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The woman is being asked to pay $1,000 toward the association’s legal fees.
A woman in Florida is being ousted from her home by her homeowners association.
Bethany Michel, 28, moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to take care of her father. After his death, she inherited the home, which is in Arbor Mill’s 55-and-up community.
However, Michael is now facing a legal battle from her neighbors who want her out due to age requirements. “They allowed 155 people to think that they had a decision in the vote,” Michel told News4JAX. “But it was the five board members who spoke for the whole community.”
According to the outlet, the Arbor Mill homeowners association approved a $155,000 assessment to pay for legal fees in the ongoing lawsuit against the 28-year-old. Each resident in the community will have to pay $1,000 toward the effort, including Michel.
She emphasized to News4JAX the sentimental value of owning her father’s house and the rarity of Gen-Z home ownership.
“How many people between the age of 20 and 30 can actually become a homeowner these days?” she said. “It’s nearly impossible to become a homeowner, and the fact that he worked to set me up with a situation where I own a home—and I was told I would be allowed to stay.”
Facing pushback
Homeowners associations first started in the mid-19th century as a way to keep land as private as possible. By the 1940s, modern-day versions began to take off and take shape as a way to manage shared spaces, enforce community standards, and protect property values.
Raul Gastesi, attorney and partner at Gastesi Lopez Mestre & Cobiella in South Florida, told Inc. that age-requirement community homeowners associations are a common feature that allows for generations to stay close together.
“You pay for 55-and-over communities so that the people you live with and surround yourself with are 55 and older. You don’t have to worry about kids on scooters. You don’t have to worry about the things that teenagers do,” he said.
There is no single comprehensive federal code governing homeowners associations. However, through the Fair Housing Act, such associations are barred from discriminating in housing-related activities based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability.
Notably, this does not include age, which has allowed for separate communities to thrive. According to a clause in the Arbor Mill homeowners association, children can inherit the home of their parents, but must retain someone in the home who is 55 years old or older.
“If you’re 30 or 35 and you inherit your parents’ apartment and you can’t live in it, you have two choices: either sell it — meaning you may have to sell it at a discount — or try and find a renter. And most people 55 and older do not need to rent. They usually own their own homes,” Gastesi told Inc.
This issue may become a reoccurring one as the U.S. begins to prepare for the silver tsunami, the demographic shift that will occur as older generations retire.
Much of this change will include their homes, which will have to be sold or inherited. Michel’s fight against her homeowners association may not be the last one.
This post originally appeared at inc.com.
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