I got a call from a man named “Cecil” at Miramar beach condominiums that he had been renting for a couple of years.
He told me that Miramar was becoming the “last” place he wanted to be.
I asked him why.
He said it was because of the condominium tax.
The condominium rate in Florida is 10 percent, the same as New York, the state’s largest, and it is now up to 20 percent in Miami.
I told him that it’s not the condo tax but rather the lack of condominium sales tax that is causing this.
“We don’t want to have people come here,” he said.
I explained to him that the city of Miami and the county government had set up a moratorium on new condominium construction, and that if I didn’t buy a condo I would have to find a new home.
This would be the second time in the last month that I had asked him about condominium taxes.
He had said it would take two years to get through this.
I wanted to get this off my chest.
He called me back to tell me that it was a scam.
The city of Miramar had set a moratorium last year on new condo construction and that the moratorium was set to expire on March 31, 2019.
Condo taxes are supposed to be paid at the property owner’s home or building.
So when the moratorium is lifted, a new developer would be able to start building condos and get paid the same way.
But when the tax is no longer collected, the new developer could be able charge double the assessed value of the condo.
It was a classic scam.
So the developer would then deduct the tax from the new condos’ sales price, but the city wouldn’t collect the tax.
That means the developer could still get a new building in the city, but that would have the added benefit of keeping the tax on the condos.
And the new building could then be built without paying the tax that the condo had been paying.
As the developer gets closer to the end of the moratorium, he would then claim the tax exemption, and he would be on the hook for all the costs of building the new condo.
If Miramar voters passed a $4.4 billion property tax increase in November, the developer might start charging double the condor taxes.
The developer could then claim that he was eligible for the moratorium exemption and that Miramars tax exemption was not in effect.
I called the city’s Finance Department to see if the moratorium had been lifted.
The Finance Department didn’t respond to my call.
In the meantime, the developers are still on the market.
This isn’t the first time Miramar condo owners have had to deal with a tax scam.
Just last month, I was called to the Miramar condominium office and told that I was being sued by a condo developer.
He was claiming to be the owner of Miramar condos, but in fact, he was a real estate agent for the Miramarian Real Estate Development Company, which was supposed to pay taxes to the city.
The real estate company had been contracted to build condos for the city but had been unable to find anyone willing to build them.
The developers’ attorney claimed that the condos were going to be for Miramar residents, but when I asked the real estate director why he didn’t tell the city that he wanted a condo in Miramar instead of a new hotel, the city manager said that he couldn’t get any city permits for the hotel because he was going to put a casino in Miramamar.
When I explained this, the real property director insisted that the developer was actually the owner and that he should be paid the tax because he is the real owner.
It’s unclear how Miramar City Manager Donnie O’Connor, who is a lawyer, can get a city permit for the casino, but it seems clear that he will be a beneficiary of this scam.
But the real-estate agent said he was happy to pay Miramar the tax and even promised to give the city money if it paid the condo developer a fee.
If that is not a scam, what is?
And if it is, how did it happen?
The real-world example is the Miramonster condo complex, which is under construction in Miramonstow, a suburb of Miami.
Miramonsters real-life examples include a $6 million condominium project in Coral Gables that was built by the realtors and developers of the Miami Marlins.
The building was supposed the developer’s primary residence.
But instead of paying for the condos, the Marlins paid the developer to build a hotel.
The Marlins have since sued the developers for not paying taxes on the condo and for not collecting the tax they owed.
The new hotel is now being built on top of the complex