Condo lawsuit: Neighbors claim association took parking spaces to make a profit

A group of neighbors at Buckley Towers condominiums in northeast Miami-Dade claimed in court that some members of their association’s board of directors took advantage of their position to profit off the community.

Among the complaints: uncollected trash piling up in bins and inside the building’s trash chutes.

“If you went to throw out your trash on the ninth floor, you would open the box and bags of garbage would come out,” said owner Frankie Trullenque.

He and other residents filed a lawsuit in November, claiming the association’s board of directors took their assigned parking spots and tried to charge people for access to convenient spaces.

“One day somebody calls me from downstairs telling me that my car is being towed,” said resident Aleksej Nikitins.

“He towed 20 cars in one day”, said Moredechai Zarger who owns six units at the building.

“They wanted to reassign the parking, but not only reassign the parking, but also charge for that parking,” Trullenque explained.

In their complaint, the owners claimed the association “contrived a plan to sell or lease spaces... Offering spaces at a premium price based on location and leasing spaces close to entrances or exits to the highest bidder.”

It’s something those owners say violated the association’s bylaws.

Fliers posted around the property advertised different payment plans to bid on parking spaces or pay a specific monthly for a space close to the building’s entrance. Records provided to NBC6 show several residents paid hundreds of dollars to the association in an effort to secure a space.

“One night at three in the morning, I came home and there were maybe nine, 10 tow trucks,” Trullenque added. “I call it the tow truck massacre.”

The residents reached out to NBC6 after filing the lawsuit and several complaints with Florida’s Department of Business and Professional, or DBPR, the state agency that oversees condo communities. 

 “We have been pretty much battling for over seven, eight months,” Trullenque said.

Owners pointed out where the numbers on assigned parking spots had even been painted over when NBC6 visited the condominium.

Nikitins said his spot was reassigned to another unit, but he was never given a new one.

“It's been parked on the street, wherever I can find a spot,” he said.

That was until an order from a Miami-Dade judge required the association to return spots to previous owners and stop towing on the property.

“The Defendant is hereby ordered to take any and all necessary actions to revert the parking lot to the way it appeared when parking spots were last assigned," adding, "There shall be no towing permitted on Defendant’s property, for any reason…”

The conflict between some of the board members and owners was on display when NBC6 Investigators visited the property seeking answers in late April.

The board secretary at the time, Janvier Villars spoke with NBC6 about the parking dispute. “The assigned space is not theirs,” he said. “That means if the association needs more funds, the association has the right to collect.”

According to Villars, they did collect thousands in just over a week. “About $28,000,” he said, was brought in over eleven days from the paid parking revenue.

He says owners voted for the change, which included turning several assigned spaces into guest spots and putting up pay parking signs. Money, he said, went to the association.

He filed forms in court, which he says were signed by homeowners in support of the parking change. The forms, titled “A New Path,” proposed commercializing the association in order to avoid paying special assessments. One line mentions bidding for extra parking but there is no mention of giving up assigned spaces.

A QR code on the form leads to a website for something called “POWER”, which stands for Property Owners Wanting Equal Rights. It’s a for-profit entity created by Villars to monetize condo resources. But in one motion, some owners claimed Villars created POWER to funnel money from the parking payments to himself. Villars told NBC6 Power’s profits would go toward administrative and legal costs to fight corruption.

NBC6 asked the DBPR about this case and if board members are allowed to create a separate company getting money from the association’s funds. They have not yet responded. Under Florida law, board members should serve without compensation, unless the association’s bylaws say otherwise.  

On April 24, a judge ordered the community to hold an election supervised by an outside monitor. Villars and other board members were voted out to cheers from several owners gathered to hear the results.

Trullenque was elected as the new president. But videos from that night show a chaotic scene, a locksmith was called in to get into the office, with Villars still inside.

An attorney for Villars told NBC6 Investigators they contest the circumstances surrounding the election.
“Each step of the way, there’s been nothing but hurdles,” Trullenque explained.

He said this case shows there’s not enough protection for homeowners, despite recent reforms.

 “There seems to be a disconnect between the laws that we’ve created and the actual application of those laws. And the enforcement of those laws,” he said.

As for the trash troubles, Villars said that was due to switching providers, but the new board said that never happened. They shared an invoice showing a past-due balance of nearly $18,000 for trash services.

As for the rest of the funds from the association, the new members of the board said they are now trying to determine where the money is and how it has been spent.