In July of 2005, we bought our condominium at the Greens. When the closing was done, the title company was unaware of the St. Augustine Shores Association, and only included the Greens Condominium Association. Shores never sent us any bills. Then, 90 days later, we get a letter from the Shores attorney, Clayton and McCulloh saying we have a delinquent notice and intent to file a lien.
This was not supposed to have been sent until it was 120 days past due (we found this out much later from their own rules they had published in their paper). We had no idea who the Shores were as it was not on our documents. The letter we received from the attorney was marked "certified", but it came regular mail, so we thought this was some sort of scam. When we looked up the attorney, we saw they had been cited for a scam(unverified) involving home owners association and unlicensed practice of law, in 2004, so I faxed a letter to the attorney's and then called their office to tell them we had nothing on the title. They were rude and unresponsive. Then we tried to contact the Shores and they was totally unresponsive and highly rude.
We spoke to Linda Stuto and asked for documents but nothing was sent. When this was finally resolved (we were extorted a legal fee of $930.00), we went to the Shores at the Riverview Club and this guy Joseph Smith began an argument with us and was in my face. They didn't want to take our money even though their attorney sent a notice that our account was clear. This guy Smith was arrogant and acted as if he was above the law. He was screaming at me!
They make a practice of scamming homeowners. Case in point, my neighbor got billed and threatened by the Shores Association but my wife pointed out to him that they were 30 days premature in sending this lien notice. She gave him a copy of the rules and he went there to resolve it. They said they made a mistake and did not argue with him, because they published their rules in the Shores Newspaper and he had a copy along with him that we gave him.
We have a whole file on these guys. Everything is documented and you can see a pattern of taking advantage of the residents. We sent them a demand letter for a return of our money but they ignored it (October 3, 2008). We spoke to an attorney but were told we needed a class action suit with more people to have any impact. The Shores Association acts like they are above the law. We have ALL the documents to prove this.
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