HOA Nut House

The bay views are peaceful, even if daily living often isn't.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG - Condominium disputes are fodder for advice columns, the basis of lawsuits and the cause of fractured friendships. A resident of an upscale downtown St. Petersburg condominium tower even challenged another to a duel at dawn.

At Bridgeton North, a 64-unit condominium near the Sunshine Skyway bridge, disputes are being blamed for death threats, vandalized cars, requests for restraining orders, recall petitions and an organized effort to kick out an unwanted couple.

The trouble escalated about a year ago after an engineering company said the nine-story building at 7100 Sunshine Skyway Lane needed about $1.5-million in repairs. Residents balked at the cost and launched a bid to recall the majority of their board.

Polly Demma, 52, and her husband, Albert, 78, hired the engineering firm that issued the dire report. They then sued the condo association to force it to fix problems cited by the firm. Since then, Polly Demma said, they have become pariahs in the condominium that boasts Tampa Bay as its back yard.

The president and vice president of the condo board say the Demmas are simply litigious. They say the building is structurally sound and that all necessary repairs have been made. The association's lawyer is suggesting that Bridgeton owners buy out the Demmas and send them packing. But Polly Demma, who ran for state representative in 1990 and for state education commissioner in 1994, insists that she and her husband are staying put.

"We found this place and absolutely fell in love with it,'' she said of the two-bedroom, two-bath unit they own on the fourth floor. "This is where we want to spend the rest of our lives. ... I didn't buy here to move.''

She and her husband just want the building to be safe, she said.

Caston Lynch, president of the condo board, said the $1.5-million price tag for repairs would have cost each unit owner about $40,000.

Sitting at her dining room table recently, surrounded by files of documents relating to the dispute, Polly Demma said things quickly turned sour after she and her husband bought their apartment in 1998. As they gutted the unit, she said, they found mildew and stains behind wallpaper on an exterior wall. The wall also contained asbestos, she said. The couple discovered that the roof over the balcony leaked and that water came in through the windows and sliding glass door, Demma said. They sued the former owner of the apartment for not disclosing the leak in the exterior wall, she said.

Demma said that last hurricane season, 2 inches of water washed into the unit and that when it rains heavily, as it did recently during Tropical Storm Alberto, a puddle forms on the balcony. Last week as the wind whipped up outside, "It sounded like my porch was going to fall off,'' she said.

Carter Karins, of Karins Engineering Group, said that when his firm studied the building, it found "some significant problems with deteriorating concrete caused by the saltwater from the gulf ... and lots of evidence of moisture damage with the windows and sliding glass doors.''

He doesn't think the building "is in danger of imminent collapse,'' Karins said, but added that repairs will become more expensive over time.

Condominium association officials said they've addressed the problems. Lynch, the president, said only three balconies needed to be repaired.

"The person on the board at the time wanted all the porches replaced,'' he said.

A former president, Jim Mineo, who no longer lives at Bridgeton, said the balconies had begun to deteriorate. Other areas of the building also needed to be repaired, said Mineo, adding that he had advocated having the work done in phases. Some board members disagreed, and rumors and accusations began to make the rounds, he said.

"There were a lot of things said that were not true and there were a lot of scare tactics moneywise,'' said Mineo, who sold his unit in December. "There are still leaks throughout the building. ... The whole exterior of the building needs to be caulked. If anybody in their right mind would sit down and read the engineers' report, they would realize that the current board is not taking corrective action to remedy or take care of the building.''

St. Petersburg lawyer Michael Allweiss is representing the association in its dispute with the Demmas. "I don't understand why they simply don't move somewhere that would make them more happy,'' he said.

"My recommendation is that the people at Bridgeton come up with the money to buy these people out at fair market value or else they'll be tormented for the rest of their lives,'' he said.

The majority of condo owners have signed a petition asking the Demmas to leave, Allweiss said. "That's how bad it is. They had a conflict there recently where they threatened a nun who is a resident of the building. The board members that I represent, they are trying to do right by the other residents. It has been a bizarre thing,'' he said.

This month, two neighbors, Frances H. Dory, 82, and J. Richard Fretz, also 82, petitioned for a restraining order against the Demmas. In his petition, Fretz said Polly Demma swore at him and said "in a very harsh tone of voice'' that she was going to get even with him.

In hers, Dory stated that she avoids any encounter with Polly Demma and that when she turns away, Demma "makes nasty remarks.'' She said she would like to use the garage "without fear.''

Polly Demma, who teaches at Robinson High School in Tampa, said the restraining orders were requested only after her tire was slashed and she told police she saw Fretz standing by her car at 2:30 in the morning.

Ruby Kelly Pfaus, who has lived at Bridgeton since 1983, defended the Demmas and described them as "fine people'' who have been "so ill treated in the building.''

During a telephone interview from Poland, Ohio, where she lives for three months of the year, Pfaus said attempts to correct problems at the Demmas' apartment had been "less than sincere.''

"I have never been in the Demmas' condominium, but I know that there had been numerous problems when the previous owners were there,'' she said.

The condo association has become vindictive, Polly Demma said. Paul Cavonis, the Seminole lawyer who is representing her and her husband in two lawsuits against Bridgeton North, agreed.

"These condominium disputes can be acrimonious. This particular one is particularly bad,'' he said.

Polly Demma, who walks with a slight limp, said the association refused to assign her and her husband a convenient parking space in the garage. She has had two hip replacement surgeries and her husband has a pacemaker, she said. The association also would not let repairmen on the roof to service their air conditioning, she said.

In addition, since they filed the first lawsuit, she said their two 2003 Camrys have been scratched five times, her car shot at seven times and the tires on both cars flattened.

Records show that St. Petersburg police have responded to nearly a dozen incidents involving the Demmas since 2001.

Allweiss, the condominium's lawyer, said the Demmas' lawsuits have no merit. One lawsuit was filed to force the condo association to repair the building, specifically the balconies and the garage. The suit says the balconies and garage "have sustained substantial structural damage from corrosion of reinforcing steel.'' In their second suit, the Demmas want condo officials to allow repairmen access to their rooftop air-conditioning unit.

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this article.