HomeMy WebLinkAbout0846 owners now live on their lots a ma~ority of the time, and a
few owners now even use their mobile homes as a permanent
residence, and claim homestead exemption for real estate tax
purposes. Besides recreational vehicles and small mobile homes,
there are now mobile homes on some of the lots which a re used
for permanent homes and these owners never move the mobile
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homes from their lots. The president of the developer testified
that their total investment in this condominium was between eight
and nine million, and that they had about "broken even" on the
sales and costs of this condominium. He further t-estified that F
they intended to make their profit from this development from
the rental income of the lots. The developer now owns only two
lots in the condominium and an office buildina fo r its staff
for the rental of the lots.
The Plaintiff has developed over the past years twelve
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similar resort areas, five of which are in Florida and the re-
maininq in other states. On some of these developments, the
Plaintiff has sold the lots outright to individual owners and
in some of these developments, Plaintiff has retained ownership
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and is renting the lots. In~others, the developer has reserved
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; one-half of the rents, similar to the Nettles Island Condominium.
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; In its answer, the Defendant has alleged two affirma-
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tive defenses. In the first affirmative defense, Defendant
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alleges that this action cannot be maintained as a class action
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~ and it cannot defend the various unit owners in a class action
~ suit, since the interest~of the condominium association and the
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; unit owners are not coextensive and since this action is not a
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matter of common interest as required in Rule 1.220(b), Florida
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~ Rules of Civil Procedure.
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In the second affirmative defense, Defendant alleges
- that Article XI of the Declaration of Condominium constitutes an
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unenforceable contract in violation of public policy because this
~ article in its operation has or may have a tendency to restrain
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~ real estate trade and stifles competition in real estate broker '
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