Grampa Goes To Jail for Brown Lawn

It's reports like these that fan the flames of bad attitude for HOAs!!

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

Here's the first few graphs:

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."

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Sigh.

True.

But I'm still of the opinion that he brought this on himself by IGNORING ALL THE NOTICES, including the one from the court.

Could the HOA have been more lenient? Maybe. But they would have had to have him meet them halfway to even get that conversation going.

I was also going to point out about there are two sides to every story. And Grandpa decided to follow his own beat and not do the right thing and straighten this out the right way. So he paid the concequences for his stubborness. There are always ways to get help when you are in dire need.

in another story, the judge semi-admitted that had the defendant even bothered to show up to court, the outcome would have been much different (ie, more in favor of him, less to the HOA), but when the defense is silent, there's not much choice for a judge than rule in favor of the plaintiff.

I will admit to being a bit of a hard nose about all these "poor people" but here's a list of things the guy could have done to change his situation:

bothered to go to court
asked for help
had his daughter/son-in-law pitch in with either money or labor, since they were living there
asked his neighbor to borrow a garden hose to water the lawn he had
asked someone if they had spare sprinkler parts, and could help him fix his sprinkler
made an effort to fix his sprinkler in any way
bought a home he could afford, without an ARM

This is actually happening all over down here in Florida. We're restricted to watering ONE day per week. Whether we have a well, (reclaimed water) in some areas or city water.

HOA's are coming down on people with brown lawns; even though the people can't water. People try to use different types of lawns---plants; rock gardens; anything but grass or sod and the HOA's restrict that, too.

While there are plenty of HOA abuse cases, I don't feel this is a legitimate one. It appeared to me that they tried to work with the guy. And then when that failed they filed a court case. It isn't the HOA's fault the guy decided to ignore the summons to court. It isn't their fault the judge ordered him jailed for contempt.

One thing people don't often realize is that in many a court case, the outcome is completely out of the hands of the person initiating the action. The HOA simply want and asked the judge to do something. The judge was understandably upset when grandpa decided he needn't be bothered with that stuff.

It would not have cost the guy but a little gas to show up and plead his case. I think there are many more deserving people of the efforts put forth to get this guy out of jail.

Anna,

Reading about Grandpa and his brown lawn and then you noted that HOAs restrict people trying to use the rocks and other types of plants and lawns is now covered by the 2007 Statute changes on Xeriscapeing. There is an ongoing case near Parrish , on the west coast of a homeowner going Xeriscape and his HOA taking him to court.

Not knowing all of the details but did they or did they not apply and get denied by their ACC for the change? That might be the difference but I think that they were denied to go Xeriscape and they did it anyhow. I would hope that the State steps in and protects the H.Os on this one. Water will be the next major issue that Florida will face down the road.

Donna, don't worry. Once the polar icecap melts from global warming and the oceans rise; most of Florida won't have to worry about watering. (:>)

And it includes using rock gardens, succulants and water storage like rain barrels and cisterns.

As a Master Gardener for my County up here, I am very involved in the Xeriscaping. There is a HOA here that took a resident to court because she did just what you said, let the yard got to pot.

Our County AG Agent went to court by suppeona from the woman but he did not help her case because the photos of her property showed yard havoc amongst the plants. YES!!! there is the right way to do this without upsetting the neighborhood.

I'm throwing the B.S. flag.

This guy just didn't "ignore" the HOA, he ignored every single notice, every single hearing, including the judge and the judge's order.

This isn't just a case of a man who was "oh woe is me, I have no $$$, what shall I ever do?!"

This was a case where the guy figured "I'm broke, these guys have no power over me. F'em."

Basically.

Again, this didn't happen overnight and this wasn't a surprise out of left field. This took months and months and months and notice after notice and hearing ad nauseum.

At what point wouldn't a rational person think to himself, "Gee, maybe I better at least stand up in front of the judge and give my side of the story."

Instead, he gave the judge the finger. And ignored the judge's order. And thought, I guess, he would just continue throwing away letters and notices until....when, I wonder?

By the way, I notice that there was the remnants of a child's pool or yard toy of some kind in the yard.

My guess, if he had enough $$$ for toys, he could probably spring for a hose and $5.00 sprinkler from Home Depot.

If he really WAS that "destitute" my guess is a simple handing over of his tax returns and his bank account balances would have been relevant to the judge. . ..

Oh wait. That's right. He didn't bother to show up!!

DJ,

I would think the judge may have ruled differently if he had shown up and pled his case. By not showing up, he gave the impression that he just didn't care. Most judges have any use for a defendent who doesn't have the courtesy to show up in court.

I realize that toys in the yard doesn't necessarily mean he bought them.

Then again, it doesn't mean he didn't, either, and, if there are people there capable of playing on the lawn, there are people there capable of whipping out a hose and watering it from time to time.

My point is that they found a way to ensure the kids were entertained. How much harder was it to find a way to water your yard every once in a while?

The answer is: Not.

To make the case that you are somehow too destitute to water your yard from time to time, well, that dog won't hunt, and I think THAT'S the reason he never showed up. He had NO VALID reason.

After all, it only became an issue of money when he couldn't afford to re-sod. And he only needed to re-sod because he LET the grass wither to begin with:

"he failed to install new sod on his browning lawn, which had withered after his sprinklers broke."

So even before it got so bad that the yard had to be completely re-sodded, he was ignoring the maintenance. Because his "sprinklers broke."

It didn't say his hose broke. And even if it did, he could have borrowed a hose from a neighbor and, since his daughter and her kids had nothing better to do, one of them could have stood there with a hose from time to time to give the yard a little water.

Can't afford water, pray for rain!

Magda,

Is this a service to single family residences or do you live in a condo? I can't see the justification for such a service in my 1,702 member single-family home HOA.

Unfortunately many people are in This boat. There were many mortgage brokers selling this. The prevailing thought being that by the time The ARM would reset the owner could refinance. The owner was supposed to pay on time and increase their credit rating. Also in some areas PMI would not be needed as the property values were sky rocketing. In some insane cases a property would actually go from 100% finance to 20% equity in Three years.

Of course now the mortgage money isn't flowing freely. And while some people did work to improve their credit, many kept to their old ways and even accumulated more debt. And They didn't pay on time like they should. So they were sold junk.