Tampa Bay Times: Tampa Bay couple in ‘awful situation’, forced to sell as condo converted to rental
(Couple will get)… $70,000 less than what it would take to pay off the mortgage.
By Susan Taylor Martin
September 7, 2015
If someone forces you to sell your property, shouldn’t they be required to give you at least as much as you paid for it? • That’s what Nadia and Tyson Le Monte thought when they learned they would have to sell their St. Petersburg condo — bought in 2006 for $254,900 — because the complex is being converted to rentals. • The couple were stunned, therefore, when told they would get just $127,000. That is $70,000 less than what it would take to pay off the mortgage. • Now Le Monte, a former Marine and government contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, fears he may have to drop out of college and go back to work even though he is under treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. • Says his wife, a pharmacist at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center: • “This is such an awful situation to be in.” • The Le Montes are among the hundreds of Florida condo owners discovering that a new law designed to increase their rights in condo-to-apartment conversions won’t help them nearly as much as they hoped. Read more: