Since Pinkston has taken over, he hasn't kept up with the agreed-upon OUC payments for sections one and three, either. So on Oct. 26, OUC cut the electric to the common areas of Tymber Skan. On Nov. 9, it'll cut the water, too. For public safety's sake, streetlights and fire hydrants will remain functional, but that's about it.
"The mounting bills in those two sections are in excess of $100,000," OUC spokesman Tim Trudell says. "We have an entire ratepayer system to worry about, too, and at some point, we have to do something to protect everybody in that system. ... We can't lose so much that it affects everybody else's rates."
Pinkston, who doesn't live at Tymber Skan but owns one rental unit there that he purchased in 2013, seems oddly at peace with OUC's decision.
"We've talked to the people on site and let them know if you don't pay rent or pay anything there's no way for the bills to be taken care of," he says. "And we're not receiving any income in from any owners in Section Two, so that has put us in a position where there's really nothing we can do as far as the water being turned off and the electricity."
He says that of 60 occupied units in sections one and three, 14 are owner-occupied. The rest are rentals, and he says there's only one tenant he can think of that pays rent regularly. (Although it's worth noting that several people in the community say Pinkston stopped accepting rent from tenants because he wants everyone to leave.) When the power and the water go out, he says, the delinquent tenants will go, too.
"We have an objective," he says. "The water being turned off will kind of purge Tymber Skan. Meaning, the people that refuse to pay, or who can't pay because they don't work, they won't be able to stay here anymore, and the association can move forward with its plans to restore Tymber Skan."
By "restore," though, Pinkston means tear it down and start over.
"We want a whole new development," he says. "We can't redevelop what's there because it's out of code, it's old. We'd end up spending more money rehabbing everything versus just building from the ground up. We're trying to work with some of the owners in good standing on this objective."
Pinkston even has a name for the new development: "In our business plan, we're calling it the Preserve at Lake Catherine," he says.
McIntosh says she has heard rumors of development plans, and that Pinkston has mentioned it to her in the past, but she says she doesn't really know what's going on, or how he plans to make his vision reality.
"He refuses to tell us, and he will not tell the lawyers anything he wants to do with the neighborhood," she says. "The homeowners have a right to know."
James Hurley of Apopka, who has been an investor in Tymber Skan for years (and who has been accused by tenants over the years of not making repairs to his rental units), says he has no idea what's going on, either.
"I'm not sure how useful I can be, because I'm having a hard time getting any meaningful answers," Hurley says when contacted for his thoughts on the community's future. "The person you really need to speak to is Mr. Pinkston. Have you spoken to him?" When told that we were waiting for Pinkston to return our call, Hurley responded: "Welcome to my world."
