HOA Interview of Buyer--Phone,SKYPE, or In person Only?

I am a new buyer of a Villa/Townhouse in Florida and have gone through the whole process of buying a villa. I am from Illinois, and spent 6 days in Florida last week.
Our Realtor showed us some villa's and we decided on one. We put our good faith deposit down, negotiated with the current owner, and we came to an agreement
on price, and we both signed off. A date for closing was set next month, and all we needed was the HOA contract to be signed, and everything would be done.
The realtor told us that everything could be done on-line, even the closing. So we returned to Illinois, back to our jobs. I called the HOA and had them e-mail me the contract, and they told me to mail them a $100.00 check for the background check report. Then they asked me, when would we like to come back for the interview.
I asked them,could we do the interview on the phone or SKYPE. They said no, the reason was ,"we had some trouble in the past". My realtor visited them today, to see if she could convince them to make an exception, but they said no. Could anyone out there come up with way in which I can avoid taking off from work, along with my wife,for a hour interview?

MK

You thought of a good idea with skype.
Unfortunately, per your posting, the Board tried it in the past and didn't like it so they won't use it again.

The other options are:

1) Fly down for the weekend and interview on a Saturday/Sunday
2) Expecting that the purchase is contingent on the interview, cancel the deal

Read pages 13 and 14 of the link Geno posted as it has relevance to the post "HOA Board member home invasion, terrorizing resident". One of the "their suggestion in dealing with squatters is demanding rent.

And I thought California was nuts.

" They said no, the reason was ,"we had some trouble in the past".

"Must be OK if the HOA has been doing it for years and such is in the documents". Would they instead accept every family member's fingerprints, criminal records checks and lots of colour photos from every direction. Hope you are not members of the American Civil Liberties Union. Maybe not bad idea to include geneological tree & recommendations from whatever religious denomination you think prevails onsite. Do it for pets too. good luck

I have heard of demands for interviews in the past and they have always been in Florida (at least for HOA properties, not co-ops).

(Some of these stories were VERY strange- like the HOA apparently wouldn't approve anyone).

MAYBE this is allowable because the HOA has the right to purchase the property if they don't like the buyer.

Personally I find this interview demand troubling. I would point out that there are places where this sort of thing doesn't happen (like AZ). In case OP wants to back out at this point.

... back to MarvinK1's question, since he has voluntarily chosen to buy into such a community, I still don't know whether an HOA rule that interviews must be conducted in-person is reasonable or defensible. It's likely to be an edge case where there's not a lot of case law to help decide the issue. The HOA's "trouble in the past" could range from misrepresentation of the facts on a conference call to people not knowing how to install the appropriate software on their computers. Maybe the trouble was they couldn't figure out how to even turn the thing on.

I would adamantly oppose this interview. Is the sale contingent upon the interview. If not I would tell this board to take a flying leap and go ahead with the purchase. This is an example of an HOA involving themselves in matters they have no business being involved in. It is just wrong and smacks of discrimination. Of course you wouldn't be starting out your relationship with the board in a very positive light. That could have implications too.

But it's certainly possible the HOA has the legal right to conduct this interview and approve the sale. I am not familiar with Florida law regarding this.

In your post you mentioned signing a contract with the HOA. As others have asked, just what contract are you signing.

I would tread very cautiously and think hard about how important that villa is to you. It just wouldn't feel right to me that I had to pass an interview before I could purchase the property. And the background check is another matter too. They expect you to pay for that? No way would I pay for that. In my opinion this HOA is way overstepping.

Mine doesn't screen, either. The bottom line in Florida is that the law explicitly allows Condo and Co-op associations to screen potential buyers, but is silent on the matter for HOAs. Therefore it depends on the HOA governing documents.

Excellent digging & comments by GenoS FLA.

An eye opening read when alongside the US constitution & Bill of Rights, or is it ? Many jurisdictions everywhere let co-ops – like conventional landlords - vette prospective buyers of proprietary leases. see also :senior communities deemed non-discriminatory discrimination.

Parallel to that there MAY (?) also be a compelling, constitutional-compliant case for Buyer Veto in philanthropic/religious havens for religious minorities. Such Veto may depress resale values / limit buyers / complicate selling. Such communities may be income-subsidized or set up heavily by charitable donations, the Buyer Veto clause being imbedded within governance docs/proprietary Lease contracts etc. It would face challenges if improperly expressed to buyers.

The Training module Aquarian Foundation v Sholom House (Condominium) (1984) http://www.leagle.com/decision/19841614448So2d1166_11381.xml/AQUARIAN%20FOUNDATION,%20INC.%20v.%20SHOLOM%20HOUSE,%20INC.

Fla Appeals court apparently applies that it was unreasonable for such embedded Buyer Veto power NOT to be ADEQUATELY ENOUGH accompanied by the discipline/ blocked Seller’s remedy of an imbedded, specific, consecutive obligation that the vetoing Condo Corp’s offer to purchase the seller’s unit at market value.

The Condo governance document is said to expressly empower being applied "arbitrarily, capriciously, or unreasonably". However the Appeal judgment holds the Sholom condo governance documents did not reasonably enough guarantee a post veto buyout obligation.
It construes the Sholom documents to have been worded that new buyers would not have understood the lack of sufficient guaranteed buyout.

Gaps in detail are obvious, and cherry-picking from the judgment must be tempting.

Great digging by GenoS Fla

I finally got a copy of the HOA charter, and I read it line to line, and yes it does state absolutely no SKYPE,Phone interviews, only in person . I also found something even worse in the charter. Absolutely no rentals or leasing allowed. There was also a lot of other covenants in the charter, that immediately, I called my realtor, and got me out of the contract. I have learned a new lesson, always ask for the HOA charter, before bidding on a property. Thanks to all who have commented on my problem.

> always ask for the HOA charter, before bidding on a property.

It may not be realistic to get it FIRST; however it does make sense to ask questions to filter out the properties that are completely undesirable, and then confirm later.

By the way- if you intend to live there- you may WANT restrictions (although perhaps not an absolute prohibition) on rentals.

Marvin

Many associations would love a no or very restrictive rental policy. Like it or not, renters are more a source of problems then are livein owners.