By Dorothy M. Atkins — Tuesday June 18, 2013

When rich condo owners fight it out over money and property, it’s not a pretty sight.The ugliness — a sliding condo market, mystery phone calls and accusations of fraud — belies the beauty of the backdrop: a condo development called Aqua nestled along Indian Creek in Miami Beach. The tangle over unit 902 is playing out in the legal system, costing both sides thousands of dollars. At issue: whether a condo association has the right to stop a short sale and try to buy the unit itself.  The story begins in 2005 when New Yorker Philip Shapiro purchased the Aqua unit for $1.84 million, at the height of the real estate boom. Shapiro put an additional $500,000 into the three-bedroom, four-bathroom condo with an Intracoastal view, adding custom lighting and limestone floors to compliment balconies that wrap around the unit.  Shortly after, the housing bubble burst, the market crashed and the U.S. economy dipped into the worst recession since the Great Depression.  Read more:http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/18/3456552/seller-condo-board-targeting-sale.html