According to an article from Aljazeera America; Florida law allows condo associations that are 80% owned by one party to force the remaining parties to sell, even if they lose money on the deal.
The article describes the rules, which need to be in the condo association rules, and presents stories of people losing their homes when they owe more than the current value. One story, a woman owned a condo that she bought for $217,500 was forced to sell it for $46,500, the current appraised value. This so the entire condo complex could be turned into apartments.
To be fair, the rules were in the condo association rules. The problem is, as usual, these rules are written by savvy real estate developers and hidden deep in boilerplate language that is not only difficult to read, but mind-numbingly boring. As an appraiser, I can't tell you how many times I've read through real estate documents that at least one of the parties had no idea the meaning of.
It's time to greatly simplify some of these documents. Mortgages and trust deeds, real estate contracts, credit applications . . . they're just too complex for most people to really focus on and understand. The attorneys who write them are usually solely focused on writing contracts, they understand every nuance and peculiarity of the law. Those that read them don't have that advantage, our expertise is in other areas. It's just another way for big businesses to take advantage of everyone else.
I think the most telling quotes in the article are these:
“If people are too lazy to read the fine print, that’s their problem,” Daniel Marzano said in a phone conversation with America Tonight.
and:
When pressed on whether their actions were moral, Michael Cosculluela replied: "There's no question of morality in business."
IOW, the ends justify the means. And their end is to take everything you own.