Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Q Club Hotel’s Accounting, Payment Practices for ‘Shared Costs’

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A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in Florida federal court on behalf of owners of condo units in defendant Q Club Hotel, LLC’s Q Club Resort and Residence Condominium.

According to the lawsuit, the defendant’s condos share space in a facility that operates as the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. Condo owners, the suit explains, are each assessed a percentage of specifically defined “shared costs” that cover the maintenance and operation of certain “shared components” of the condominium and amenities within the hotel. 

For its part, Q Club is required to maintain financial records documenting the elements that make up these shared costs, as well as a list pegging unit owners to any applicable charges they owe, the complaint says. Moreover, the defendant is obligated to receive and accept payment from condo owners for shared costs, but only for those “specifically identified and defined in the declaration of the condominium,” the suit reads.

The plaintiff argues, however, that this has regularly not been the case. From the complaint:

“At all times material to this action, Q CLUB has systematically failed to maintain the records it is obligated to maintain, and Q CLUB has routinely and systematically collected payments from Plaintiff and Class Members for items that either are not Shared Costs, collected payments for alleged Shared Costs incurred in prior years or are providing services which are Shared Costs under the declaration and billing them as Hotel Services.”

The plaintiff looks to recover monetary damages stemming from Q Club Hotel’s allegedly unlawful charges imposed in what the case calls a “material breach of the condominium declaration governing the Q Club Resort and Residence Condominium.”