driving the rise of association costs. Um

but I believe that too. I know insuranceances have gone skyrocket outrageously.

Absolutely. Yeah. Insurance is I've seen buildings that pay millions of dollars annually uh for their insurance premium. Insurance has really skyrocketed. That's for sure. In terms of

that's been affecting a lot of the association

I'm sure. Yeah. Absolutely.

What's the most ridiculous association payment you've probably ever seen?

Uh payment.

Yeah. like association monthly payments. Uh

um

has to be a hell of a great building.

Yeah. So some of the luxury buildings um in kind of like the downtown and Bickl area um it's not uncom it's uncommon but you will see in excess of $2,000 2 $3,000 uh a month for assessments. Um if you tack on a special assessment to that I've seen buildings where they're paying 5,000 a month. um older kind of older buildings on the water. It's not uncommon to see that because they have to redo the seaw wall. Uh usually there's a lot of cracking in the stucco of the building. Oh yeah. So they have to repair the stucco, the windows, all those types of things. I got to add impact erosion of that brother. That the salt water is a killer.

I was on the beach this weekend and I was south of Fifth running

and I decided to pop up Zillow. I was just curious. There was an association there of $11,000 a month.

Wow.

And I was like what? I was like man for this you better get butler service. You better. You know, they're giving the the mandala. They're sending a chef to your room. How crazy is that?

That's insane. I've not seen one that high. That is ridiculous.

We won't mention what the building is. I remember what the building. No.

It was It was the Continuum or was I'm sure they're in the

That's on South. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing building.

Yeah. Beautiful building.

Beautiful building.

Um, okay. This is I wanted you to give give me some light on this. A couple years ago, usually these cases pop up. You know, you have stuff in the news and nothing really happens. I know Katherine Randle now is uh being enforcing these uh recently, but we had that big case that was in the hammocks.

Can you can you tell us what happened with that case in the hammock? Do you know about that case or

I'm familiar with it?

Familiar with the case and I think people there actually ended up going to jail or they got prosecuted because usually people don't get prosecuted, you know, so you make this thing and then nothing happens.

Um can you talk to us about that case?

So in terms of the specifics of it, um you know, the the parties involved and what ultimately happened, I'm not too familiar with it. I know how to do

but an overall

but they were trying to do I remember in the beginning they were calling an association meeting and they were like saying no we're not meeting we're not doing this and they try to add special assessments and that's when everything kind of like the lady was paying herself. I think she had like $100,000 that she was paying herself on the side.

So what you see in the what you saw in the hammocks has popped off several times uh throughout the last 10 20 years. And essentially what it is is a board member doing what we discussed earlier, which is getting kickbacks or uh paying themselves uh through the association. And they try to disguise it different ways. Um you may have also seen in the news a Turberry case. Um and you know, notably in that one, what was alleged was that the board president was creating companies that provided services to the association and then essentially paying uh himself. Um and that's similar to what's happened in the Hammocks. That's similar to an article I saw today in the news in Miami Beach. Um, so these types of things um, come out in the news all the time and these board members are alleged to basically be stealing money from the Association Common Fund, which is funded by the homeowners. So, it's essentially stealing the homeowners money is is what they're being accused of.

Do you see any particular services that have more margin for kickbacks uh, than others like maintenance or pool or grass cutting?

So, where I've seen Where can they hide these services? Where can they hide these kickbacks? I

I would say anything related to contracting is a big one. So, anybody that's coming in to do a big project for like the reertification process, roofing, stucco, um you know, repairing any sort of damage to the to the

brand new windows to the whole, you know,

right, things like that. It happens all the time. But I've even seen it with valet services as well, right?

Um but I would say the big one is contracting. It comes up very often in contracting. So, what I would tell homeowners is if your building is doing any sort of construction, you should request records to look at the contracts. You should look at the pricing of the contract. You should compare that pricing uh with what other contractors charge for similar services because if you see that number and it is substantially larger than what other contractors charge, that's a major red flag you need to look into.

Yeah. And now with Chad GBPT, you just pop that into CHBT. Hey, what's the average cost?

You got to be you got to be careful with Chad GBT. There a lot of Chad GPT attorneys out there that Yes, there are. Yeah. That want to handle their own case.

You're not one of them.

But but at the end of the day, not I don't even think you should use that. You do the the correcting, which is three or four bids of different companies. Once you see that, I mean, you're going to see the fact of different companies where more or less they are, you know, priced out.

Absolutely. Once you look at the pricing, you'll be able to tell more or less. I mean being contractors of course that are all licensed and insured and have a good record because then you got some of the you know we call them the pirates out there that just come oh yeah you know I'll do that for nothing but then those people have

they have no insurance they have nothing and once they fix it there's a problem those those guys are gone

so you know

how often do do you see those cases a lot like

oh yeah you see how often do you see contractors going bidding they do two weeks of work and they disappear

all the time that happens all the time and not only in the association context also just homeowners that are doing renovations in their home um all the time you'll see you know and I've seen it many times where uh a homeowner will hire a contractor they'll make the deposit the contractor will come once or twice and do little things here and there and then just completely disappear

and then you see a post I'm in the Bahamas

but wait can you all right so let's say it happens to association can the uh members of the association sue the contractor and What happens in those cases? It disappears or can you help?

So that does happen often and the association sometimes does sue the contractor. But this is the problem with these sort of cases the the primary issue is the collectibility of that contractor because what when you really do the work up on those cases you'll see that the you know usually the person the homeowner or the association is not the first victim. Okay? And these contractors have created 10 15 20 different companies and every time they're hired they create a new LLC. the only person that signs is that LLC and so you're looking at an issue of where are you going to collect the money from? Um so collectibility becomes a major issue and then also service sometimes these contractors as you mentioned you know they flee to the Bahamas or Cuba or wherever they go

and then it's impossible to serve them and find their bank accounts and all that kind of stuff.

And is there any situation where hey you guys are the one the board members signed on that you're going to be responsible for that. Does that is that uh possible at all? Like holding the board members responsible for the loss of that money or

Absolutely. Yeah, we've come across that in the past as well. So be careful what you sign on the board. I'm always very careful. I didn't know you can sue board members like that.

Again, you know what? I think that everything that comes down with papers to be signed should be always looked over by attorney.

I mean that thing that you say, "Oh, I looked it over." There's things that you're going to see that they see much better with. I mean, I I you know, not because you're here, but I think that that's one thing that everybody should do. I mean, you got to get Nobody can understand even the paper that they buy at Office Depot or now they just pop up somewhere from Chad GPT. You should really discuss that with an attorney. I mean, it's the best money invested for before doing any of

I I tell clients that all the time. 100% agree with you. There there are so many headaches uh legal headaches that you can resolve if you address them before they happen. So if you address them before signing the contract or before signing any sort of release because you know and people call us all the time for that and it's not an expensive thing.

That's what I tell you because I'm going to get a lot of comments of everybody always saying oh yeah we can first they mention his we can't afford that. You know what I'm saying? Ah they can't afford you know

the guy with the watch is saying it's

they can't afford that. You know what I'm saying? So at the end of the day, I always say is a sense of, you know, there are attorneys out there that will go ahead and give you, you know, a good price to

Well, you know, when you're talking about pricing, everything is relative. Okay? Because sure, it's going to cost you, you know, maybe couple hundred bucks for your an attorney to review a contract for you. You sign it. But what is that compared to what could happen is if the contract goes wrong and now you're not talking about a couple hundred bucks, you're talking about tens of thousands of dollars in litigation. So, you know, you're you're you're paying for proactively resolving the dispute before it happens. It's always going to be cheaper

knowing that you're citing something that you may say now, you know, listen, I my parents and stuff like that. I, you know, I have to overlook everything. They could just, you know, parents sign something that says, "Oh, in the next six months, you're going to get hit with an assessment." They don't even know what, you know, oh, no, no. You know what I'm saying? They don't even know what's going on. And they, you know, they need a house. They need to live somewhere. they sign it.

Yeah.

You know, sometimes then that's going to cost you now when they tell you now this you just got hit with an assessment that you didn't know about.

Mhm.

So,

can a for can can an HOA foreclose on your property?

Absolutely.

Yeah. So, I've seen cases where and I have some cases where these people are not paying their monthly association payments and it's like just compounded year over year over year with association fees, etc. You can really the association can take your property from you.

Absolutely. the association can and will take your property from you. We see it all the time. And um to be honest with you, it's one of the primary things as a law firm that we want to push to try to change in the law cuz we have seen all kinds of predatory tactics by associations to take homeowners units. Um sometimes it's not just the association. Sometimes it's a developer coming in doing bulk buying getting on the board and then creating a situation that is untenable for a homeowner where assessments are going up. I've seen as high as 200% over like a year. So there are a lot of abuses when it comes to association foreclosures against homeowners. The law in my opinion must change. uh we are working on putting together a legislative change as it pertains to that because I've seen,

you know, the the 80 year old grandmother lose her home and because she because she didn't pay assessments and she didn't know that they went up. I've seen people lose their home because uh they had it on autopay and for whatever reason it got off of autopay and they forgot about it for a year and lo and behold they got foreclosed on. Um, so both in HOAs and condo associations, absolutely. Uh, people get foreclosed on all the time and particularly within HOAs, homeowner associations, you can foreclose not only for assessments, you can foreclose for fines. Okay? So, if you leave, you know, a chair on the front lawn that the board doesn't like and they told you that you can't have it on there and they find you $1,000 for having that chair on the front lawn and you disregard it, they'll file a foreclosure complaint and they will foreclose on you for $1,000. Oh, so you have to be very careful, particularly in an HOA.

There's a lot of people that don't understand these things. And that is, you know, I I I have a I have an I crazy theory later, but that I think you guys should do your own little 1800 a hotline over there at your at your law firm because I think that there's a lot of people and not to get intimidated and saying, "Oh, I would love to call this guy." But I think that people can call you and then you can tell them on the phone, listen, I think it's worth you coming in and and discussing that. Correct. I mean, in the sense of because there's a lot of these questions that a lot of people don't know and they just don't they don't ask them.

Yeah.

You know, because again, they don't have access to an attorney,

you know. So, I I I I like the fact that you're going ahead and explain this to people, but I'm saying that we got to get all these other people to say, "Hey, let's call your firm and they can talk to somebody and say, I have this issue. You know, is it okay? come in for do you guys do like a consultation before you you you you start you know charging or you say you have a case here and this would be you know more or less what it can cost or

yes so so we certainly offer consultations and and I must say one of the most satisfying things for me uh as an attorney uh and particularly attorney at our firm at Perez Mayoral is when someone calls us uh and we do a consultation sometimes over the phone sometimes virtual meeting sometimes in person

um and and they come in very nervous. They tell me, "Hey, Eric, I'm very nervous about this. Very nervous about my case. I'm so confused. I don't know what's going on. This is a scary situation." And after the consultation, they tell me, "Wow, I feel so much more confident. I feel so much more secure now that I know my rights. Um, and I know exactly what I need to do moving forward." So, I would say that one of the most satisfying things that, uh, we do here at the law firm, uh, is is provide those consultations to homeowners because it really gives them guidance. And really, at the end of the day, what we're doing is protecting their rights. We're we're giving homeowners their rights back so they know what they can do within their community. So absolutely we offer consultations as I mentioned earlier uh with regards to property damage cases. So if you have damage to the inside of your home because the association has not maintained the common areas properly. That is a free consultation that we offer for homeowners. Okay. That's very important to know. So so let's repeat that again. So, if you have if you're in a in an association and you have damages inside, let's said your your you know your faucet busted or something, that's something they can call you guys as well.

Correct. So, if you have, for example, drywall damage, your ceiling is damaged, your flooring is damaged as a result of a leak, it could be as a result of rain coming in through the roof or a pipe burst within your community, you can call us. You will receive a free consultation as it pertains to your matter.

That was massive.

Now, when it comes to governance disputes, okay, those are a little more complicated. Those are not as simple as having a quick phone call to discuss.

That's what I'm saying. Those have to come in and you guys got to chat with these people.

So depending on the issue. Uh when it comes to governance disputes, and I'm talking about assessment disputes. I'm talking about fines. I'm talking about architectural disputes within the community. Um

every dispute is different. Some are more complex than others. So we offer different packages for those sort of consultations. If you only want uh 15 minutes, you know, we offer that. If you want 30 minutes, we offer a price for that. If you want an hour or you want to come in in person, we offer a price for that. But generally speaking, um, for a 15-minute consultation, it's $95. For a 30-minute consultation, it's $1.95. And for a 1-hour consultation, it's 3.95.

I'll do the 15 because I can speak quick. So, I'll ask you the question very quick. I'll tell you, no, no, no.

All right. So, I I know I'm going to speak for a lot of people out there. I don't know if you can help with this or not, but let's say I'm part of my homeowner association or condo association. I've been paying my fees diligently as all my homeowners or condo owners have as well too. Fees maybe raised a little bit. However, the neighborhood looks bad like unmaintained. You know, the pool's not clean, that there's no there's paint on the wall, the that's not looking good. Um your gates not working. Uh they're not restriping the floors, etc., etc., etc. Is that something that where I'm like, "Hey, I've been paying this consistently. Everyone's been paying, you know, but we're not seeing this reflected in the community." Is that a reason to call you for it?

Absolutely. I would say that's a major red flag within the community. If you're paying your maintenance every month and you don't see anything being repaired within the community, you have to ask yourself, where is the money going uh that I'm paying every month to the association? So, we get those calls on a daily basis. And as I mentioned earlier, one of the primary things you need to do in those sort of cases is investigate the association and request their financials, request their balance uh balanced uh sheets, request their uh bank statements, and identify where's the money going because I don't see the pool being repaired. I don't see the flooring in the common elements being repaired. Uh I don't see the community fountain being repaired. The security guard hasn't showed up for work in 3 weeks. You know what's going on here? There's probably some issue with the finances of the association that need to be looked into. Yeah, that's you're going to get a lot of calls for that, I think. I mean, there's a lot of problem. Are there any I don't know if you can speak to this or not, but are there any good association management companies that you maybe want to give a shout out to, or are there any ones that are bad and you're like, "Hey, listen, maybe you should stay away from these guys. We're going to get into litigation with that one.

Don't hire these guys, you know, or if you have these guys, call me. There's something going on." Uh Eric is a very good attorney and he would say I will uh pass on that one now.

No, I'd say like anything else there's there's good ones and bad ones. I don't deal with them other than suing them. So I don't know which ones would be sued more consistently than others.

On that question, is there a is there a site people can go and visit and see if these associations have a lot of complaints or not complaints?

So it's very interesting you mentioned that because I have a meeting uh I believe later this week. Yeah, later this week or next weekend, there are some companies out there or some or some

um people that are starting to develop companies. Yeah. To have that sort of information made public. Um you know, like anything else, there's good ones and bad ones. It's very you don't know until it's too late whether it's a good one or a bad one. And you know, it's not always the company. You know, sometime every company has different property managers that work for the company and there's good ones and bad ones there. No, I just asked because I know that like um coming from that world and and my father and they used to have always like you know you had contractor or whatever you can always call the county and you can call and they would tell you you know how many you know this this company had been ticketed you know uh constru you know construction plumbing electrical roofing you know they would tell you a history on those people you know what I'm saying so that's why I was asking if there's a

you know one one of the good um forums to use to find out whether a company is good or not usually is uh Google. You know, Google has the five star review. Oh, yeah.

So, you can tell

a good amount of information about a company depending on what their rating is. Now, that's also not always accurate. You know, there's very good companies that don't have high ratings simply because they're not pushing for the ratings. Yeah. Uh but um you know, if you have nothing else to rely on, that's a good starting point.

I have another one for the people. Okay. Homeowner association. My property, my space is being maintained. I have a nice front yard. Everything's nice. My neighbors and other neighbors and it's the wild wild west. You know, they're putting tables in the front. It looks like Helia. Whatever the case is.

I know, bro. I got I got I got to defend this. I was born with Hy, so I know how it looks. You know,

you can't continue saying it looks like Halia has changed.

So, um you know, so I mean I'm doing my part in my association. I see

plenty of neighbors who are not doing their part.

Yeah. yet I don't see any repercussion coming from the association management company. Is this a reason to call you? Is this something you can help with?

Yes. So neighbor disputes often arise and it's not just maintaining their property poorly. Sometimes they're like playing loud music at 2 3 4 in the morning. Association isn't doing anything about it.

I would probably be that person.

Sometimes that you know we've had cases of Santia where people are like no no chicken. We got to stop with that. Come on.

What's the craziest neighbors disputes you? But we had one involving Santia where the neighbor was killing uh you know chickens or roosters. I don't know exactly how

he's probably just saying he's doing his midnight you know for food for the next day.

Yeah, it could be that. Yeah, but we had one involving that where the neighbor wanted obviously the you know the the actions to stop and sometimes you have to take action against your neighbor and ultimately sue them to uh obtain an injunction and stop them from doing things. If the association is unwilling to do it, um you're as a homeowner going to enforce going to have to enforce your rights.

Okay, just imagine the association. I'm not getting involved in

you know what I I I had one of those.

I don't want them to throw four chickens in front of my house. Yeah. So

the guy the guy was renting within the association which the guy was renting within the association and we didn't notice it for a while but at one point the neighbor brought it up and he did a pigeon coupe in the back. So he had he had like probably like I don't know 70 pigeons in the back like you know they go and they treat and they leave and the whole situation. And we told him hey you got to you know cut this out. And the guy said,

"He's probably dormant."

Listen, I I uh I made a pact with whatever, I don't know, something with, you know, when my daughter was born, this and that, that, you know, I was going to do this because So, so he was going the religious route.

He was saying, "I do this based off of the religion that I am."

Feeding the pigeons. Feeding the pigeons.

Um the pigeon message.

That's what I'm saying. I'm messaging, you know, like taking care of them in little cages like what you saw Mike Tyson do on the roofs of the, you know, on the

right. But I know there's people that have the, you know, the messaging of pigeons.

No, but this guy had like 60 pigeons in there. It smelled bad. Like people were already like, you know, and and then so we have like our our our our patio or our backyard area and then he was extending into the outside now, you know. So then that became a big issue there. He ended up taking it out the rent, you know, left the association. But

um One of one of the big ones we deal with, I mean, we have

we've probably handled hundreds of cases like this are smoking disputes.

So, sometimes you'll live in a condo association, uh, where you're, you know, maybe very health conscious, very, um, you know, anti-smoking and your neighbor is a chain smoker that smokes 10 cigarettes a day.

What about vaping? Now,

that hasn't come up yet. It could fall in there, but yeah,

got a new one.

Vaping smell into the other unit, right? the strawberry or the strawberry or the um

we we we get the uh cigarette

lavender

cinnamon cinnamon toast crunch.

So, so, so if I'm in a in a condo association and my neighbor's always smoking cigarettes or smoking weed and I'm smelling it, that's something to call you for.

That's a that potentially is a nuisance. Absolutely. You could sue your neighbor. We've had cases where we sue the neighbor, the neighbor has to move. Listen, I don't know what's going to happen, but after this show, I think I get a ton of calls because at least just the thing with that between the cigarettes and and and the Santia situation, I mean, that could be that could be that could be just, you know, 365 days a year already at work. How about this problem? Um, I'm in my neighborhood and then

you have a lot of problems.

No, no, I'm saying I'm just judging my neighborhood. I think you should.

These are things that I that I, you know, I've been experiencing over time.

Um,

you're not doing a very good job as president. No, no. My my thing is super

situations with Airbnb and rentals. Is that a big problem? You know, is that someone that I can I can call you about or you can help out with that?

Yeah. So, the laws actually not too long ago changed on that. So, it used to be essentially that whatever the covenants were in your association, that's what applied. So, if your covenants say you can't do Airbnb, you can't do it. Um, or if it's changed to say you can't do Airbnb, you can't do it. However, the law changed not too long ago to say that if when you bought your unit in your association, uh there was not an Airbnb restriction, you are grandfathered into being able to Airbnb your property or as it's known, you know, short-term rentals is what it's considered. Um but basically, um yeah, disputes regarding Airbnb, they come up all the time. Sometimes associations are trying to enforce uh short-term restriction that they don't have the right to enforce. So sometimes they're just saying you can't do that, but there's no legal authority for them to tell you that. It's not in the covenants. Um, and so they're trying to enforce something that they have no legal right to enforce. And so those types of disputes come up all the time.

That's very interesting. Very interesting. This is crazy. I mean, I I the amount of of I think we could be here tomorrow with all the questions. I mean, because everything is a question, especially in in this whole thing of the world of the HOAs.

Yeah. Yeah, but a lot of people say, you know, a lot of negative things about HOAs, but I think it it is important to keep one thing in mind. You know, I uh I'm from Westchester. Uh I I still live in Westchester.

I like it. I like it.

And you know, I love Westchester. Uh I've been there my entire life. Um I love everything about it, but it is not uncommon uh to in my neighborhood see like a pink house, right?

Uh I've had ponies, you know, houses with ponies in the front lawn, right? um just all kinds of cra you know broken down cars everywhere in the front lawn and in in in an HOA you know in a way you're you're protected from that. Um, so there's positives and negatives, but I would say that um, when you come across a dispute with your association, uh, any type of dispute like all the ones we're talking about, um, you know, not only for the representation, but for the consultation, it may be helpful to reach out to us and just understand your rights. And

do you do you advise um, homeowners or condo owners to not take the dispute directly to the neighbor? like is or or should they you know

you know so you always want to try to work things out and I always tell clients that hey before hiring me you know call one more time do one make one last effort to try to resolve the dispute at the end of the day you know we're people we're neighbors we want to work together to resolve things but um you know it's very hard to change people's minds

I was I was going to tell you right now I don't think that you're going to be able to go and knock on the person's house with a pink cow and say and then people are going to say Yeah, that's when you call Eric.

That's that's what it's going to come down to because if they pick pink, it's going to be very hard to tell them now to change the pink. You know what I'm saying? So,

so for for our people out there right now that are thinking of buying into a condo association or a homeowner association,

um what advice would you have for them?

So, I would say definitely do your due diligence. Look up the financials of the association. Most real estate contracts have a due diligence period that's about 15 days. So those 15 days, you want to look at the financials of the association, look at the rules of the association. They have to turn over all the covenants to you. So you want to read them and see what the covenants provide. If you want to do Airbnb, make sure you're allowed to do Airbnb in that community. So look at the covenants, look at the financials. I'd say walk around the community, you know, just take a look at it. You know, don't just look at the home. Look at the entire community. See how well scope out the area. See how well maintained called by the cops after, you know, creepy person scoping out the area.

Exactly.

And so you want to just check everything out. And maybe even what I tell clients all the time is knock on doors, ask neighbors, how do you like living here? You know, is it a nice community? Do you feel it's, you know, kid-friendly? Do you feel the the board members are nice people? You want to knock on doors and ask your due diligence.

Absolutely.

And when you're looking at the financials, is there anything in specific you should look for?

You want to look at the budget and you want to see how much it's changed over the last few years. So, associations are required to maintain records for seven years by law. So, you can look up to seven years of financial statements. you probably don't need that much, but you probably want to look at least to the last maybe 3 years and see what do the what do the expenses look like in 2022 and what did they look like in 2025. You know, if the numbers are about the same, you know, it's a pretty stable community. If the numbers are dramatically different, you know, there's something there probably that you need to look into.

That's impressive.

That's very good.

Awesome. You're a Miami guy, huh?

Absolutely.

Born and raised in Miami. He went to Isn't he? Westchester, man.

Yeah. Westchester M. Look at the look look at the quality of people out of Westchester. Spectacular. Spectacular.

Yeah, he's from Westchester.

Okay.

So, you know, so that that's that's that that gives you already, you know, a huge advantage.

We know the streets. So, this is something that we've been asking more frequently. But, um, are you guys hiring?

Absolutely.

If you guys are hiring, like if someone wants to be a part of your firm and they kind of like align with your with your culture and like your vision. Yes, absolutely. So, you know, one of the things that we strive to do is give um you know, the best customer service and one of the primary issues in the legal sector is a lack of responsiveness. You know, sometimes you try to get a hold of your attorney and you can't get a hold of your attorney. It's a major issue amongst, you know, the entire legal community. Yeah. So, what we try to do is staff our cases adequately so that if you want to get on the phone with your attorney, you can get on the phone that day with your attorney. Um, and as a result of all these, you know, associate association disputes arising, we're getting more and more cases. So, we need to bring in more and more attorneys. Yeah. So, right now, we're actually working on hiring uh three attorneys.

Um, and we also need um some support staff as well, assistants and parillegals.

Listen out, man. Listen out there. And, uh, they always ask us, are there any benefits? Are there good benefits?

Yeah, I would say our compensation is very competitive. Um, and we provide all the standard things, you know, 401k, uh, health benefits.

Okay, good.

Um, it's a good one.

We have company outings. Um,

don't be saying too loud around here because, you know, a lot of people going to want to take off.

But yeah, the office listen, they'll take off and they'll come back in 6 months when they're grinding there for 12 hours a day.

No, it is a very CHALLENGING BE LIKE BOOM with the whip. Oh, sorry. Hit the table. Yeah, every's going to be with the whip over there.

The legal uh profession is very, very challenging. But I would say because of how challenging it is, it is very rewarding to know that you're actually helping people uh through difficult situations in their life. You know, when someone calls us, it's because they're going through something serious that they need help resolving.

What about what about those, you know, young people already, you know, graduated, passed their bar, they're looking for something, you know, those those are those are great people that you can also looking into acquiring and hiring. So, uh, we we do offer, uh, internships. Okay, that's great. But usually for staffing, we're looking for people with at least

Oh, no. Staffing, absolutely. You have to have somebody, but my thing is like, you know, you know, in they're still in school and college and wanting to see what they want to what type of law they want to get into.

Yeah, absolutely. We we do offer internships. We do also offer scholarships. We just gave University of Miami student a scholarship.

That's awesome.

Um, so we want to get very active in the community and and really meet people and help them in meeting. to the next scholarship because my daughter starts in the fall. Okay. Um

so she can apply

otherwise she's not doing attorney but anyway

listen Eric brother I mean this is this is um this is what we love to I haven't finished.

No no I was going to say is there anything you guys want to add?

Oh we offer uh monthly uh question and answer free webinars where prospective clients or even clients can jump on our virtual meetings. Sometimes we have hundreds of people that show up and they ask their question, questions just like the ones you're asking.

And this is totally for free.

This is totally for free.

Totally for free. And when you you announce this on where? You got to go to your website.

You got to go to our Instagram or our website or sign up for our newsletter.

And we'll have that down there. We'll have it pinned there so people go and see it. But that's important. That's very good. By the way,

it's free information. It's very helpful. Sometimes people just need their question answered and that's enough. That's that's where I said a little while ago, you know, you guys should have like a hotline or but you have this which is spectacular because there's a lot of people that will go and then ask that question. Then from there they'll probably say, "Hey, I I need a consultation with you, you know, to take it to the next level."

Yeah. No, absolutely. We do it monthly. We do general uh uh webinars on topics, you know, changing. We just did one on HB657 not too long ago where we explained all the uh you know, ramifications of it. Um, and we do have our Facebook and Instagram pages where we post changes in the law and relevant topics as it pertains to HOA law.

I know we talked about it a little bit earlier, but can you give me your craziest case or story?

No, that's a good one. Um, let me think about it for a moment.

Craziest thing that you're like, how the I don't know how this got to this point. But one of of the bet op is crazy to me that you know.

So we we had one where uh the association uh failed to maintain the the roof of the condo building for for a long time for months. Uh and it was at a point where not only was rain water coming in but there was debris there started like plants started to grow in the roof and all that and animals started to crawl in.

What? And ultimately uh uh you know when a a Miami wild parrot uh found its way into the association

and um the homeowner contacted us. We had to do an inspection and figure out what was going on. The inspector opened up a hole in the ceiling just to see what was going on. A parrot flew out and bit the homeowner as a result of the uh

the water intrusion.

That is crazy.

So that was a pretty crazy

What area was this in?

No. Here we go. I don't remember exactly to be honest with you. Uh

good answer, Eric. Good answer.

Somewhere somewhere tropical.

Yeah, that's crazy, man. Anywhere in Miami.

That's That's a good one. All right,

we can't let you go without your last question. All right, your hardest one. You got to give us your top three restaurants.

I thought about it all morning. It's so difficult.

Let's go. We're going to have to change it up already. I'm going have to change up. But you know what? It's the question that most people love when they see us in the streets. Like I love those recommendations you guys ask, you know, and I hope save them. So starting with number three, what do you got?

So number three, I thought about this all morning and it's really hard to come up with three restaurants.

It's harder than people think cuz you're burning some friends, you know?

I know, but I I WOULD JUST SAY GO WITH YOUR goto that you really like with your wife or your partner. Where should we go tonight? Let's go here.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I would say number three, uh you know, going local Coral Gables. Um, I really like Peruvian food a lot and for me I think the the best one is in my opinion is Ceviche 105.

Okay. Yeah. Shout out to Wii.

I like

right here our neighbor for his birthday the other day.

Yeah. Yeah. You had really really good food there.

A big fan of Pisco, too. Pisco opened here in the corner. No, they closed.

Oh, no. The the Pisco Sour. I meant the drink.

Pisco Sour. Oh, sorry. The one here in the gate was closed already.

Yeah, the one closed. Yeah. Closed

out. Nothing last year, huh?

Yeah. It's tough, man. I mean, the thing is that he came in and then See 105 came in after. So, you know.

Yeah.

See 105 is excellent. There's one right here.

Yeah. Right here. Walking.

Um,

Eric. Number two.

Number two. I had to pick something Italian. You know, a lot of good Italian food in in Miami. Um, and it's gotten better over time, but I like, you know, I like the the staples of the area. I I you know there's a lot of new places in Miami, particularly Italian, that get a lot of hype and are new and they close and then they close and the food may not even necessarily be good. It may just be kind of the vibe people go and see.

A couple of influencers.

Yeah.

But for me, a staple of Miami has been around for a little bit now is Sapori Deari.

Oh, very growth.

Yeah. Yeah. One of the best Kacho Pepees that that I've probably ever had.

I agree. What do you What do you like from there?

Kacho Pepe.

Kacho Pepe.

Kacho Pepe. And the New York strip is is really good there as well. It's a good combo having the two.

We got to go there.

Good wine selection as well.

Number one.

Number one, I had to go with just something traditional um that you can never miss with

uh in the downtown area.

Been around I don't even know how long

downtown area.

Yeah. Uh steakhouse, I would say. Capitol Grill.

That is a stable

and getting reamped right now too. You know what I'm saying? So, but I agree with you. That is you had some good capital. I love the Capital Grill. Capital Grill is you can never go wrong with Capital. Tell me a story once about the phone that they would bring the phone.

That was years ago. That was years. Half of the people half of the people here are viewing are not going to remember that damn thing. But um that's when it used to be called Sides on the River. That's that's another story. Um but that is one of a great restaurant. You can never ever can never go wrong with a great steak, you know? I mean, great. Eric, brother, what a pleasure.

And I can't leave I can't leave this honorable mention.

Yeah. Honorable mention.

All right. 11

18

18 a place. So our office is on 9inth and Pon. There's a few kind of restaurants in that area.

I feel it. I know.

And there there's two I want to give a shout out to. Go for it. Two quick ones. I'd say best Cuban food in Miami is La Casita.

Yes.

That it feels like you're, you know, at home eating from Yeah. your grandma.

That's a That's a big big, you know, that's a big comment there. Best Cuban food in Miami. But it is. Casita is more You may agree with it. Yeah. for authentic, you know, real,

right?

Wholesome Cuban food. I think

is it better than like Palas?

H I think so.

Yeah, I think so.

Um,

I don't know what to say about that joke.

Okay. And then your other honorable mention

and another one, Italian food. Uh, you know, very uh reliable food. You can't go wrong pretty much anything on the menu menu there in that area as well. Uh, Cafe Italia.

Cafe. Really good. Been there a long time. Shout out to Ugle, the owner for years. Very good. Very very right there on the corner. Right there. Yeah. You can't never go wrong.

You can't go wrong with anything. You know, we haven't been to those here for our

I've I've I've rounded all those places all my life. The Gables. It's the Gables. And again, Proafetalia also great lunch place.

A great lunch place.

Eric, another big question that we keep on hearing on the news and a whole bunch of stuff. What's going on with this high, you know, uh, you know, priced building in in by the acid mort, isn't it? The acid mort.

Like, I keep on hearing all these stories.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I have a theory with what's going on, why even why even people why want to buy there, but what's what's what's

Oh, yeah. It's a very luxurious, you know, fancy building in the downtown area that's uh more recently been developed. And

do you know what street that is again? Isn't that um

is it Biscane, maybe?

It's the roundabout. Right. So you go over when you go over the bridge and you hang right which that is a you guys fill in the blank that is a cluster

you in a constant basis because you have the the what is it the JW

you have the marquee you have um where where Zuma is

that building and then you have where um a Gabiano restaurant and all that is one Miami

one so then you have that Aston Martin there in that corner so I mean I don't even know how people

when people are telling where people were paying for that area. I feel bad for whoever bought there. How do they get there? They need those place those need the the new Elon Musk cars, you know, just you know, you can just No, just fly there.

But but is is there problems with going on with there now right now that you know of?

So, when you're looking at if you're a potential condo buyer and you're looking for a kind of luxury building uh to live in, one of the things you have to really look out for is what is being sold to you. what is being promised to you. It's not uncommon uh and there's been many cases like this where these sort of allegations have been made. It's not uncommon that a developer says something or promises something and then ultimately the way the building is constructed can be different from what was promised. And uh also the money that's used to build it, you know, sometimes comes from places it shouldn't come from. So ultimately um you know one of the things I've heard about and what's being alleged in the acid Martin building is essentially uh that the developer of the building made certain promises that he didn't comply with also used association uh is being alleged to have used association money to continue the development of the building and there's a lawsuit over this um I believe that's been filed um but this is not an uncommon issue. This happens um somewhat often. These sort of allegations are made somewhat often and um Miami in Miami construction defect is a major uh type of litigation. You know, pretty much after any building in Miami is built, there's a construction defect case.

And we think that developers do that in order to entice people, no, with their with their projects because there's so many projects.

Well, that I'm sure when you're in the point of sale, you know, you don't care. You're selling whatever you need to sell to get that deal done. And then after you figure it out, you know,

do we know what the cheapest apartment would go there for?

I think it's like 3 million or something like that.

To be stuck in traffic for

I just, you know, that it behooves me every time. Every time we talked about this at every time, you know, I go to a lot of events here at the JW as it is. When you go there, I mean, it's a great place, but when you go there, you know, you got to you got to deal with wherever you're going to go there or the event starts at 7:30. You got to leave your house by by 5:45 to get there at 7:30. And every time I see that corner between again the Zuma building and all these other buildings, how I say, how do these poor people want to come here? Imagine you have a headache. You want to go home. You're stuck in traffic for two and a half hours just to get to your apartment. That's crazy. That's crazy.

I think what ultimately when you know someone that's interested in that, they're not necessarily buying a condo unit. They're buying a lifestyle. You know, they want the beautiful pool overlooking the bay. They want to say they live in a building with the helipad. Well, but then they better have a helicopter because that's the only way to get that in and out of that place. You know, that place if I'm going to pay that amount of money, I think the penthouse I had read like 45 or $50 million. I better come with a, you know, a nice, you know, pilot

that take me in and off that that building. And to your point, if I just just live there and, you know, not leave.

Yeah. I think what happens is also, you have all these like people coming from out of state and other places that they probably don't realize those things at the moment. You know, again, they're trying to get the sale, the realtor, this that he's happy. think it looks nice. They probably took him like on on a Saturday morning through there, you know, and that's

Saturday morning. Listen, guys out there, ladies and gentlemen, when you're going to buy some place, do what I do. I would, you know what I do? I would go and go early in the morning and and and park around the area to see the traffic and the whole and I would go at night again to see the traffic when I was going to, you know, move with for my kids and everything. That's what I would do. Go and sit there.

Didn't you tell me off camera that you go and sleep in the house when there's no one there, too? Just

no. That's already a little creepy. That's a little bit. What do you call that already? Like you know your uh

squatter squatters.

He's squatting in the house.

We're not We're not squatting in that. We're not going to squat in that. But listen to me once again, Eric. This is very informative, brother. I really appreciate and and I think everybody out there appreciates uh the fact of giving all this information you have. Stay tuned of where he's going to be and his company giving some free seminars and webinar because you may want to have a question. Yeah.

And we'll be back. Excellent. Thank you, man.