SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Kenisha Wood is one of six homeowners in the Hampton Estates gated community that saw severe damage to a boundary wall off Fawn Run and Old Lockwood Road by Hurricane Irma in 2017.

• Hampton Estates homeowners want hurricane-damaged wall repaired
• HOA given $16,000 to fix, but the wall remains untouched in 2019
• Seminole County told HOA the entire wall was built in the wrong location

“First thought was the HOA would be on top of this,” Wood said.

At first, it appeared they were. In November 2017, The Homeowners Association was given an insurance check of roughly $16,000 to fix the wall, but in 2019 the wall still hasn’t been touched.

“We had the HOA president herself say the money was spent, and they don’t know how they were going to get it back,” Wood explained.

Spectrum News 13 reached out to HOA president Christina Verstrate multiple times for comment, but had no luck getting in touch.

In an e-mail from Scott Kiernan, an attorney for Becker Lawyers who represents the neighborhood’s management group, he stated, “We are currently assisting the Association in pursuing all legal options, including construction defect claims for original defective wall construction.”

Kiernan continued, “An engineer has been hired by the Association to assist with properly repairing the wall.  It has yet to be determined what financial source of funds will be used to pay for full wall repairs, but the volunteer neighbors that run the Association in their spare time are working very hard to pursue all options in the best interest of all homeowners and neighbors."

Nearly two full years of no wall repairs is unacceptable to homeowners.

“This is going to affect our property values," resident Aida Castellano said. "Who would want to come in to here and buy when they have this right across the street? You can see the tarps that are still there. This has been a year and a half since this wall has come down.”

Residents also reached out to the Seminole County code enforcement to see if they could help speed up the process to rebuild the wall, but the county told the HOA the entire brick wall was built in the wrong location, which means the whole wall now needs to be replaced.