June 11, 2026 | Mark Luis Foster

It seems like Georgia and Florida have the most, let’s say, “interesting” HOA stories. Not sure why that is (Florida man?), but I found this one from the Sunshine State:

Residents of a [Homestead], Florida, townhouse community say a developer has kept control of their homeowners association for almost 20 years, and they contend a hotel development played a role in extending that control. — Yahoo News

Two decades?  Yikes. Typically you have a developer who hands over control to the board following substantial completion of the HOA property in say, a few years time. But 20 years? Apparently this developer had other plans and perhaps harbored a particular motivation to keep this property in its control even longer (more on that in a moment).

It’s headed to court.

The suit says affiliates of Prime Homes at Villa Portofino East, connected to Prime Group and PMG Asset Services, stayed in charge by placing employees and other representatives on the HOA board.vill

There are a lot of accusations in this story, not the least of which is general maintenance on things like fences, a pool, stormwater systems and pavers were not maintained. A bit of a problem over 20 years of control.

Now residents are saying the development-controlled board failed to transfer the HOA to the homeowners and that it is using allegedly misleading claims over local land parcels to justify the delay.