A 28-year-old Florida homeowner says she is facing removal from her late father’s 55-and-over community after inheriting his house — and claims residents are now being asked to pay the legal costs tied to the effort to force her out.
Bethany Michel said on TikTok Monday that “155 geriatric-aged residents” are being expected to cover legal bills as the homeowners association pushes to remove her from Arbor Mill, a retirement community in Jacksonville.
“There is a 55-plus community that is so eager to get rid of one of their non-55 residents, myself, that on Wednesday, in order to sue me out of my own home, they’re asking 155 residents on fixed incomes to do a mandatory $1,000 assessment,” Michel said.
Michel later shared on her Instagram Story that five people voted to approve the special assessment, which would charge residents to build up the HOA’s legal fund for the dispute.
“They allowed 155 people to think that they had a decision in the vote,” Michel told News4Jax. “But it was the five board members who spoke for the whole community.”
Michel, a podcast host and restaurant reviewer, has lived in the retirement community since relocating to the Sunshine State in 2020 to care for her terminally ill father during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After her father died in 2023, Michel inherited the home. Since then, she said, some residents have made it clear they are unhappy with having a younger neighbor in the 55-plus community.
Michel said the first formal warning came three months after her father’s death, when she received a notice stating that she did not meet the community’s guidelines.
“I 100% am being forced out,” she told the outlet. “They’re trying to rip my office away from me, too.”
Michel has since been denied access to other community amenities as she faces the lawsuit, the outlet reported.
Residents who don’t hand over the assessment fee will be charged $100 over the next ten months, in order for the HOA board to get the required money, Michel claimed.
“So not only do I have to pay my own attorney to defend me against these f–kers trying to sue me out of my own home, but I also have to pay the thousand dollar assessment,” she said. “I have to pay both sides. I have to pay them to help sue myself.”
Non-board member residents were left conflicted over the lawsuit and subsequent vote to remove Michel from the community.
“As a person who has kids, I don’t believe that this is the right thing to do, to just kick her out and take her out,” neighbor William Baltazar told News4Jax. “The majority of the people here disagree with this. There are very few people that are really pushing it.”
Other unidentified residents shared they didn’t like the situation but wanted to respect the community ownership age restriction.
The HOA covenants require each home to have at least one occupant who is 55 or older, and no residents 19 and under are allowed to live in the neighborhood, according to documents viewed by The Post.
Transfer of home ownership is allowed to be transferred to someone under 55 if they meet the requirements the occupancy restrictions specify
“Nothing in this Section shall restrict the ownership of or transfer of title to any Lot; provided, no Owner under the age of fifty-five (55) may occupy a Home unless the requirements of this Section are met nor shall any Owner permit occupancy of the Home in violation of this Section,” the document states.
The HOA governing laws were organized to “comply Association’s responsibilities in connection with the Housing for Older Persons Act “HOPA,” a federal law that makes it legal for certain age restricted communities to operate and restrict residency.
Michel remained optimistic and defiant against the HOA after her dad made sure she would be “grandfathered in” before his death.
“How many people between the age of 20 and 30 can actually become a homeowner these days?” she told the outlet. “It’s nearly impossible to become a homeowner, and the fact that he worked to set me up with a situation where I own a home — and I was told I would be allowed to stay.
“Love y’all, even the ones who don’t like me,” she said. “You will live the rest of your life watching me thrive, whether you’re happy with it or not. I ain’t going nowhere.”
