For close to a year, investors have been locked in an epic fight to hold onto their units in a 1990s Miami Beach condo-hotel, amid claims they owe $9.4 million in unpaid assessments.
Between December 13, 2016 and October 9, Port Orange, Florida-based Schecher Group has filed foreclosure lawsuits against 65 individuals and companies that own units in the Sixty Sixty Resort at 6060 Indian Creek Drive. According to legal documents filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Schecher owns Sixty Sixty’s hotel unit and is empowered to make and collect assessments for shared costs.
Schecher attorney Steven Davis said the delinquent owners have simply refused to pay assessments for necessary repairs to the building and mounting legal fees, including a $253,300 bill from a law firm handling a bankruptcy filing by the Sixty Sixty Condominium Association.
“The unit owners will ultimately have to pay that on top of their already delinquent bills,” Davis said. “It is like any other condo, when you don’t pay your assessments, you get foreclosed on.”
According to Miami-Dade property records, Schecher bought the Sixty Sixty hotel unit in 2013. The lawsuits and liens filed by Schecher claim owners each owe tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid assessments. The most recent lawsuit is against The Vintage Classics LLC, which owns unit 1108 and allegedly owes $91,000.
Another owner, Armando Lancheros, accuses Schecher of attempting a hostile takeover of the units in order to sell the entire building as a hotel for a massive profit, according to an affirmative defense his lawyers filed on Oct. 4. “The amounts calculated by the Schecher Group are wrong,” the document states. “Schecher Group didn’t pay the association more than $1 million in assessments and did not pay vendor Florida Building and Supply, causing the association to file for bankruptcy.”
Lancheros also accuses Schecher of financial improprieties and “constant harassment on blogs and voicemails,” documents show.
An analysis of the foreclosure lawsuits by The Real Deal shows Schecher won final judgment against three owners, 12 complaints were dismissed, two units have been set for auction and one was sold to Schecher for $38,000.
However, Schecher founder Richard Schecher Sr. has posted videos of himself on Youtube in which he claims delinquent owners owe his company $9.4 million. “We have a bunch of owners who sadly have buyers’ remorse,” Schecher said in one video. “The owners have not raised a legitimate example of what they dispute. This is ridiculous. The allegations are not supported by facts.”