A Review of Orange Tree of Lake County Florida
Welcome to the Orangetree of Lake County Homeowners Association REVIEW website. I aim to provide information for homeowners and potential buyers regarding the Orange Tree subdivision, located on Highway 27 just North of Hwy 192 in Clermont, Florida based on my personal experience and are me and my families views only. The views and review shared here are our personal experience and may or may not be similar to yours. Our personal interaction with the HOA is shared here as informational only for your knowledge.
You're going to see me preface a lot things with "in my personal opinion" or "in my opinion" because my HOA is hunting for a reason to take this website down. The HOA is praying I make one single mistake so they can try to sue me or force this website down. Make no mistake, the Orangetree of Lake County Homeowners' Association is NOT on the side of homeowners, in my opinion, and in fact you will see an email from a board member further down on this page threatening to sue. In my opinion, every one of the current HOA board members should resign immediately after receiving and reading the FCC Ruling & Citation which scolds the HOA for several pages starting at the end of page 4. You can read the entire Ruling down below.
Let me be crystal clear, with the FCC Ruling & Citation I have enough that I could sue the HOA Board members personally, allowed in the State of Florida, and sue RealManage the management company. We never wanted any of this and have always just wanted peace. They brought all of this to my door! All we ever wanted was to be left alone.
My family has lived in the Orange Tree subdivision for over thirteen years, and it has been a constant struggle with the HOA who consistently bully homeowners enforcing illegal rules and have forced homeowners to facilitate outside agencies to get a solution to their violation of homeowner rights. The HOA truly believe it's their way or no way regardless of the law. If you show them the illegalities of their actions, they scoff and just continue on their way. Rather than sell, pack up and move we decided as a family to stand our ground and not allow these people to bully us like they have done to our neighbors for years. In the end, we won, it was worth it. Now we want to warn others. Will this type of public attention hurt our own home value, maybe, but its a risk we are willing to take.
Example #1 - For years the HOA tried to enforce a no street parking rule. The streets are publicly owned, no signage about no parking, maintained by the County. It took homeowners notifying the Sheriff for this to get resolved after years of me personally emailing the HOA informing them their actions were illegal, all ignored.
Example #2 - Our yearly HOA fee has nearly doubled. The HOA is unable to negotiate a deal with the County to fix our sidewalks, something the HOA promised would get done has turned into total failure. The County basically told the HOA to pound sand. I believe the HOA will be raising our HOA fee again to cover the costs.
Example #3 - The HOA decided that they do not like how antennas or satellite dishes look on homeowner’s roof. Illegal, you can’t just decide you don't like something and make it an enforceable rule. The HOA tried to enforce a no antenna or dish on the roof rule.
Antennas in America are delegated by the FCC and ONLY the FCC can decide antenna placement. HOA's cannot ban roof antenna mounting. All of this is verified by doing a simple Google Search.
Try it. Google, "can HOA prevent antenna on homeowner roof?" The answer comes back as No.
Apparently doing that one simple thing is WAY too difficult for the HOA board of Directors.
It is governed by the OTARD rule which was passed by the Federal Government in 1996 and establishes the rules for antennas in America.
The HOA put My family through a year of hell with constant violation reports, threats of fines and then finally issuing a $1000.00 fine even when told twice by the FCC that they could not, discussed in the FCC Ruling. For nearly a year the HOA and the HOA attorneys ignored emails and phone calls from me and from the FCC, the FCC discusses this in the Ruling. Not a peep was heard from them until I hired my own personal attorney. One email from my attorney, affiliated with a very well-known firm, suddenly the HOA attorney contacts my attorney. Instead of discussing the case, he is crying to my attorney in email about my review of his law firm and wants me to take it down. Claims he knows nothing about my case and is very aware of the OTARD rule and will inform HOA board members. The HOA either ignored the attorney or never received the information and left the fine on my account.
The FCC made a Ruling and Citation, threatening the HOA with a $25,000.00 per day fine up to a total of $188,000.00.
Finally, the HOA removed the fine on my account.
They never apologized; they never said a word. Like cowards they just silently removed the fine, in my personal opinion. This is a clear homeowner rights violation by the HOA.
There are many more examples that I could put here but let's just leave these as a warning that there are a lot of other issues dealing with the Orange Tree of Lake County Homeowners' Association. As long as we have a Board of Directors that appear to be either too stupid or too lazy to simply verify that their rules are legal or not, I have no doubt there will be future issues.
The HOA Board members want to claim the issue being RealManage, the Management company, that they have no control and are just volunteers with no power. Bullshit! If that is in fact the case, then fire them, it's been done before by this subdivision and can easily be done again. In my opinion these HOA management companies are a dime -a-dozen. Time for a new one maybe. Instead, in my opinion, the members of the board follow like sheep instead of having courage and doing what is right no matter what the consequences. Pretty sad!
Here is my review of RealManage.
Feel free to leave a reaction to the review.
Below is the official Ruling and Citation from the FCC addressed to the HOA board of Directors and their management service RealManage.
The HOA Board of Directors, made up of four cowardly individuals, in my opinion, who refused to apologize to my family and I. These are the board members that think they can enforce illegal rules. When they were informed that their antenna rule was illegal a year ago, they said it was enforceable because we signed the Deed Rules and Covenants when we purchased home. Wrong! You can NOT enforce an illegal rule!
For nearly one year the HOA tried to make my families life miserable threatening us with fines, late fees, liens and actually levied a $1000.00 with a $27.00 collection fee. They were a constant threat that we took very seriously.
There is YouTube evidence of these board members discussing antenna violations, hearings, appeals, fines during HOA board meetings and ARC meetings. There is a YouTube video of the HOA board discussing the roof antenna ban and their "no shingle" rule. The HOA claiming ignorance now is astounding to me. There was a lot of evidence presented by me to the FCC. Notice, there is only one innocent person in the FCC Ruling & Citation, ME.
I sent the HOA Google links clearly showing that ONLY the FCC can ban antennas, not HOA's. They ignored it, thought they were smarter. You will see down below an email from another homeowner who also informed the HOA that their antenna rule was illegal and he also sent the links to the OTARD rule. Sadly, these are possibly the dumbest people I have ever dealt with in my 63 years of being alive. These people think they are above the law and ignored every single bit of evidence and ignored every single warning, in my opinion.
I'm now hearing excuses, I'm just the Treasurer or I'm just this, get real, you were part of these meetings, you are a board member, have some courage and speak up. You didn't, not a peep and the FCC Ruling & Citation is crystal clear, it's the HOA, all of you, not just part of you, all of you, documented by the Federal Government. No excuses!
If your name was on the email list from the FCC Ruling & Citation then guess what, there's a reason it was sent to you, surely your smart enough to know why.
One individual, Pierre Rene, Community Manager, is in my personal opinion the biggest coward of them all. He is the one person that is supposed to look out for homeowners. He is the main contact telling us that a rule is a rule even if illegal. In my opinion, a total idiot! This man is the only member who is paid by RealManage and 100% failed to do his job. He refused to acknowledge FCC phone messages, emails, everything. He is the face of RealManage and we have asked his company to explain their employees actions. Will we get an answer? History says we will be ignored.
The law firm used by the HOA is DHN Attorneys. They claimed to my attorney that they knew nothing about my case, however I got their name from the HOA claiming my antenna violation was sent to the attorney for approval on the $1000.00 fine. So, who is lying? Evidence sent to the FCC by me clearly shows on the HOA violation paperwork that they claim my file was sent and approved by the HOA attorney; I personally sent this attorney FCC documents informing them to cease and desist. The FCC sent the same paperwork and left voice messages, all ignored until I hired a personal attorney from a well-known firm.
Feel free to read and react to my review of this firm, the review that they complained about to my attorney
Here is a picture of the antenna mounted on my roof. As you can see it is barely visible. I wasn't able to get a good picture of it from the other side due to our Cactus Plant is so big it blocks the view.
Most people are at a loss of words when they find out my HOA tried to make this little antenna a major issue. According to the HOA this one antenna is causing the downfall of all home values in the area. Ridiculous.
But the HOA will tell you that they never said that this antenna is hurting home values, they just don't like how antennas look on a roof, so they tried to make me take it down.
Guess what?
It's still there, Destroying home values one home at a time. LOL
After publishing this website one of the Board of Directors contacted me via email crying about her name being used. Guess she doesn't want you all to know what kind of person she is. Here it is below:
Congratulations,
You have just earned yourself a lawsuit for defamation of character and slander. Since you want to go putting names out there as if it is pointing each of us out individually and you have made it public, I myself will be filing a lawsuit against you as I didn't give you permission to publish my name nor make these erroneous accusations against myself and those on the board. You CAN'T go saying things about people without knowing the absolute truth, nor can you slander people's names and characters just because you are upset. THAT is against the law.
Your lawyer will be hearing from my lawyer soon.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Humbly and Sincerely,
Shiron Polk
Apparently, she doesn't understand that this is a review website and I am simply leaving a review of a product, the product happens to be The Board of Directors of the Orangetree of Lake County Florida Homeowners Association. Everything on this site is me and my family's personal opinion based on the treatment we received from the HOA Board of Directors. The Board of Directors section here that I published is available on the Internet which I just copied and pasted. Her information is already available, just reposted. She couldn't name one thing that was not correct on this site, she just simply is mad that now you all know she is part of the problem. She thinks I'm mad. I'm thrilled. I won the FCC case against these people, nothing to be mad about, simply here writing a review.
She also may not understand that common defenses to defamation are TRUTH, OPINION. and PRIVILEDGE. Again, Google is your friend, and you will quickly see that everything on this site is TRUTH and my OPINION. End of story!
The Ex-President of the Board of Directors, Tegan Bombard, stopped by my house wanting to talk. Told her to get off my property. She stood on the sidewalk blaming the other Board members, telling me she rescinded the fine and the other board members, initiated the fine after she left. She didn't like it when I called her a liar and told her the meeting that they voted on my violation is on YouTube and she was 100% a part of that decision. In yet another video she is laughing about a new rule she is requesting the ARC committee to come up with and that it will state no roof antennas and will demand that homeowners put the antenna on the soffit. She even jokes that her husband came up with a No Shingle rule. In my opinion it proves her intelligence forgetting that she is on video. Her face contorted when confronted about her lie. Apparently, she wants to convince me to blame the new President of the Board Robert Skoropat. Like I informed her, doesn't matter, rule was illegal, she was informed it was illegal by me in 2024. She didn't remove the rule. Her job! Below is the email she sent me before visiting, it pretty much sums up the type of human she is, blame everyone else, heck even blames me, a real piece of work and just a bad human in my opinion. She tried to act like I didn't know she resigned. I knew, in fact I sent her a previous FCC document via email warning the HOA about their actions regarding my antenna and I told her in the email that this is a Federal case and isn't going to go away. Very soon after receiving that email she resigned, in my opinion because she apparently thought that would make her safe from any future lawsuits. Wrong!
Your ability to Google (not a verb, but we'll go with it), Brian, is abysmal because I'm not on the Board and haven't been on the board in nearly 6 months, which predates your fine. It seems your ability to search online equals that of your ability to listen and read. It's ok, I understand. Unlike you, Brian Roger Smith, I am an excellent internet searcher and have gathered plenty of intel on you, your wife, Matas... As a 63-year-old man, it must be such a sad life that you lead to spend money and time on these ridiculous websites and efforts. I wish you the best of luck when you go to sell your home someday. I cannot wait to meet all of the potential homebuyers and help them see the value in your home.
Have the day you deserve
She mentions my sons name, Matas, why? Why is she pulling up data on my son? Again, shows the type of people I have been dealing with over the last year.
She clearly forgot this email conversations she had with another homeowner via email. She is absolutely lying or doesn't understand the OTARD rule in my opinion. Everything she says in her reply is 100% false and she either knows its false or is just too stupid to understand the OTARD rule in my opinion. During this exact time period, December of 2024 is when I also informed the HOA that their antenna rule was illegal because as this homeowner points out it was discussed in a YouTube video of the HOA Board meeting. In my opinion Tegan Bombard has lied and misrepresented the truth when it comes to the OTARD rule or maybe she just cannot comprehend what she reads? I personally think she never even went and read the OTARD rule, the email below includes a link for her education. She directly contradicts everything in the OTARD rule in her reply to the homeowner. Why?
Hi XXXX,
Thank you for reaching out regarding this. The stipulation with the FCC simply states that we cannot tell homeowners that they cannot have a satellite dish or an antenna. Our ACC guidelines simply stipulate where a homeowner cannot place the antenna or satellite dish. It is not permitted to be on the roof of a home, but it can be installed on a pole next to the house or attached to the side of a home. Because our guidelines are not denying an antenna, but instead providing appropriate locations for the antenna, we are in compliance with that FCC regulation.
Here lies the beauty of using social media, others that have had interactions with the HOA are sending me their emails, their interactions. All of these additions help put the puzzle together of who did what and who was responsible for what and who knew what information and when did they know it. Liars get exposed pretty quickly when the community starts to work together rather than against each other. Let the evidence drop where it may!
I feel like I'm surrounded by a bunch of snakes!
Within a very short time of publishing this website I have received multiple emails. Many of them are specifically pointing their finger to one person on why the fine happened and the name, THEY are naming Pierre Rene, the Community Manager. Pierre was sent all of the information from the FCC and from me as far back as January 2025 and ignored, we have proof of read receipt.
When people are concerned, they might get sued they suddenly start pointing fingers, Pierre was also named in the FCC Ruling and Citation on page 8.
In Conclusion I just want to say that the HOA appears to have taken a stance that they have done nothing wrong. Thankfully the FCC disagrees and if you read the FCC Ruling & Citation you will see starting at the end of page 4 and continuing for several pages the FCC scolds the HOA.
The HOA did everything in their power to try to hurt me and my family, they ignored everything from us and from the FCC. This all started on January 6th, 2025, and finally ended on November 21, 2025, with the FCC making their Ruling.
The HOA is supposed to help homeowners protect the home value, but that depends on the HOA doing their homework by verifying each Deed Rule as being legal or Illegal, the most important step that this HOA completely skipped. This HOA has always come after homeowners, constantly overstepping their boundaries and not staying in their lane.
My subdivision was built in 2002. The OTARD rule was established by the FCC in 1996. Obviously the OTARD rule existing at the time of the subdivision inception and yet the founding HOA decided to totally ignore the law and decided to add this antenna rule into the fray. For years this HOA made homeowners remove their antennas and dish satellites from their roof causing many to fill holes with caulk after just replacing their roof. Most of these antennas and satellite dishes existing for years and the HOA waited for the homeowner to replace their roof, mount the antenna/dish and then be told they were in violation.
Feels like this is prime Class Action lawsuit material, in my opinion, if all of these people were to join together since the FCC has now Ruled & Cited the HOA for illegal activity in regard to satellite dishes and antennas.
In my opinion the HOA has always had very selective eyes when it comes to issuing violations. Our new President, Robert Skoropat, has a vehicle, truck, that always has its tow hitch hanging over the sidewalk every time I walk past his house. Apparently if you're the President of the HOA you are allowed to partially block the sidewalk, other homeowners have had the HOA get involved because they blocked the sidewalk with a vehicle. The HOA is constantly on homeowners to edge trim sidewalks, yet the Presidents house sidewalk edge trimming is terrible, but all of this is okay if you're the President of the HOA apparently. You would think he would know to keep his lawn in top shape and that all eyes are on him. He also has a door where he apparently replaced some hardware on the door and now there is a big spot on his door not matching the painted door. Trust me when I say ANY other home with that door would be served a violation notice immediately to have the door painted, but not him, it's been like this for weeks and weeks. Selective sight when issuing violations obviously! Yet the HOA will tell you there is no favoritism, and our eyes are deceiving us. This is something that was quick to notice especially since the President, Robert Skoropat, lives just a few houses down from me on the same block.
Let me be honest, I could care less, witnessed it for thirteen years......but you brought this to my door and to my family.
My family's personal advice to anyone thinking about purchasing a home in the Orange Tree of Lake County subdivision is to look elsewhere, do your research on the subdivision, talk to neighbors, and find out as much as you can about the HOA because they alone can make your life miserable. If you were to ask people on my block you would get your ears filled with a lot of HOA hate. My block has seen the HOA harass me for an antenna, my neighbor for parking his work truck on the street, my other neighbor for blocking his OWN driveway with his work truck, at least 3 neighbors were forced to remove their satellite dish from the roof, which was brand new. These are just what I know about happening on one single block of the entire subdivision.
Thankfully more and more neighbors are talking about eliminating the HOA and switch to a POA, Property Owners Association, which would eliminate an outside agency enforcing the rules governing our homes. What is a POA? Let me show you the Internet definition.
Letting the community be part of the decision-making process is a very foreign idea to HOAs because the HOA wants ALL the power and doesn't want to share any of it. They demand having full control over the decisions you can make regarding your property. We are still years from voting the HOA out, but there is more and more talk about it each year and slowly the homeowners are beginning to open their minds to a new idea and a new way forward.
Honestly, as homeowners we need a change, we have allowed the HOA to go unchecked and, in my opinion, when narcissist people are in control you are bound to have issues, which we are and sadly the only way to fix it at this point is to start over. If the HOA has any chance of long-term survival they need to reset. Fire the management company RealManage, hire a new management company, go over each rule and make sure it is a legal rule. Community involvement is at a all-time low, yet the HOA cannot figure out that community involvement is low because there are such strong feelings in regard to the HOA within the community. In my opinion the HOA needs to come out an apologize sincerely to the homeowners for the years of mismanagement, favoritism, and bullshit we have tolerated. But here's the catch, a group of narcissist people are never going to say they are sorry or admit they have failed those that they are supposed to be protecting. In other words, we are screwed waiting for the current HOA board to resign in my opinion.
This HOA, currently in its current form is absolutely clueless and has not accomplished one single thing that helps a single homeowner in the subdivision in my personal opinion. 100% worthless in my personal opinion! They can't even name one single thing they have accomplished, not one. As I said earlier, they brought this fight to my door and they lost. I have no doubt they will come swinging for me again and I will win again. Until then my family and I will continue to try to live our best life!
Thank you for joining me on this wild adventure!
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