Condo Nightmare: The Carlisle on the Ocean

The Miami Sun Post reports:

Colin Hendrick knew the Carlisle on the Ocean had problems, but he never imagined the tangled web of corruption and financial debauchery he’d uncover there.

The Carlisle, built in 1965 at 9195 Collins Ave. in the village of Surfside, was converted to condominiums in 2004 — a period when bartenders traded in martini shakers for real estate licenses, flippers made fortunes overnight and anyone with the ability to sign on the dotted line was given exotic mortgages without even a down payment.

Now that the housing and lending markets have collapsed and the court system, State Attorney’s Office and local police departments are either backlogged or totally incapable of cleaning up the fallout, the Carlisle on the Ocean is struggling to wake from this new American nightmare that has homeowners drowning in debt.

The Carlisle’s condominium association isn’t taking in enough money to cover basic operating costs, let alone the $300,000 it needs for new elevators, because owners of nearly 60 of the building’s 115 units aren’t paying maintenance fees. Nine of those units are owned by banks that have taken back titles after lengthy foreclosure proceedings.


They aren’t small fly-by-night banks either, but huge corporate entities such as HSBC Bank USA, Countrywide Home Loans, Citibank, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Bank of New York, Reo Properties Corp., U.S. Bank National and EMC Mortgage Corp.

“We think it’s scandalous that banks aren’t paying the condo fees,” said Hendrick, president of the Carlisle on the Ocean Condominium Association. “It’s causing horrendous economic hardship.… It’s an absolute economic disaster for our building, and it’s replicated up and down the coast.”

The situation likely will get worse. In all, about 30 units in the building are in the foreclosure process. Under state law, banks are required to pay maintenance fees from the time they take back title and up to six months in back fees.

The struggles of communal living.