Police called on property owners after HOA increases monthly fees to $350

NARANJA LAKES — A homeowners association meeting at the Mandarin Lakes neighborhood in Naranja Lakes went off the rails.

The Tuesday night meeting was cut short after residents say the cops were called by the HOA.

Furious community members say the meeting escalated when the HOA board told residents their monthly fee would increase to $350 a month.

"The issue is that the HOA fee is going up for the second time in one year and we were given short notice about the increase and a lot of things on the new budget don't make sense," said resident Zoe Sosa.

Sosa says one of the things that doesn't make sense is how residents are still paying auto insurance for the security cars that canvass the community when security is now riding around in golf carts.

"We haven't seen any refund from the previous budget, what happened with the cars, what happened with the maintenance of the cars and what's going on," said Sosa.

In addition to the price hike and security, residents say there are broken amenities, cars getting constantly towed and violent crimes happening in the neighborhood.

These residents tell us when they bring these problems up to the HOA, it falls on deaf ears.

"They discredit me, they tell me basically go away. This is how it is, if you don't like it, move out," said Kristen Marti.

We reached out to Mandarin Lakes about the residents' concerns, and we were provided a statement, explaining that the neighborhood had no choice but to amend its budget after receiving the 2023 budget from the community association.

Now, residents say they're taking matters into their own hands in hopes of making changes at Mandarin Lakes.

There is a town hall for the community scheduled to happen in September.