{"id":341638,"date":"2026-07-16T02:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/341638\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T02:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:55:07","slug":"hoa-votes-to-hit-jacksonville-neighbors-with-1000-assessment-in-home-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/341638\/","title":{"rendered":"HOA votes to hit Jacksonville neighbors with $1,000 assessment in home dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

The assessment comes after a Jacksonville influencer fought to remain in the home she inherited, despite the community’s 55+ age restriction.<\/p>\n

OAKLEAF PLANTATION, Fla. \u2014 Neighbors in a Jacksonville 55-plus community will have to pay a $1,000 assessment per household after the homeowners association unanimously approved the charge at a meeting Tuesday night, according to the homeowner at the center of the dispute.<\/p>\n

Bethany Michel said the board voted to approve the assessment during the meeting, a move tied to the ongoing conflict over her inherited home and the community\u2019s age restrictions.<\/p>\n


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RELATED: ‘I have nowhere to go’: HOA dispute over inherited Jacksonville home could cost neighbors thousands<\/a><\/p>\n

Bethany Michel says she moved to Jacksonville in 2019 to care for her terminally ill father, a Navy veteran, after COVID restrictions kept her from giving him the care he needed at his assisted living facility.<\/p>\n

Michel said they needed a home fast, and ended up buying one in Freedom at Arbor Mill, a 55-plus community in Oakleaf Plantation. She said the seller told her she would be grandfathered in after her father died.<\/p>\n

But after her father died in 2023, Michel said the homeowners association started enforcing the community\u2019s age rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before its approval Wednesday, residents received a letter about the proposed special assessment asking each household to pay $1,000, or an extra $100 a month for 10 months, to cover legal costs tied to enforcing the community\u2019s age restrictions.<\/p>\n

The assessment will go into effect on Aug. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

The HOA\u2019s governing documents say the community is intended for residents age 55 and older. Under the federal Housing for Older Persons Act, 55-plus communities must have at least 80% of occupied homes with at least one resident who is 55 or older. The remaining 20% provides flexibility for situations involving younger spouses, caregivers or inherited homes.<\/p>\n

Arbor Mill\u2019s declaration of covenants and restrictions says every occupied home must still have at least one resident who is 55 or older.<\/p>\n

Michel said she simply wants to stay in the home she inherited.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve invested so much time, effort and energy into being a good resident of Duval County, and to know that this is how my dad\u2019s dying wish is being honored, it\u2019s honestly like I wouldn\u2019t wish this upon anybody,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

We reached out to the board late Wednesday about the vote and are waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The assessment comes after a Jacksonville influencer fought to remain in the home she inherited, despite the community’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-341638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341638","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=341638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}