06/28/2022
The Beach House of Gulf Highlands has been closed nearly 4 months, during our peak season, due to poor choices made by the Gulf Highlands Board of Directors, the former CAM and the maintenance staff.
In February, they approved funding for the balcony to be repaired, and no other work. They proceded to tear up the upstairs of the Beach House and the kitchen floor. While doing this, the city of Panama City Beach became informed of this unlicensed work and issued a stop work order due to work being done without a permit or contractors licence on the outside balcony,
After Gulf Highlands recieved this stop work order, and knowing they had 3 unfinished projects, they started to remove flooring in the dining room, tore open the dinning room ceiling.They dismantled the front porch of the Beach House. They were again turned in to the City of Panama City Beach for working without a contractors licence and permit and recieved a second stop work order leaving the Beach House with 5 INCOMPLETE projects, 2 stop work orders, with 4 of the 5 projects never having funding approved.
The excuse for this unprofessional and costly behavior has been that is the fault of the GH owner, who turned them in. Bill Stroupe, the Board member, over seeing this, has said that he has experience in this type of work, claims he was unaware that a licensed contractor was needed for any of this.
We have attempted to try to solve these issues in a professional, cooperative, and timely manner, with no success.
There is currently a large holes about the size of a refrigerator in the floor of the Beach House allowing cats, insects, and wild animals to enter, insulation from months ago, all over the floor and on equipment, and the place is in shambles.
Gulf Highlands has been well aware that they needed a structural engineer to do drawings months before they got approval, and also made no valid attempts to obtain a contractor . Bill told us that multiple contractors had told him it was best to demo the Beach House, but he has never named any of these contractors or has provided any proof of this to us or the owners. We have provided Gulf Highlands with three different contractors that showed up on time, on short notice and let them know they were available to do the work with board members present. None of these contractors even mentioned the possibility of demolition.
If these actions by your HOA board do not represent the wishes of the home owners of Gulf Highlands we encourage you to attend meetings which we are no longer being allowed to attend. You could contact the board with your concerns. We were hoping to resolve this for several reasons. It has been financially devastating to us.
We have loved being a part of Gulf Highlands over the last 5 years and regardless of what happens we appreciate all the support we have recieved and the many friends that we have made and continue to hold dear.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. Thank you all!
