A Florida homeowner said her former property manager ran her community like a ‘dictatorship’ for over a decade, while accusing him of allowing maintenance issues to fester for years.
Michael Christopher Curtis, 38, has now been accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from three condo associations in Broward County.
The woman, who requested to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, has lived at the Windmill Lakes Condominium Community in Pembroke Pines for more than 20 years.
Curtis, she said, became the property manager at Windmill Lakes sometime in 2014 after working as an employee for the complex’s previous management company, TD Sunshine.
Years before Curtis would be charged in connection with the alleged theft of nearly $600,000 from the Windmill Lakes homeowners association, the woman told the Daily Mail that he began accusing the previous property manager of stealing.
Since she and other community members knew Curtis, she said they thought it would be ‘a great idea’ to give him the reins. Once he was in charge though, she noticed an immediate lack of transparency around how the HOA was doing financially.
‘I had general questions. And he’d say, “Don’t worry, I got it,”‘ she recalled. ‘I was smelling something that was not right.’
She claimed members of the HOA fundraised to build a new gate that was never installed. She also said complex’s clubhouse and outdoor pool fell into disrepair years ago and remain closed to this day. The pool area appears to be growing some sort of mildew or mold on the concrete, pictures shared with the Daily Mail show.
Michael Christopher Curtis, 38, has been charged in three different criminal cases, where prosecutors allege he has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from various condo associations in Florida in his capacity as a property manager
A view of the outdoor hot tub at the Windmill Lakes Condominium Community in Pembroke Pines on Friday. The surrounding concrete appears to have a growth of a black mildew or mold
‘We were all paying $300 a month, and we weren’t getting anything but the lawn cut,’ she said. ‘You have all of these unit owners paying and you have nothing, no amenities whatsoever, not even a swimming pool.’
The resident told the Daily Mail that there were no elections for the HOA board for years, claims that were repeated by the Pembroke Pines Police Department after it announced Curtis’s arrest on Tuesday.
The resident said Melissa Mendez served as the sole member of the board and was its president during this time, appointed by Curtis.
‘We didn’t vote [Mendez] in. Nobody voted for her, but she appeared as the president,’ she said. ‘He had us in a dictatorship pretty much for years. We had no voice.’
Business records show Mendez is still the board president for two of the five subdivisions at Windmill Lakes.
The resident who spoke to the Daily Mail said her subdivision now has an independent HOA board and no longer employs Curtis as the property manager.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Curtis cashed more than 350 checks by forging the names of former HOA board members at Windmill Lakes.
The former board members, one of whom sold his home at Windmill Lakes in December 2019, signed sworn statements that they had not signed the checks, police said.
The pool area has been locked and off-limits to Windmill Lakes residents for years, a resident told the Daily Mail
The clubhouse (pictured on Friday) has also been closed to residents for years and remains closed to this day, according to the resident
These checks totaled just over $1 million, money that went to Curtis’s various companies, per the affidavit.
Of that, investigators were able to establish that nearly $600,000 was definitively fraudulent, said Amanda Conwell, the public information officer for the Pembroke Pines Police Department.
Detectives began the multi-year investigation after they received complaints from Windmill Lakes residents.
Police also found evidence of ‘lapsed insurance coverage’ and Curtis allegedly fabricating management fees of $46,000.
This is the most recent criminal case filed against Curtis, who pleaded not guilty to first degree grand theft and two counts of criminal use of personal identifiable information.
Prosecutors in Broward County have also charged Curtis in two separate cases, alleging he has stolen more than $500,000 from two other condo complexes he managed.
Curtis was arrested and arraigned for these active cases, which involve insurance settlement money that was supposed to cover damages caused by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
‘This is Mr. Curtis’ third arrest, tied to the same personal vendettas and the same underlying dispute,’ Elias R Hilal, Curtis’s attorney, told the Miami Herald in a statement.
The clubhouse, pool area and tennis courts seen from a satellite photo taken on January 29, 2024. Visible wear and tear is evident on the courts
In 2014 Curtis became the property manager for Windmill Lakes Condominium Community (pictured) in Pembroke Pines
‘He unequivocally denies wrongdoing, and we will be litigating aggressively to defend his name. When the evidence is laid out, the allegations won’t hold,’ Hilal added.
Hilal did not return a request for comment from the Daily Mail.
On December 16, 2020, Curtis wrote his company, BDM Property Management, an $87,500 check from the Colonies II Condo Association’s bank account, according to state investigators.
Instead of depositing the check into his business bank account for free, investigators say that he went to a check cashing establishment and paid a $1,750 fee, something he allegedly did to ‘conceal the transaction.’
Nearly a year before, prosecutors maintain that Curtis committed a similar act of fraud against Fairways of Sunrise, allegedly pocketing $439,000 in insurance proceeds meant to cover Hurricane Irma damage.
In October 2025, a jury sided with Curtis and BDM Property Management, finding that they did not breach their fiduciary duty to the HOA for Fairways of Sunrise.
Widespread accusations of misconduct have led to Curtis’s community association manager license to be officially revoked by the First District Court of Appeal on January 7, 2026.
The equivalent license for BDM Property management was also revoked, court records show.
Police say Curtis has stolen just under $600,000 from the complex’s HOA board, allegations he denies
This means Curtis cannot legally manage condos, HOAs or any type of cooperative associations in the state of Florida.
Daily Mail reached out to Mendez for comment.
