A South Florida teacher says her [homeowner\u2019s association] is threatening her with fines for damage to a sidewalk. The problem? She didn\u2019t cause the damage; the city did. That\u2019s when she called Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett has spent nearly three decades shaping young minds.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cI teach elementary in Miami-Dade County Public Schools at William J Bryan Elementary and I have been teaching now for 27 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a long day of teaching, she loves to return to her quiet community in Miramar.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, she says, city crews came to her home to repair a pipe under the sidewalk. They had to break up the concrete to get it done.<\/p>\n
The city promised to fix the sidewalk, and months later, they did.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cThey did follow through on their promise. However, whoever they hired to do that did not do a good job because not too much later, the concrete area of the sidewalk began to sink.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sinking caused a bump. Katya says her homeowner\u2019s association told her she had to fix it.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cSo now the association wants me to pay for fixing the sidewalk, and that\u2019s a huge cost for me as a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n
She contacted the city, asking officials to come back and make the repairs. She was told that because her home is part of an association, it was their responsibility.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cThey\u2019ve just been like, \u2018Nope. You live in an association, the association should be taking care of that.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Katya then called the HOA. They said since the sidewalk is in front of her home, the problem was hers to take care of.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cWhere the association is saying, \u2018Well, according to the contract and bylaws, you\u2019re responsible for the perimeter of your home and everything thereof.\u2019 So it\u2019s a back-and-forth. Where all I did was allow the city to come and repair whatever pipe that they had to repair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the letters threatening fines kept coming.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cAnd then the association is sending me multiple threatening letters about being fined, charges, and things of that nature when all I want is the sidewalk to be repaired.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katya was frustrated.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cIt makes me feel like I\u2019m stuck between a rock and a hard place. If it was something I did on my property, of course I\u2019m expected to be responsible to repair it as soon as possible. However, I did not. The city is the one who came and did the changes and made the damage to the property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard, it was the city\u2019s job. Who\u2019s responsible for the repair?<\/p>\n
Howard Finkelstein: \u201cThe city had the right to make the repairs, but they also had an obligation to do them correctly. If they damage someone\u2019s property, they have to repair it to the state it was in before they damaged it. If the sidewalk was in compliance with the HOA before the repairs, it has to remain in compliance afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
We reached out to both the city and the association.<\/p>\n
The HOA telling us: despite their earlier demand saying Katya must repair the sidewalk, they were now \u201cOpen to coordinating with the City of Miramar if the sidewalk condition is related to prior city work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the city told us: \u201cOur team is coordinating the necessary work to resolve the issue as quickly and safely as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within hours, workers were at Katya\u2019s home inspecting the sidewalk. A few days later, the sidewalk was repaired.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cThe City of Miramar actually came out. They examined the sidewalk, and they decided to make the necessary changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katya says she didn\u2019t know where to turn. We\u2019re glad she thought of us.<\/p>\n
Katya Barrett: \u201cThank goodness for Help Me Howard! I would not be able to get through.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot of times, it\u2019s just knowing the right department to get in contact with. If you\u2019re having a hard time with that, you can always give us a call.<\/p>\n
Got a problem? Need a hand? Below is how to find us. It\u2019s Help Me Howard, I\u2019m Brandon Beyer, 7News.<\/p>\n
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n \tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Florida teacher says her [homeowner\u2019s association] is threatening her with fines for damage to a sidewalk.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-160851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Email:\u00a0helpmehoward@wsvn.com<\/a>
Reporter: Brandon Beyer at\u00a0bbeyer@wsvn.com<\/a>
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN<\/p>\n