LARGO, Fla. — Residents of a Largo over-55 manufactured home community say their lot rents could skyrocket because they weren’t able to sign new “lifetime leases” when the park was sold.
Residents say they didn’t receive important notices on time, and that could cost them thousands of dollars a year in increased lot rental fees.
In some cases, it could completely price residents out of the community.
“It means everything. It's my safe place,” said Rachel Laurent, describing her home.
She purchased a manufactured home in the 55-and-older Ranchero Village community last year. She believed she could afford her mortgage and lot rent.
But in December, a new owner purchased the park.
“The past few nights, I can’t sleep 'cause I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Not just to me but to everybody,” Laurent said.
New lease offered maximum lot rent increases of three percent
In December, an investment company associated with MetLife Insurance purchased the 946-unit park for $53.7 million and hired Legacy Communities, LLC, to manage it.
As part of the sales agreement, Legacy offered “lifetime leases” to existing homeowners.
“It would have locked me in and grandfathered me in, and I would have been safe,” Laurent said. “And my rent would only go up 3% each year.”
Laurent said she “would have” because she never signed the new lease and wasn't notified about it by mail.
After hearing rumblings from neighbors, Laurent called the Ranchero Village Office and asked about it.
New lease ended up in spam folder
“They said you would have received it through email. So I went back and checked my email. Didn’t find anything,” Laurent said.
Eventually, her son found three messages in her spam folder after an office employee told him to look for an email from “Shawn Geyer,” a name Laurent didn’t recognize.
“I would have deleted it if I saw that,” Laurent said.
According to a letter from Legacy sent by regular mail to residents on January 6 and posted on the office door, the “lifetime lease will no longer be offered to existing homeowners” if they hadn’t already signed the lease.
That means Laurent and about 200 other residents will be charged market rate rents after this year.
“If they charged me that extra $300, that’d hurt me”
“It’s gonna shoot up too. It will shoot up to $1,050. And then after that, it’ll shoot up again each year however much they want,” Laurent said.
“There’s a lot of people here on fixed incomes. And if they charged me that extra $300, that’d hurt me,” Don Fowler said.
Fowler has lived in the park since 2006.
He said he didn’t get the notice because he doesn’t have email and doesn’t have a computer.
“I wouldn’t know how to work one. My daughter bought me this smartphone. I don’t even know how to work that damn thing,” Fowler said.
Ranchero Village resident Bill George, a retired military database expert, is a computer whiz.
But even he had a hard time signing the 73-page lease because his laptop wasn’t working, and he had to do it on his cell phone.
“It’s a huge file. It overloads your phone,” George said.
“It feels very sneaky”
Attorney Andy Lyons, who doesn’t represent any of the homeowners at the park, agreed to offer the I-Team an expert opinion about how Legacy distributed the leases to homeowners.
“It seems to be picking on a part of the population that is frankly easy prey because they know they’re electronically not as savvy,” Lyons said.
Under Florida law, a new lot lease agreement, called a prospectus, has to be delivered to all homeowners by the owner or manager of the complex.
Lyons doesn’t believe Legacy satisfied its obligation.
“The statute requires that these documents get put into the hands of recipients. That’s delivery. Sending something by electronic means from a different entity certainly will not qualify as delivery,” Lyons said.
“It feels very sneaky and like you’re trying to take advantage of our stupidity. Because we really don’t want you to sign this new prospectus,” Laurent said.
We tried to get answers at the Legacy Communities office at Ranchero Village, but a manager referred me to a spokesperson at a Washington, D.C. public relations firm.
In a statement, she said, “It was the responsibility of the Shareholder Board to inform residents of the details of the sale and to distribute and collect the leases. Legacy was not responsible for informing the residents or collecting the leases - that was the responsibility of the Shareholder Board.”
Steve Rumery, who is treasurer of the Shareholder Board, disagreed, telling the I-Team that Legacy wrote the lease and agreed to distribute it and collect it. He said the board gave Legacy the email addresses they had, but at least 80 residents didn’t even have one.
Since then, Rumery said he's emailed Legacy multiple times asking the company to allow existing residents the opportunity to sign the lease, but he hasn’t heard back.
“They’re on a fixed budget. They bought there for this reason,” Lyons said.
Laurent believes there’s an easy solution.
“All Legacy has to do is say you know what, we’re sorry. Here’s the new prospectus for all these people who didn’t get to sign it. You want to sign it, sign it,” she said.
According to Florida law, the Homeowners Association can call for a meeting with Legacy to discuss management issues.
Elections for the new board are scheduled for later this month.
Here is the full statement provided to ABC Action News and attributed to Andrew Fells, Chief Operating Officer of Legacy Communities:
Legacy Communities is committed to our residents and to providing affordable and quality communities. We take pride in maintaining and improving our communities, fostering a community-like culture, and ensuring residents experience high-level customer service.
Ranchero Village was owned by a co-op when Legacy acquired the property and our purchase agreement was with the Shareholder Board controlling the ownership interest of their members. As outlined in the agreement, the Shareholder Board was responsible for resident communication and for collecting and delivering signed leases.
As requested by the Shareholder Board, Legacy agreed to email files to all residents, using contact information provided by the Shareholder Board.
To further assist the Shareholder Board, Legacy provided staff on-site for multiple days to answer questions, walk through the files, and ensure residents could access the files either electronically or in paper form. We worked diligently with the Shareholder Board to provide access to these lease documents and extended the deadline to 2 weeks past closing to give all residents adequate time to understand the process.
Legacy plans to invest over $3,000,000 in upgrades to the Ranchero Village community. This includes necessary infrastructure upgrades, roadwork, new signage, fencing, clubhouse renovations, added amenities and pool area enhancements. We have also guaranteed stipends for each resident wishing to make improvements to their own homes, adding value to their investment within the community.
The HOA committee at Ranchero can request a meeting, per Florida statute (Chap. 723) and Legacy meets with every community who requests such meeting.
If you have a story you think the I-Team should investigate, email us at adam@abcactionnews.com