Filing # 156077321 E-Filed 08/25/2022 09:29:30 AM
`Filing # 156077321 E-Filed 08/25/2022 09:29:30 AM
`IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE 11° JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
`IN AND FOR MIAMI DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA
`
`MYSTIC POINTE CONDOMINIUM
`NO. ONE ASSOCIATION,INC.,
`Plaintiff,
`
`Vv.
`
`CASE NO: 2022-006853-CA-01
`
`MICHAEL EDWARD CHARLES, SPECIALIZED LOAN
`SERVICING, LLC AND ANY UNKNOWN OCCUPANTS
`Defendants.
`f
`
`NOTICE OF FILING
`
`COMES NOW,the Plaintiff, by and throughits undersigned counseland gives notice offiling
`
`Defendant, MICHAEL EDWARD CHARLES, Answerto the Complaint.
`
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
`
`] HEREBY CERTIFY that a true and correct copy of the foregoing was served via email and
`US mail onthis 25" day of August, 2022 on:
`
`Michael Edward Charles
`2028 Longshore Ave
`Philadelphia, PA 19149
`dadcat! @gmail.com
`
`LawOffice of
`HOLLANDER, GOODE & LOPEZ, PLLC
`314 S. Federal Highway
`Dania Beach, FL 33004
`carlos(@hel-law.com
`contact(@hel-law.com
`(954) 523-3888
`
`/si CARLOS F. LOPEZ
`CARLOS F. LOPEZ, ESQ.
`FBN 85119
`
`

`

`Carios Lopez, Esq.
`
`From:
`Sent:
`To:
`Subject:
`
`Mr. Lopez,
`
`Dad Cat <dadcati @gmail.com>
`Tuesday, July 12, 2022 4:27 PM
`Carlos F. Lopez sq.
`Defense to and Proposals for the Resolution of Case No,: 2022-006853-CA-01
`
`Please accept this email as a response and defense to the above referenced action.
`It, also, contains several proposed solutions to this matter, so this action of a tien
`foreclosure can be withdrawn (or dismissed).
`
`For simplicity and brevity...
`When I use the term "tower 300", it will have the same meaning as "Mystic Pointe
`Condominium No. One".
`When I use the term “the board", it will have the same meaning as "the tower 300
`association board of directors".
`
`DEFENSE
`
`MY HEALTH
`First, I'd like to bring up some issues with my health.
`I'm uncomfortable discussing HIPAA protected information, but I believe it will
`contribute to my defense.
`.
`.
`Therefore, I ask for discretion from anyone involved with this matter (board members,
`Tower 300 building staff and HGL staff).
`
`I'm a 63%year old man with a large number of health issues.
`1 have several conditions (weight, memory, back, legs, knees) that, taken in their
`entirety, qualified me for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Medicare.
`Getting Medicare at 49 is certainly not common, and I think underscores the extent and
`permanence of my disabilities.
`Plus, I take a number of medications to control or address these problems, so I can't
`travel without making sure I have enough of each medication for the time I'd be away.
`I, also, have some mobility issues.
`So, travel for me is problematic.
`
`in addition, I am in two high risk groups and it wasn't until very recently that I was
`given the green light by my PCP to get the COVID-19 vaccines.
`Prior to this, my doctor thought that the risks outweighed the benefits.
`And, as south Florida had successive outbreaks of COVID-19, first the delta variant and
`then the omega one, it was deemed too risky for me to travel to Florida.
`I even had to arrange my mother's funeral and burial from Philadelphia, so I couldn't
`attend her funeral and have not had the opportunity to visit her grave.
`
`

`

`MY MOTHER'S HEALTH AND RELATED PROBLEMS
`It also appears that, over the last several years, my mother's cognitive abilities were on
`the wane,
`But, when you deal with someone frequently and the changes are very gradual, it can
`escape your notice.
`It certainly escaped mine.
`In planning for my mother's passing, many things (such as property titles and financial
`accounts) were put in both our names as Joint Tenants With Right of Survivorship
`(JTWROS).
`So, irrespective of my mother's passing, Tower 300, Unit 1610 was already 100% mine.
`
`However, many other items of advanced preparation must have been overlooked.
`Things about which I knew not.
`It may seem strange for someone my age, but I have never bought or sold a property.
`Much ofthis is terra incognito to me.
`
`My mother went for a routine exam with her doctor on 20 May 2021.
`She presented with an alarming high resting pulse and he ordered her to the ER at
`Aventura Hospital,
`Since his office is in one of the professional buildings on that campus, getting her to the
`ER wasn't that difficult.
`She made it out of the hospital to a recovery/nursing home nearby, only to die a few
`weeks later, on O7 July 2021.
`This is when everything started to fall apart, and I didn't have much of the information I
`needed.
`In other words, I was blindsided by all the issues I needed to address that I thought had
`been taken care of.
`I was unprepared to handie them.
`All of this is
`
`ACCESS TO MY MOTHER'S FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS
`One such problem was (and is) locating in which bank her checking account is.
`The mortgage and condo fees were set to be automatically paid every month out of this
`account.
`Even without her monthly SS retirement benefit, there are still deposits from her
`mandatory IRA distribution,
`as well as interest and dividends from her retail brokerage account.
`This money was supposed to automatically make payments to the condo association for
`the monthly maintenancefees.
`When I finally track down her checking account, I expect there to be a large
`accumulation of funds that were supposed to be keeping things current
`I tried finding out what bank her retail brokerage account was transferring the money
`to, but they refuse to talk to me without a death certificate on file.
`This makes no sense (except regarding her IRA account), as her checking is, to the best
`of my knowiedge, in both our names JTWROS.
`
`DEATH CERTIFICATES
`
`

`

`Then, there was the problem of getting the "cause of death (CoD)" death certificates
`which also contain my mother's SSN and cause of death,
`which ali financial institutions seem to require.
`Ordering them online would cost roughly five times what they would cost if ordered by
`mail directly from the State.
`The problem stems from Florida counties having their own Bureau of Vital Statistics and
`charging exorbitant fees compared to the state.
`This took me quite a while to figure out, as this doesn't occur in northern states; it must
`be a southernthing.
`The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has only ONE Bureau of Vita! Statistics and it's in
`Harrisburg; the capitol.
`So, this is what I'm accustomedto.
`
`In desperation, I contacted my state senator's office (Jason Pizzo D-38) in Tallahassee
`to ask for help.
`A Legislative aid made short work of it, forwarded my request to the state Bureau of
`Vital Statistics,
`and I received my mother’s CoD death certificates in less than two weeks,
`These will allow me to start the process of gaining access to my mother's accounts.
`However, I have no idea how long this process will take.
`
`TRANSPORTATION ISSUES
`I was involved in an automobile collision due to the negligent actions of another driver.
`The other driver's insurance company admitted that their insured was 100%at fault.
`I thought that there would be no problem in getting my car fixed.
`But, because my car was a 2004 Toyota Camry, they decided to "total" the car.
`Never mind that it had been maintained according to the factory manual and had less
`than 36 500 original miles.
`
`My car is repairable from a mechanical standpoint, but my insurance company doesn't
`think it makes economic sense.
`The fact that the necessary chips car makers need to build new cars are difficult to get
`from Taiwan has bid up the price of certified used cars almost to the price of new ones.
`So, the only option that makes economic sense to me is to repair my car, even if the
`repairs exceed the "book" value.
`Totaling a car also relieves the insurer of most rental reimbursement.
`Without getting into the details too deeply, I've learned some strange quirks in
`Pennsylvania automobile law.
`As a result of all of this, I have been without personal transportation for over a year.
`My car was finally towed to the collision center that's going to do the work (the
`dealership where I bought the car) in late April of this year.
`But, due to more people repairing their cars and keeping them longer, new or used
`Toyota parts, as well as aftermarket parts, are becoming difficult to obtain.
`As of last week, they only had about 75%of the parts needed to repair my car.
`
`This complicates a simple issue like making copies of documents before I mail them, or
`making a doctor's appointment, or getting to a lab for blood work.
`
`

`

`Doing any of these necessary things requires the assistance of friends (who havelives
`and schedules of their own) to drive me to them.
`As you can imagine, this has contributed a great deal of stress to my life, which only
`makes my forgetfulness and depression worse.
`This (and everything I've mentioned above), in turn, overloads me and I "shut down” for
`periods of time, accomplishing nothing.
`There was never any intent to ignore these matters, I've just been overwhelmed.
`However, with greater availability of friends to get me where I need to go, things are
`turning around.
`All I ask of the board is to take all these factors I've mentioned into account and be
`willing to work with me get this matter settled in a manner that will result in the least
`cost to me,
`
`PANDEMIC
`Overlaying and either creating or exacerbating the problems listed above has been the
`SARS-COV-19 pandemic.
`It has caused problems on morefronts than I can count, and has certainly contributed to
`this mess,
`as it would have been much easier to address some (if not most) of these problems
`if I were there
`
`GOOD FAITH PAYMENT FOR JULY
`I want to make sure the board knows that I made a good faith payment for the
`July maintenance fee for Unit 1610.
`I spoke to Ms. Valoy late in the afternoon on Thursday, 30 June, to get the information I
`needed to set up a bill payer account with my bank and what the current feeis.
`I told her that if she gave me the board's bank name and account number,
`it would only take one day through electronic ACH and she'd have the payment the
`next day, Friday.
`Ms. Valor informed me that it was against policy to give this information out, so I asked
`her exactly how a check needed to be made out and what address to use.
`I, also, informed her that a paper check would take four (4) business days to arrive,
`which would put it at the 07th, as Monday was a holiday, the 04th.
`She told me she would accept it as "on time", but wasn't sure if she could cash it or if
`she had to forward the check to HGL.
`I asked fer this assurance, as I didn't want to incur another late fee or interest.
`
`Because our conversation was so late in the day, by the time I loged into my account
`and input the information Ms. Valoy gave me,
`it was past the cutoff time and the order wouldn't be processed until the next day;
`Friday, O01 July.
`From my bank records, Philadelphia Federal Credit Union check No. 7067 was delivered
`to the management office on Friday, the O8th
`
`PROPOSALS
`I want to state, for the record, that it has never been my intent to cheat the condo out
`of its rightful fees.
`
`

`

`And, we should be able to find a mutually agreeable solution with one of these
`proposals.
`However, I want to point out that these are initial proposals and negotiations and
`counter proposals are possible
`
`I want to state that, to the greatest extent possible, I would appreciate the
`waiving or removing of all late fees and interest.
`I would also request that we come to an agreement in such a way as to avoid
`additional court or legal fees.
`
`My real estate agent has assured me, looking at comparables in the area (including units
`in tower 300, specifically the "16 line"),
`that this unit will sell for considerably more than its outstanding debts.
`This condo was intended to be part of my inheritance that would help support me in my
`retirement.
`This is why the title was changed many years ago to add my name as JTWROS.
`I hope that, in believing that I had no malicious, devious or bad faith intent, you, the
`board, wili be lenient and help me retain as much of 1610's value as possible.
`
`PROPOSAL ONE (PREFERRED
`Ali debts to the condo association, including maintenance fees and special
`assessments,
`comprising what's already owed and all additional accumulated fees be
`settled at the time of closing.
`Ti am working with a tentative timeline of six (6) months, with a possible six (6) month
`extension, depending on market conditions.
`A promissory note of some sort could be filed with my real estate agent at Keller
`Williams to insure that, once everything has been addressed and settled,
`
`you get paid out of the net proceeds before I get anything.
`
`If the six (6) month extension is exercised, a good faith payment could be made to the
`condo association to keep the accumulated fees manageable.
`By then, I should have access to some, if not all, of my mother's accounts (well, at least
`the ones I could find).
`
`I ask that ali late fees and interest be waived, as I have never acted in bad faith and
`have explained in my defense that I thought my mother had taken care of this
`., SO I was blindsided and unprepared.
`I was also In shock from the realization that my only living parent was gone.
`
`PROPOSAL TWO
`All debts to the condo association, including maintenance fees and special
`assessments,
`comprising what's already owed and all additional accumulated fees be
`settled as soon as I have access to my mother's accounts.
`Incremental payments may need to be made, depending on how much moneyis in each
`account and how quickly I can access the funds.
`I would ask for the same 6/6 arrangement as in Proposal One.
`
`5
`
`

`

`As before, to the greatest extent possible, I ask that all late fees and interest be
`forgiven.
`Now that I have the CoD death certificates, I should be able to access my mother's
`accounts.
`But, as I said previously, ] have no idea how iong it will take.
`
`As I said before, these are proposals, not "take it or leave it" deals.
`If you, Mr. Lopez, or any of the board members have any question, need clarification, or
`wish to make counter offers, please feel free to contact me.
`In order to keep this very important conversation intact, I ask anyone responding to
`reply directly back to this email.
`
`I thank you and the tower 300 board for your time, attention and, hopefully,
`kind consideration to my attempts to explain myself and put forth constructive
`proposals to addressthis issue.
`
`Michael FE Charles
`
`P.S.: Mr. Lopez, please reply back with an acknowledgement so I know that you
`received this document before the deadline.
`Thank you.
`
`
`
`==) Virusfree, www.avasl.com
`
`