Exclusive | HOA in Florida 55+ community forces 28-year-old heir to pay legal fees for lawsuit trying to evict her: Sick and twisted joke

Talk about a neighborhood nightmare.A Florida retirement community has allegedly made a 28-year-old woman’s life a living hell — and they are forcing her to help foot the bill to sue herself.Bethany Michel has been locked in a bitter, two-plus-year standoff with the Freedom at Arbor Mill Homeowners Association in Jacksonville, Florida.Her crime? Inheriting her late father’s home in a 55-plus neighborhood while being under the age limit.Now, the HOA board is preparing to sue Michel.“It feels like we aren’t in reality,” Michel told The Post.“It’s like a sick and twisted joke.” At a Wednesday meeting, the board approved a whopping $1,000 special assessment on all 155 lots to bankroll a $155,000 legal war chest.The kicker? Because Michel owns one of those lots, she has to pay the $1,000 that the board will use to try and evict her.“They’re going to charge her $1,000… so that they can then use that money to sue her,” Michel’s attorney, William “Billy” Davie, told The Post.

“Until now, they haven’t put their money where their mouth is.They’re putting the community’s money where their mouth is.”Residents must pay the $1,000 assessment by Aug.

31 or pay it monthly in $100 increments for 10 months.Those who don’t comply are subject to late fees, collection fees and attorney fees.“They’re all over 55.

Many of them are probably on fixed incomes,” Davie said.“They don’t have $1,000 to just drop on a lawsuit that’s frivolous because some people on the association board have something stuck in their craw.”Michel, an influencer and social media consultant, moved into the community in 2020 to care for her terminally ill father during the pandemic.

She remains there with her two dogs, Mimi and Nova.Her dad purchased the home from the developer in 2020 for $270,000, with paperwork indicating his daughter would own the unit, her attorney said. She inherited the home after her father died in 2023, with a Duval County prob...