From lawsuits to criminal charges: How a carport set a South Lakeland neighborhood at war
The Longwood Oaks neighborhood presents an almost stereotypical vision of placid suburban life.
Wide streets wind through the subdivision in South Lakeland, offering views of stately homes shaded by mature oak trees wreathed in resurrection fern. Yards are uniformly green. Mailboxes are fancy. Cul de sacs abound.
Yard banners bearing images of pineapples and flowers beckon, “Welcome.”
Genial appearances aside, Longwood Oaks ripples with conflict, most of it involving a disputed structure in a yard along one of those cul de sacs. Alyne Aca began construction in 2021 on a tall enclosure at the back of her driveway to protect a 36-foot Fleetwood Southwind motorcoach.
The Longwood Oaks Homeowners Association has sued Aca, claiming that the structure violates guidelines that all residents must follow. As the HOA has accumulated more than $40,000 in legal fees related to the suit, another resident has sued the association’s board, arguing that it broke the rules by exceeding its planned spending without getting the required permission from residents.
Meanwhile, Aca and the resident now leading the lawsuit against the HOA, Gary Doyen, say they face ongoing harassment from residents aligned with the board. And a board member faces a felony charge of battery on an elderly person following a confrontation with another resident.
The dispute has caused such divisions in the community that one couple has already moved away and Doyen said he and his wife are considering a departure.
Longwood Oaks is a neighborhood of 118 houses dating to the early 1990s. Real estate listings show typical home values in the range of $400,000 to $700,000.
Aca and her husband bought their 4,069-square-foot house in 2017 and reside there with their three children. Like all residents, they signed an agreement with the HOA to abide by rules established in a covenant. Longwood Oaks first adopted bylaws in 1987 and has amended them multiple times since then.
Beginnings of dispute
Aca, 43, gained election to the HOA’s five-person board of directors in 2018 and served as its president until August 2021. While in that role, she applied for permission to park a motorcoach at the back of her driveway for an extended period and received approval from the board, she said. (Aca abstained from voting.)
Aca said that she checked with the HOA’s lawyer to confirm that nothing in the covenant would bar her from installing the carport for the motorcoach at the back of her driveway and even consulted an outside attorney, who offered the same assessment. The HOA’s management company also reviewed the covenant and found no rules against her plans, Aca said.
A provision in the neighborhood’s covenant says that motor homes and campers must be stored out of view from the street. The presence of Aca’s motorcoach prompted quick reactions from neighbors, she said.
“Within a week or two of me having my RV here, they started complaining about me having an RV — despite at that time there already being three or four other RVs in the community,” Aca said.
She added that a longtime resident had two campers, a motorhome and a travel trailer that remained full time on the property.
In August 2021, Aca submitted an architectural review application for construction of a pavilion to house the motorcoach, and the board approved it. The HOA covenant requires detached outbuildings to be architecturally compatible with the owner’s home, and Aca’s plans described a structure that would match her two-story, white colonial-style house with brick columns and black trim.
Aca hired a contractor, and preparation work, including the removal of large oak trees, began on the pavilion in November 2021, she said. The project has stretched over two years because of foundation issues, supply-chain delays and turnover among contractors intimidated by other residents, Aca said.
Her current contractor asked Aca to sign an agreement that the company could not be held liable for any violations she receives or any judgment from the lawsuit, she said.
The pavilion appears largely finished on the outside, though insulation wrap shows on two pillars still awaiting vinyl siding. Trim work remains to be done on the structure’s interior. Aca said she plans to install a kitchen, so that the carport would have additional uses for a future owner. Dark, metal doors shield the front of the structure, and curtains conceal the motorhome.
The structure imitates the design of the house, with a peaked roof pitched at the same angle as those on the home. It even has the same metal drip edges as the house.
The dispute led to changes in the HOA board membership, and the new members sent Aca a cease-and-desist letter, alleging that she had violated the covenant by failing to comply with parking restrictions. When construction continued, the HOA asked Aca in January 2022 to enter mediation, but she did not attend within 90 days, according to court records.
Board seeks a halt
In April 2022, the HOA filed a lawsuit in the 10th Judicial Circuit against Aca and her husband, Gustavo De Brito Aca, asking a judge to order the couple to halt construction of the pavilion and cease parking a recreational vehicle in the driveway. The HOA sought to have the couple submit a new application for a structure in compliance with the guidelines of its covenant.
The civil suit, assigned to Judge William Sites, had not been resolved as of Friday. Alyne Aca said she has been deposed multiple times by the HOA’s law firm, Appleton Reiss of Tampa. Aca’s lawyer filed a motion for a protective order in August, seeking to limit any further demands for interviews. Sites denied that motion on Oct. 24.
The HOA filed an amended complaint on Oct. 9, citing an article of an amended covenant from 1989 that says, “Motor homes and campers must be stored out of view from the street.”
The amended complaint focuses on Aca’s time as president of the board. It claims that on June 16, 2021, Aca directed Longwood Oaks’ management company to falsify official records of a meeting from the previous day, adding words covering rules for the presence of motorhomes and RVs.
The complaint says that Aca submitted an architectural review application that day to park an RV in her driveway, stating the application accorded with rules adopted in 2020. According to the complaint, the board approved the application “based on the illegal rule” Aca created while serving as board president.
The complaint says the rule was never approved by the board, and the community never voted on an amendment to revise a relevant article of the covenant. The suit claims that the previous board erroneously approved Aca’s application to build the carport.
The lawsuit contends that Aca’s “knowing and deliberate violations will encourage other homeowners in the community to violate the Declaration.” In the amended complaint, the HOA board asks that Sites order Aca to “remove the outbuilding constructed during the pendency of this case” and to pay the board’s legal fees.
Aca said the HOA’s lawyer has cited rules in a previous version of the covenant that was later amended.
Aca's lawyer, Daniel Pilka, wrote in a letter to Longwood Oaks residents that the HOA board filed the suit despite receiving opinions from two outside lawyers that the prior board acted lawfully in permitting the construction of Aca’s carport. He also wrote that residents have long been allowed to park recreational vehicles on their property, saying the HOA board in 2015 expressly permitted such storage, if the vehicle were behind a fence.
As the board continues to pursue the suit against Aca, a resident and former board member is leading a lawsuit against the board for its accumulation of legal fees. In the complaint filed Tuesday, Doyen states that the board in 2022 approved spending $20,000 in legal fees for the fiscal year.
By April 2023, the board had had already spent $43,304.01 — 216% over the budgeted amount, the complaint says. HOA rules require the board to get permission from residents when spending exceeds a budgeted item by either $1,500 or 10%, the suit says.
The board never called a meeting of the membership to approve the additional expenditures, a clear violation of the HOA’s covenant, the complaint says. Doyen is asking Judge Brandon Rafool to make the board repay the money spent on legal fees beyond the approved $20,000 or to call a meeting to gain approval for the increased spending.
Aca said that she believes the legal fees associated with the lawsuit have since risen to more than $100,000. She said she is considering filing a counter-claim based on what she says is harassment by board members.
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Debbie Johnson, a former resident who originally filed the lawsuit against the HOA before Doyen took it over, said the board took $7,500 out of the association’s capital reserve account to cover the legal fees without holding a vote of members, as required by the covenant. The reserve fund is intended for maintaining, repairing and replacing elements in common areas, according to Aca’s lawyer.
Pilka wrote that the current board appears willing “to violate the Association’s governing documents and Florida law in order to pursue their personal vendetta against my clients.”
Residents had to pay a $100 special assessment because of the lawsuit, and annual dues have risen from $563 to $995, Johnson said.
Nicki Fernandez Asmer, the lead lawyer for the HOA board, declined to comment on the case, referring The Ledger to court filings. Board President Bob Vignec did not respond to a voicemail or email, and two other board members did not reply to emails.
Turnover on HOA board
Legal issues aside, Aca and others say the dispute also involves the dynamics of longtime residents differing with more newly arrived neighbors.
“It stems from a couple of different homeowners that are very resistant to any changes inside of the neighborhood,” Doyen said. “So it kind of started from there and blossomed rather quickly.”
Doyen, who has lived in Longwood Oaks for five years, served on the board at the time of Aca’s application to build the enclosure. He said that a group of residents, some of them previous board members, began going door to door and alleging that the board had acted illegally to persuade residents to join a recall effort.
Johnson said the former board members received threatening phone calls as the recall push proceeded.
“So then they start calling these board members on the phone, leaving messages like, ‘You better quit, you better quit,’" she said. "So since there was so much intimidation, these guys decided to say, ‘OK, screw it.’”
When it appeared a recall was imminent, Doyen and two other board members resigned. The current board consists entirely of residents opposed to Aca’s construction of the carport, Doyen said.
The newly elected board members pressured the management company to agree with its claim that Aca had violated HOA rules by constructing the pavilion, to the point that the company ended its contract, Doyen said.
Johnson shared a copy of a letter from May that Joe Garrison, CEO of Garrison Property Services, sent to the HOA board, informing them that the company did not wish to renew its contract for managing Longwood Oaks.
“The amount of work that we must do for this lawsuit far outweighs what we are getting paid,” Garrison wrote.
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He added that his staff had worked hard to give the board requested material but had received emails “ordering, demanding, and in some cases being very rude to my staff.”
The HOA board has hired a management company closely affiliated with its law firm, Aca’s lawyer wrote in the letter to residents.
Claims of harassment
Aca said she and her husband have faced ongoing hostility since the dispute began. She said that earlier this year, rumors began circulating that someone — the implication was Aca — had placed nails in driveways. Soon after that, she said she found nails in her driveway, one of which caused a flat on one of her family’s vehicles.
Aca said that board members or their allies regularly pass around the cul de sac that fronts her property, either in vehicles, on bikes or walking. They sometimes make disparaging comments and take photos or record video.
Aca has posted photos and videos on Facebook that she said show board members repeatedly driving around the cul de sac in front of her house, actions she described as stalking.
A Ledger reporter and photographer visited Aca’s home recently, and within minutes a woman arrived in a golf cart, driving around the cul de sac. Aca identified her as the wife of a board member.
The woman soon returned, riding a bicycle and holding her cell phone in front of her, apparently taking photos or shooting video.
Aca has affixed security cameras to an oak tree in her yard, pointed toward the street. She said the video proved useful when a pair of neighbors falsely accused her husband of trying to run them over in his truck.
Johnson said that board members have posted personal information about residents on the Longwood Oaks Facebook page. Both Aca and Doyen said they have received numerous notices from the HOA of rules violations.
“It’s just been harassment after harassment,” Doyen said. “I just got another violation notice for my fence, that I needed to clean my fence, which there's nothing wrong with it. So they're, like, selectively enforcing the bylaws.”
The letter from the Garrison CEO seems to support those claims. Garrison wrote that the board had directed his company to send letters to residents informing them of violations for alterations that had been in place for years. Residents called to say a prior board had approved the changes, but the management company did not have access to old records to confirm that, Garrison wrote.
Aca said board members have claimed that her carport is reducing property values, though she notes that only those living in her cul de sac would even notice it. The structure, set at the back of her driveway, can only be seen from a fairly narrow section of the street.
As an example of inconsistency, she pointed to a detached structure — a pool cabana — visible in the back yard of a home across the cul de sac. She said another neighbor has a boat carport on their property.
Board member arrested
Johnson blames the tensions for an incident from August that resulted in a felony charge against Terry Robbins, a board member with the HOA. According to an arrest affidavit, Robbins had an ongoing feud with a neighbor who regularly placed a bucket of water near a dried retention pond for resident ducks to use.
Robbins objected to the practice, telling a Polk County sheriff’s deputy that it “causes issues,” and he admitted to repeatedly dumping out the water and placing the bucket back in the neighbors’ yard.
On the morning of Aug. 16, the woman — whose name is redacted in the arrest affidavit — placed a bucket of water out for the ducks, and Robbins emptied it and returned to her yard. The woman soon returned to the dried pond, a common area for Longwood Oaks residents, with the bucket containing water.
Robbins approached her from behind, the affidavit says, and the woman stood over the bucket to protect it. Robbins kicked at the bucket several times and in the process struck the woman in the legs, the report says.
Aca is one of two witnesses listed in the affidavit.
PCSO deputies arrested Robbins the next day, charging him with battery on a person 65 or older, a felony, and criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.
Johnson shared photos showing a poster placed near the HOA’s notification sign in the neighborhood after Robbins’ return from jail that said, “Welcome home Terry,” and another posted on a vehicle saying, “(Heart) you Terry.”
Doyen said one of the HOA board members posted such a sign. He said that Robbins remains on the board. Robbins did not respond to an email from The Ledger.
Johnson said she and her husband recently sold their winter home of three years in Longwood Oaks and bought a house in Ocala.
“It’s really sad that we found a beautiful, amazing house in Lakeland and had to move because we don’t believe nor will partake in bullying or suing neighbors over issues they were approved for,” Johnson said by email.
She added: “This lawsuit is a complete waste of time and we could not live somewhere where people thought it was okay to sue a neighbor who was following a procedure that so many of them put in place years ago.”
Doyen, who has two children, said he and his wife have started looking for a new home.
“I've never been around a group of people in my life that are so against change — and they're just nasty people,” Doyen said. “And had I known what I know now, I'd never have bought in this neighborhood. I'd have never bought my home. I'd have looked elsewhere.”
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Dispute over carport in Lakeland spawns two lawsuits, criminal charges
