Letter: Read the fine print before buying home in this Tiverton neighborhood

Posted 4/23/17

To the editor:

I live in an over-55 gated community. When you drive through the gate, you see a nice club house and well kept gardens. The  club house houses a well kept and large swimming pool …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: Read the fine print before buying home in this Tiverton neighborhood

Posted

To the editor:

I live in an over-55 gated community. When you drive through the gate, you see a nice club house and well kept gardens. The  club house houses a well kept and large swimming pool as well as pool tables, a hot tub, workout equipment, large meeting  rooms, etc. A drive through the park will show (mostly) nicely maintained homes and yards.

That's the good part — the homes cost  between $80,000 and $180,000 — sounds good right?

But if you read your lease which you need to sign, you will see that the land rent is approximately $500 per month and will increase by 3 percent to, in some cases, 10 percent.  

Now a recent buyer told me that the real estate agent (when asked about this) said, “Oh, because of the poor economy we haven't raised rent for two years — a bald face lie!  Also they, unlike some parks (say Florida and others) do nothing for the residents — do not cut your grass or plow your driveways in winter. They do plow the roads and put down salt … they used to send out a sweeper to pick up the sand  but not any more.  

So if you are planning to buy here I urge you to first consult a lawyer and please read your lease before signing.

Tom Morse

Tiverton

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.