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Brown lawn means jail time

By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer
In print: Saturday, October 11, 2008




BAYONET POINT — On Friday morning, Joseph Prudente put on a pair of shorts and his "Grandpa Gone Wild" T-shirt. He took off his wedding band and put his heart medication in a plastic Wal-Mart bag.

Then his daughter drove him to jail. Grandpa had time to do.

His crime? He had disobeyed a court order that he sod the lawn at his Beacon Woods home.

His bail? Zero.

Prudente, 66, must stay in the Pasco County jail in Land O'Lakes until the required sod work is completed, under a September court order signed by Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray.

"He's in prison for God knows how long because we can't afford to sod the lawn," said his sobbing daughter, Jennifer Lehr.

Prudente has owned a home in the deed restricted community since 1998. The covenants require homeowners to keep their lawns covered with grass.

Earlier this year, the Beacon Woods Civic Association took Prudente to court after he failed to install new sod on his browning lawn, which had withered after his sprinklers broke. The association had already sent letters telling him to resod his front and back yards by certain dates.

In an interview at the jail Friday evening, Prudente said he thought he had made a good financial hardship case to the association: His adjustable rate mortgage went up an extra $600 a month. Wachovia repossessed his Toyota Scion. His daughter and her two young children, who had fallen on hard times, moved in with him and his wife, Pat.

"To me, keeping the house is more important than the grass," said Prudente, a retired registered nurse from New York. "I just ignored them."

He ignored them, too, after the association filed a complaint in court. He ignored a court order in May, signed by Bray, giving Prudente 30 days to sod the yard.

In June, the court also awarded the association $795 in fees, which included a $645 attorney's fees and a $150 fee for "an expert witness."

By September, there was still no sod. Bray found Prudente in contempt of court, but said in his order that Prudente could "purge himself of this contempt" by doing the required work within the next 30 days. That time expired Friday.

"It is clear to the Court that the ability to avoid incarceration is well within the Defendant's grasp," Bray wrote.

Representatives of the Beacon Woods association expressed regret Prudente had landed in jail. But they said it was his own fault.

"It's a sad situation," said board president Bob Ryan, who added that the association had followed all the correct procedures. "But in the end, I have to say he brought it upon himself."

Lawyer Thomas Gurran, who represents the association, said in a statement that the association had "just wanted Mr. Prudente to comply with the lawn restriction." He added that the contempt power of judges is essential to the system.

"Many orders and judgements … would be absolutely meaningless if they could not be enforced by a judge's contempt power," he said. "This case is an example of what happens when someone defies an order entered by a judge in our country."

Prudente's family said the case had gone too far. Pat Prudente said she and her husband knew they had chosen to live in a community with restrictions. "But they shouldn't have this much power," she said.

Back at the jail — where the population is 1,132, well above the 782 capacity — Parente said he was being treated well. He has no criminal record in Florida and said his stay in Land O'Lakes was his first time ever in a slammer.

What comes next? He doesn't know. "Should I go out and rob a bank? Then I'd be back here," he said. "But then I'd get out on bail."




http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article847365.ece

WTF? I have never heard of anything so wasteful of the taxpayers money as this. Jeeze....let him get some grass seed and use the damn hose. My goodness...use some common sense about this kind of thing. Sounds to me that this family would be entirely better off selling that house in that POS neighborhood and moving to a neighborhood that isn't so stuck up snobby arsed picky about some damn grass.

Well putting the man in jail is going to get the lawn re-sod real quick eh?

I'm surprised that weeds didn't fill in the dead grass, this is Florida, they typically can cover an entire patch of unattended ground in less then 1 month, and we have had plenty of rain this summer to induce growth.

Home owner associations stink.

I don't mind HOAs either as long as they exhibit some common sense... this time it appears they did not.

Yea, he bought the house and knew the rules.. did he know he was going to get hit with this hardship? Should he try to sell his house in this market and take a beating so he can move to a house where nobody cares if his grass dies?

For God's sake, show some compassion... they could get 8-10 neighborhood folks out there and churn up that yard and throw some seed down for the old guy and be done with it.. for a hundred bucks... but they chose the other option, send an old guy to jail. This really is NOT the America of our fathers...

HOA's are just like having another Federal Govt. wraped around your neck ..

Yeah, and you get to pay for it too.

Like I said, it seems another route could have been taken.

However, all we have is one side to the story. That may be all there is, or there may be a bunch of other stuff we don't know.

Homeowner groups don't usually seek to start action against other members unless there is a long delay in ignoring requests to bring the property up to standard.

....just plant some grass.

If you don't like the rules of your HOA, move.

Kennewick reservist faces threats over landscaping

Lt. Burke Jensen was called five months ago to serve his country in Kuwait. Now he is being told to get an irrigation system and landscaping on his property as soon as possible or face legal action from the Oak Hill Country Estates Homeowners' Association.

By John Trumbo

Tri-City Herald

Map data ©2008 Tele Atlas - Terms of UseSee more mapped stories
KENNEWICK — Burke Jensen moved to Kennewick about a year ago, bought a nice house in the country south of the city and began to settle into a new job at Energy Northwest.

Then came the call five months ago to serve his country in Kuwait.

So Jensen, who says he is an involuntarily mobilized reservist, headed off, leaving behind a pregnant wife, a young son and a 2.5-acre lot with not a spot of landscaping.

Now, Lt. Jensen is being told to get an irrigation system and landscaping on his property as soon as possible or face legal action from the Oak Hill Country Estates Homeowners' Association.

"I really don't give a [expletive] where he is or what his problem is," said Chick Edwards, owner and developer of the 47-lot subdivision at the south end of Oak Street in Kennewick.

"It doesn't matter to me," said Edwards, who insists Jensen has violated terms of the homeowners-association covenants requiring that landscaping be completed within one year after an occupancy permit is issued for a home.

"[Jensen] doesn't have the right to walk away from his obligation," said Edwards, who as the developer is the only member of the homeowners association. "I have most of the property still, so I am the homeowners association," he said.

Jensen's situation is complicated by the fact his wife chose to return with her son to stay with family on the East Coast for the duration of her pregnancy, leaving the home unoccupied.

Jensen's attorney, Tony DeAlicante of Redmond, Ore., said Jensen had paid a landscaper thousands of dollars to design and install an irrigation system and hydroseed the large lot this summer.

But DeAlicante said it appears the landscaper may have abandoned the job with the irrigation system only partially completed and no seeding done.

DeAlicante said Jensen also would like to find a renter for his home, but Edwards said that would be a commercial use not allowed by the homeowners association.

"He's not going to rent it," said Edwards. He said an attorney who has reviewed the covenants agrees.



An e-mail on Friday from Jensen to DeAlicante, which was provided to the Herald, says several of Jensen's fellow employees at Energy Northwest are helping to clear the property of weeds and blow out sprinkler lines, if necessary, to make sure they will not freeze during the winter. It also says a neighbor used a tractor to mow weeds.

Rick Miller, whose home is in sight of Jensen's, said he's sympathetic to Jensen's situation. "Given the circumstances, it doesn't bother me," he said. "He can't control the circumstances."

DeAlicante said he has written Edwards to tell him the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act prevents any civil legal action from being taken against someone on active military duty overseas. He also maintains Edwards cannot legally prevent Jensen from renting his property.

But Edwards said he isn't backing down.

"This is a contract. I don't like the way his property looks. This clown gets to do what he wants, and I'm as mad as hell," he said.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008231428_reservist06m.html

WTF!!!! This man is deployed by our military to a "war" zone and the moron that runs the development is being a total richard? I say we send that douche rocket to Kuwait and have him tell this soldier in person that he's gonna get sued.

Another unfortunate situation.

Chick is ticked because it is hard enough to find qualified buyers today, who then might show reservation because they see a unoccupied house sitting in the middle of eroding dirt.

Just to express some of the reason for the other side of the story....at least a plausible reason.

While I want it to work out for the guy, I do understand the developers concern.

How is he going to sell lots with restrictions and then people see that?

Once you start allowing cracks in the restriction, they never go away.

Good point. There is always another side.

HOA's have some decent power. We had this d-bag living above us that decided to start using his condo as a place for his band to rehearse AT ALL HOURS OF THE NIGHT! The last night before I went to the HOA, the band was still playing at 3am so I went upstairs. I pounded on the door, he said sorry and I went back to bed. No more than 3 minutes later, they pick right back up.

Three fines later (50, 250 and 3,000).....he rented a place to practice outside of the building.

Chick Edwards is a jerk. Plain and simple. A guy gets sent off to war and all Chick is concerned about is the yard? Freaking jerk.

What the idiot SHOULD do is tell prospective buyers something along the lines of "hey, this guy get sent off to war to benefit this country. We're making an exception for him, due to the fact that he is involuntarily out of the country and possibly being shot at. What we are doing in the meantime is trying to collect enough money from neighbors and friends to do the work for him."

Instead he says he doesn't give a "blank" where he is?

Screw that jerk.

The more I read the more it ticks me of.. (not you Peen, the topic in general).. Look, I don't consider myself any kind of saint, I just try to be a nice guy. The guy across the street from me moved 2 months ago and it was fairly sudden, the housing market here isn't as bad as some places but it's not good either.. and he had to put his on the market and leave almost all of his belongings in it for the time being... Me and my neighbor have split mowing his lawn every week, we've watered his lawn twice a week, the woman that lives beside me goes in and dusts once a week and waters the plants to keep it looking decent to sell. I go in every couple weeks and run the faucets and the washing machine and the dishwasher to keep his traps from drying out.... Damn it, it's not that hard to be a decent human being.... so while the HOA seems fairly Nazi-esque and it's real easy to come down on them for this, his neighbors seem like complete selfish assholes.

I was thinking the same thing with the first story. If this was my neighbor I would have bought some damn grass seed and put it down for him. I still don't like these Associations, I'd never live in one.

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I give you and your neighbor's a 2 thumb's up , a twist and a twirl!!!!!!

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Careful, a man your age could pull a hammy doing that.

Wow, that guy is a douchebag.

WTF happened to common sense?

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Careful, a man your age could pull a hammy doing that.

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sound's like youv'e done it old man!??????

I could pull a hammy just thinking about doing it..

Oh, I agree...especially in the first case presented.

The second is a problem.....it sounded like the sprinkler system wasn't totally installed and the land may have been in some state of being dug up....you can't plant that.

HOA's have ups and downs. My house here in Tennessee doesn't have a strong association other than you can't park in the streets as a primary parking spot and if you want to paint your house off of a approved listing of colors, it has to be approved by the members...it includes all the normal colors and off colors.

My house in Florida is a different deal...you can't park cars in the driveway unless it is a guest....you can't own a pick-up truck and keep it at the home...(I don't like that...could never take my weekend truck down there), golf carts have to meet standards, roofs have to stay tile, no shingles...a pretty long list.

Shoot....the committee sent me a letter 2 years ago saying my hanging wooden address sign had some rot and requested I replace it.....lol.

At the time my cousin and her husband were living there after getting creamed by Katrina....since I wasn't renting, there wasn't much anybody could say, so they changed it for me preventing me from having to have the yard man or neighbor from doing it, or taking time to go down to do it myself..


But as I said, I like neighborhoods with restrictions. All it takes is one crappy house to bring down the whole street.

Like you said and do...I would help out my neighbors...they help me by keeping a eye on things while my wife or I aren't there.

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Home owner associations stink

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My brother lives in one of those and you wouldn't believe what they aren't allowed to do.It wouldn't do me any good to live their cause I would damn for sure be in jail the first time they told me what I can do on my own property.

I live out in the country and we can do as we please.Luckily,noone wants a purple house.But if they did,that would be their own business and their choice.

I wouldn't live in one of those snooty ass houses like my brother is in if they gave it to me.

What am I missing here.. if the guy can't afford to sod his lawn, then why don't the neighbors chip in for some grass seed and some bails of hay.. Help him grow his own.. That to me makes more sense than sending a man to jail.... But that's just me.

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Help him grow his own..

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Yea, then he could sell it and afford to sod his lawn...

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House colors, yard upkeep, no trucks, etc

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House colors, yard upkeep, these things I can see, but no Trucks , there must be more to that i am missing.

I don't know about their specific one, but usually small trucks are fine. It's essentially there so you don't bring home your Joe's Plumbing work truck. But smaller private trucks are usually accepted.

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Yea, then he could sell it and afford to sod his lawn...

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Hmm, hadn't thought of that.. good idea DC

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Grass seed and hay doesn't really work in Florida.

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Ahh yes, I must have missed that part...thanks

My response is for those that are saying this guy shouldn't be in jail and the association should have shown restraint.

As the current (and so far only) president of my Homeowner's Association, I can tell you that personally I do show restraint in governing the Association. That said, every Association has guidelines and restrictions that must be followed. It is only after ignoring those restrictions (and usually this is repeated behavior) that most associations go to court.

I know a great many Association managers who will usually talk to the parties involved before it ever gets to the formal complaints in writing to try to give the resident time to get it in order. Once it goes to the formal complaints, there are very specific guidelines that must be followed and in almost every case the resident has 30 days or more to rectify any problems before fines start. Once the fines start, there is usually another period of time (60 days is common) for them to still fix the problem. After that, there is the legal time which can be anywhere from 15 days to court time, then more if the judge allows (which this one gave him an additional 30 days).

So it seems to me this guy just flat out said "screw you" to the association and the judge. Sure, he could have asked his neighbors to help him throw the sod out. Hell, he could have had his kid who moved in help him with it. But instead he chose to ignore everything by his own admission.

If you cannot enforce the rules of the community, or the rules of the judge, then why even have them there? He ignored both. He's lucky the Association didn't file a lien on his property for the fines (which indicates to me that he paid the fines which I 'm sure was conciderably more than what it would have cost to throw a couple bags of seed down).

So no, I don't see where he's the "victim" here. He knew the rules ahead of time and chose to willingly disobey them. Good for the association.

Ewwww. You're one of "them".

I agree.

People know the deal when they move in.

As an association, if you start allowing exemptions, there is no going back and the whole thing falls apart.

As you said, these people didn't get a note one day and 2 days later they are in court.

Anyone who lives or owns in an association neighborhood has the power to do a few things.

a) Vote for your board members, if you don't like how they are doing things, vote them out! If you think you can do better, by all means put your name in the hat and run for the position. Most boards that are filled by residents/owners are not paid positions, they do it basically as volunteers. It's not as easy as you might think.

b) Attend the meetings. These can happen Monthly, Quarterly and they all MUST meet Annually. These are mostly financial in content, but any and all members/owners have the ability to request changes to your by-laws and rules. You can do this by talking to your neighbors and talking to the Board president. If your rule makes sense, it will probably pass. But keep in mind any law/rule will be broken at some point. And they have to be explicit because someone will think of a way that it can be interpreted and try to get around it. So be thorough in your wording.

c) Help your neighbors! A community is only as good as the people in it. In my community, we all know each other and we all try to pitch in. There are a few that are just jerks and refuse to do anything. And you can pretty much tell by looking around their place who it is.


Associations aren't necessarily a bad thing. How they are run and who is in the community determines that. Any resident / owner can change that.

Agree'd, HOA have their benefits.

In our case I think we are just going through a tough phase, a lot of infighting between board members and owners, there seems to be 2 cliques. Mostly divided by, retired home owners, and working family home owners.

Our biggest issue I think is the the documents, written by the developer, and only about 3-4 years ago handed over to us to take control of the HOA. The development is about 15 years old, but when we built in there 7 years ago, it wasn't even half complete.

But my understanding is that the Florida HOA laws are not as well defined as the Condo Association laws, so there seems to always be grey areas on issues.

2 years ago, during the board elections, the Pres that most of us wanted out, used a nice little loophole, and acquired blank proxies from about 1/3 of the owners, most of which are part time residents and don't follow a lot of the turmoil. He essentially, voted himself and his 'group' on to the board.

Talk about outrage, it was a near riot, cops had to come and everything, and we got kicked out from ever using the churches hall again.

That sucks. Not sure how he got "Blank proxies". Perhaps you can talk to the owners that are not going to be there and see if you can convince them to give you the proxy. They can give it to anyone they want that will attend.

I know I've used proxies before to get items passed by folks who really didn't have an opinion on the topics. They gave me the proxy just because I talked to them.

There's some rule in our docs that gives proxies the right to sign their proxy AND their vote to the signee. So basically they checked box #2, signed it, and sent them to him, for him to vote in their place.

Been trying to get that closed since, but the interest in meetings has dwindled to almost nothing as people got disgusted with the way the board ran meetings.

You have to mail a form to the management company 2 weeks prior to a meeting, and have it approved for you to be able to speak during a board meeting, and you only get 90 seconds. So what they do is they let you talk, then they stare at you for the remainder of the 90 seconds before they say anything, and when you try to rebuttal, they claim your time is up. Then the scene from Austin Powers comes to mind, with the "Shhh, and a thousand more Shhhh's where that came from"

For the most part people follow the rules, the only ones people ignore are the pick up truck, and some people insist on parking in the street after 11pm. Which doesn't bother me but they don't all use any common sense, and you'll get 2 morons park on each side right across from each other, which makes it tight getting through.