CCFJ.NET:  Unit owners battle condo board members for leasing their private pool to YMCA

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By Monique O. Madan  

Published February 8, 2016

Unit owners at Briarwinds Condominiums in Southwest Dade are fuming that association board members quietly negotiated to lease their private swimming pool to the local YMCA.

The unit owners say board president Dan Suarez — who leases out his own unit and doesn’t live there — didn’t have the right to make a deal with the South Dade YMCA, which is building a new pool and needs a place for members to swim for an undisclosed length of time.

“I don’t understand why owners don’t have a say in this. This is a direct violation of the bylaws,” said unit owner Franklin Longest at a Jan. 13 condo association meeting, where many residents said they first got official word of the YMCA deal.Another Briarwinds unit owner, John Chiarenza, said Suarez and four other board members didn’t tell residents of the plan and that condo meeting notices never mentioned it.  Read more: