Metro Development Group — Local services in Tampa

I bought a townhome in a community owned by Metro at the first of this year. The units themselves are lovely and have been upgraded by previous owners in a prime on the water location.

This could be a great, classy community if it weren't for Metro. Metro has not only committed breach of the bylaws by misappropriation of funds and actual ILLEGAL theft of funds in the HOA account, they have refused to turn over control of the HOA to homeowners; they have not developed the rest of the lots in the development nor the common areas; they have not maintained common areas properly or made necessary repairs thereby defaulting on contractual obligations. You would think in the hot Tampa real estate market, they would be anxious to finish developing the units and the waterfront and be anxious to have a stellar community.

Live Oak trees have been planted in front of the units at an unsafe distance from the structures. Sidewalks and Driveways are lifting. Homeowners are having issues with plumbing and foundation damage. These trees will have to be removed.

Irrigation systems for all landscaping is non operational. Our grass and plants are dying. The landscape is tired and an eyesore. Many owners are updating landscaping in front of their units at their own expense. Landscaping at the front entry is aged and dying, irrigation not working, landscape lighting not working.

Parking for guests is ridiculous. There are not enough guest spaces.

The pool is frequently dirty, the palm trees around the pool have died.

This should be a stellar community that we and Metro should be proud of. Instead, it is lackluster in appearance at best. Metro has failed in its contractual obligations with it's illegal practices. We homeowners...

UPDATE: Metro sold our neighborhood to another developer when we started pressuring them to return the money they took from our HOA reserves that their own audit shows they owe us. We’ve had to come together as a community to get a lawyer and try to force them to pay the tens of thousand of dollars their own audit admits they owe us. So, it feels like they sold our neighborhood when they realized they could not steal from us anymore.

As a resident of a Metro property for the past 6 months, I thought the property looked nice, but the more I live here, the more concerned I am by Metro's neglect. The big undeveloped parts of the neighborhood are overgrown and host mosquitoes and invasive plant species, the dog bags regularly run out, there is little parking, building and fire alarms go off for days and even weeks at a time.

There is also no say in how much the internet costs or if homeowners can build community assets to increase property value because METRO OWNS THE HOA and it will not give it to the actual homeowners. They have owned the HOA for over a decade and they just passed an amendment saying they will keep power for another 5 years. HOA meetings are not open to actual homeowners.

Most importantly, the HOA fees keep rising and the budget for emergency and maintenance projects keep shrinking. If we had a major storm come through, Metro would not have the funds in the HOA to repair roofs. This is the HOA 's responsibility to keep enough funding to repair the exterior of buildings. Since the HOA IS METRO, then why isn't Metro keeping enough in reserve? Where are our ever-rising HOA...

I have been a homeowner of a metro property since 2007. While I had high hopes for the community at the time, Metro has acted unfairly and even corruptly in keeping homeowners out of the HOA and ANY decision making on how the HOA fees are spent. I recently looked at the public financials for our community with an accountant and there is a LOT of money from HOA fees that aren't present. There is no way to find out exactly how our money is being spent. Metro tried to build on land they have not yet developed with another builder for a different zoning project without the homeowner's prior knowledge or permission - because they have and will not let go of complete power of the HOA, even after 10 years. I understand that that would give them power over the HOA in perpetuity.

Furthermore, half of the community that was scheduled to be built never got built. There are empty, overgrown lots that host clouds of MOSQUITOES due to untended, standing water. Community members had to block off one of the roads because people were going way back there and dumping trash, ect. The pool was the only amenity built. It's nice to have, but it's often closed for maintenance that can take weeks.

While Metro has done some maintenance, such as mowing grassy areas and pressure washing roofs, they have also passed on the expense of a fee from the city for things the HOA (METRO) is responsible for to the homeowners, who had no power to take care of it. There is little parking in the area for guests. The gates will not respond to some clickers. There is no say in landscaping.

How is...