Florida woman is told to pay $7,000 to fix a community park fence. Here’s

A big part of being a homeowner is having to pay for costly repairs to your property. But what if you’re told you’re on the hook for repairs to a community fixture that doesn’t belong to you — like a park fence?

That’s Sirrita Rubiano’s dilemma. A vinyl park fence in her South Park III community fell over during Hurricane Milton. Part of it backs up to her home.

Rubiano told ABC Action News WFTS Tampa Bay, that’s she’s been asked to pony up $7,000 in repairs to fix it — money she doesn’t have as a single mom and widow.

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“It’s not my fence,” she said. “I didn’t put this fence up, I didn’t request the fence, I didn’t have the opportunity to say I didn’t want the fence.”

Who pays for infrastructure

Rubiano emailed her Community Development District (CDD) board to ask for them to cover the costs. Fairly common in Florida, CDDs finance, operate and maintain community-wide infrastructure and services with property taxes.

Rubiano pays more than $2,000 in property taxes annually, and her CDD board has an annual budget of $1.3 million to maintain the community.

“This is something that I feel like they could easily remediate,” Rubio said.

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The CDD is managed by a company called Inframark, which says it has an “unwavering commitment to resident satisfaction with comprehensive services and support.”

The CDD board told her the repairs were her responsibility, not theirs, even though fixing fences was on the board’s recent agenda and its records show the CDD has paid to remove or repair fences between homes and community properties in the past.

In fact, Rubiano questioned why the board wanted her to pay for fence repairs this time when she was not asked to do so after Hurricane Ian, when the very same fence fell down and was repaired anyway.

The board replied that it might have been good Samaritans that repaired the fence after Hurricane Ian and repeated that it was her responsibility to pay this time.

Drawing the line on a fence

Florida attorney Stephen Hachey says fence disputes are one of the most common complaints he gets at his law office. He suggested that Rubiano get a survey to see if the fence really is on her property.

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If the community installed the fence on her property, it would need to get an easement to do so legally. But county records don’t show one.

“Her options are either — one, pay $7,000 out of pocket to get the fence repaired, or two — pay a couple hundred dollars out of pocket to get a survey showing the fence isn’t on your property,” he said.

Rubiano says she can’t afford either option.

ABC Action News reached out to the CDD to ask for records on the park fence at Rubiano’s property, including invoices from the time it was installed and when it was subsequently fixed, as those records should be public. But the CDD, as of this writing, has not yet responded.

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