{"id":170413,"date":"2026-02-26T19:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170413\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T19:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:18:18","slug":"key-colony-to-pay-270000-to-settle-unusual-condo-vs-condo-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170413\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Colony to pay $270,000 to settle unusual condo vs. condo lawsuit\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lawsuit between the Key Colony Homeowners\u2019 Association and one of its buildings has been settled with the resort complex\u2019s master association agreeing to pay EmeraldBay\u2019s legal fees and other costs after their years-long dispute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A former HOA president, Matt Bramson, predicted the settlement will wind up costing all owners more money in the future. \u201cThe real winners were the lawyers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Key Colony, with 1,179 units, is the island\u2019s largest condo complex. <\/p>\n

For three decades, EmeraldBay and the three other condo buildings in the seaside\u00a0 resort property would collect both their maintenance fees as well as the master association\u2019s fees. All four buildings would then pay the full amount of the HOA fees for all of the units, regardless if they had received payment from individual owners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dispute was over what happens when a unit becomes delinquent, aggravated by reduced collections during the pandemic. There was also a dispute over an election, where an owner won a spot as a representative on the master association board even though they were delinquent in paying fees, according to court filings. <\/p>\n

In 2022, EmeraldBay changed its 30-year practice and said they would only submit the fees they actually collect \u2013 no longer fronting the money for delinquent homeowners. Key Colony Homeowners\u2019 Association filed suit, resulting in an unusual scenario in which some owners were \u2014 in effect \u2014\u00a0 suing themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case was decided in EmeraldBay\u2019s favor last year<\/a>, but the condo building was still seeking $222,000 in attorneys\u2019 fees and costs<\/a> from the Key Colony Homeowners\u2019 Association. The master association had appealed the lower court ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the dispute over fees has now been resolved, according to the settlement filed Friday in the 11th Judicial Circuit Court for and of Miami-Dade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"In this file photo, the sign outside the office to the Key Colony Homeoweners\u2019 Assocaition is seen, Feb. 8, 2021 (KBI Photo\/Tony Winton)<\/p>\n

Key Colony Homeowners\u2019 Association has agreed to pay a total of $270,000, with $125,000 to cover EmeraldBay\u2019s legal fees and a credit of $145,000 to be applied to EmeraldBay\u2019s account with the Key Colony HOA for the outstanding balance. That amount would be on top of the legal fees already paid by HOA, which were not immediately known.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When reached on Tuesday afternoon, EmeraldBay President Bonnie Sekeres said she had no comment. David McDanal, who was president of the HOA when the case was filed in 2023, declined comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The luxury and gated community lies next to the Atlantic Ocean. The HOA maintains the beach, two pools, the front gate, and other amenities serving the residents of four buildings\u00a0 \u2014 Botanica, EmeraldBay, Tidemark, and OceanSound.<\/p>\n

Never miss a story! Sign up for our FREE newsletter<\/p>\n

Precedent could increase costs\u00a0<\/p>\n

The settlement agreement also means EmeraldBay is not responsible or liable for paying all master assessment fees, but instead only responsible for handing over those fees it actually collects from unit owners.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not immediately known whether the other three buildings, citing the case as precedent, will follow suit. In the past, when a unit became delinquent, it would be up to the individual building to recover both its own and the master HOA fees in a single collection process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

H. Frances Reaves, the president of the OceanSound condo, said there is no immediate plan to change current practice, which she says her residents prefer. But she also\u00a0 criticized the Key Colony HOA for being unable to solve problems. \u201cHOA is a dysfunctional board. I don\u2019t know why,\u201d Reaves said.<\/p>\n

But if the other buildings were to follow EmeraldBay\u2019s example, new delinquencies would result in separate collection actions,, creating costlier administrative and legal expenses for all owners, Bramson predicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is this \u2018condo commando\u2019 instinct to sometimes use lawyers as a form of confrontation,\u201d said Bramson.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a shame that cooler heads could not have prevailed with a problem-solving approach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n \"\" <\/a><\/p>\n

Jessica De Leon is a general assignment reporter at the Key Biscayne Independent.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n \"\" <\/a><\/p>\n

\n Editor-in-Chief <\/p>\n

Tony Winton is the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent and president of Miami Fourth Estate, Inc. He worked previously at The Associated Press for three decades winning multiple Edward R. Murrow awards. He was president of the News Media Guild, a journalism union, for 10 years. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of Columbia University. His interests are photography and technology, sailing, cooking, and science fiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lawsuit between the Key Colony Homeowners\u2019 Association and one of its buildings has been settled with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17549,81049,81050,589,81051,833,81052,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-170413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-condominium","tag-emerald-bay","tag-emeraldbay","tag-featured","tag-key-colony","tag-lawsuit","tag-maintenance-fees","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170413","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=170413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}