A South Florida woman fulfilled a lifelong dream when she bought her waterfront condominium last year. She even came up with thousands of dollars at the last minute to cover a special assessment to get the deal done. When she learned there were more assessments to come, she called Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante worked her whole life to hopefully afford a South Florida view like this.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cMy dream since I was a little girl was seeing some water far away with some boats.\u201d<\/p>\n
So when a condo in her price range overlooking the water became available \u2014 she jumped on it.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cAnd I made an offer that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
She took one look out over this balcony and made up her mind.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cIt was meant for me. When things are meant for you, they\u2019re meant for you and this was meant for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like so many South Florida condos, her future home was coming with special assessments.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cThey would approve me if I paid up the special assessment for impact windows up front in the amount of $17,523.10.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Laura thought that was it.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cI had peace of mind. I said, \u2018I have paid my windows, I don\u2019t have to worry about that.’\u201d<\/p>\n
But just a few months later, she was told she was still responsible for the upcoming special assessment.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cIt means that I would have to be paying for 13 years, starting in May 2026, a total amount of $53,800.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura was heartbroken.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cI never thought this would happen; this hit me like a rock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard, how do you avoid something like this?<\/p>\n
Howard Finkelstein: \u201cWhen buying a condo \u2013 especially in the present time in South Florida \u2013 you need to make sure what special assessments have already been imposed and what\u2019s coming down the pipeline. And consider having a lawyer to help you out \u2013 because the terminology can be hard to understand. It might be worth the money when you consider special assessments can easily climb into the tens of thousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
We reached out to Laura\u2019s association.<\/p>\n
They told us Laura had been given \u201ca conditional approval by prepaying a portion of the upcoming special assessment.\u201d They told us the funds would be held onto for one year.<\/p>\n
Then \u2013 \u201cafter one year, those funds will go towards their monthly maintenance fees.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the outcome Laura was hoping for.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cI don\u2019t have high blood pressure and right now I\u2019m getting high blood pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s got her beautiful view \u2013 it\u2019s just more expensive than she dreamed.<\/p>\n
Laura Bustamante: \u201cI work very hard for my money. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard says for many people buying a house is the biggest investment you\u2019ll make in your life. And condominiums \u2013 with their associations \u2013 can be tricky to navigate. He says do your due diligence so you don\u2019t miss anything.<\/p>\n
Got a problem? Need a hand? Here\u2019s how you find us. It\u2019s Help Me Howard. I\u2019m Brandon Beyer, 7News.<\/p>\n
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD Copyright 2026 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 woman fulfilled a lifelong dream when she bought her waterfront condominium last year. She even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-296871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296871","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=296871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296871"}],"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