Jan. 7, 2026, 4:03 a.m. CT
- A battle is being waged between business owners and Navarre Beach condo residents over control of the complex common areas
- Judge J. Scott Duncan has ruled in favor of the condo residents, ordering beach rentals removed from Summer Sands Condominium parking lot
- Proprietors of the Boardwalk Shop and the Gulf Asset Group could face contempt charges for continued noncompliance with the judge’s order
For 36 years, Tom Schumack ran the Summer Sands Condominium complex on Navarre Beach as though it were his own.
Undeterred by state requirements that the eight-unit mixed-use complex be governed by a board of three to five members, Schumack, through an entity called Gulf Asset Group, acted independently to establish policies and maintain the books by which the condominium operated.
In doing so, Schumack, who over time acquired ownership of four of the eight individual units, gave one of his tenants, Terrie Masters, free reign to operate a business called the Boardwalk Shop. The business grew to a point that in 2021, when Dale Atkinson purchased a condo of his own, operations had expanded to encompass much of the area around the complex itself, including the parking lot.
Atkinson has spearheaded what has proven to be a lengthy court fight to wrest control of Summer Sands from Schumack and the common areas around the building from Masters.
In April 2025, following three years of litigation, Atkinson and other representatives of a legally established homeowner’s association secured a sweeping ruling ascertaining their rights as a governing body to reclaim their common areas.
They’ve had to return to court, though, because Masters has refused to comply and remove all of the items she rents to tourists.
Judge J. Scott Duncan has set a hearing for March 7 in which he will decide whether Masters, or her landlords, Schumack and his Gulf Asset Group partner James Wirth, are to be held in contempt for refusing to comply with the April order he issued to clear the property.
The judge made it clear at a Dec. 17 hearing that holding a business owner in contempt was the last thing he wanted to do, but that he was determined to see the Gulf Boulevard property cleaned up.
History of Summer Sands Condominium
Summer Sands was established at 8460 Gulf Blvd. on Navarre Beach through a Declaration of Condominium in 1984 and, in court testimony, Schumack stated he took over as the building’s sole homeowner’s association representative in 1985. He and Gulf Asset Group would eventually come to own units 101, 102, 301 and 302.
The Boardwalk Shop, run by Masters since about 2012, operates as a retail outlet out of Unit 102, court documents show, and is authorized for the sale of clothing, beach apparel, souvenirs and items for personal use on the beach, such as beach chairs and toys.
Over the course of time the Boardwalk Shop expanded its operations to include unauthorized business activities including food service and rental of recreational items, included bicycles, paddleboards, kayaks, surfboards, mopeds and golf carts, a complaint originally filed in 2022 states. The business did not have storage facilities in which to house the rentals.
The business “has misappropriated the common elements owned by the Condominium Association and its members for use in operating its unauthorized business activities,” the complaint stated.
The Boardwalk Shop also brought in an ice machine, a washer and dryer and a sign, all operating on condominium electricity. Masters brought in a “food service structure” and put picnic tables complete with umbrellas that, according to the 2022 complaint, “are taking up the entire parking space in front of the condominium.” She placed a storage unit on the property to hold her merchandise.
Masters went so far as to bring an RV onto the property. She lived in the RV, ran electricity to it using a hook up with the condominium and emptied the contents of the vehicle’s waste collection system directly into a sewage trap, an unlawful circumstance that caused hazardous back ups that left “sewage everywhere” on at least one occasion, the complaint said.
Atkinson testified at a trial held in February that he purchased a unit on Navarre Beach in April of 2021 “sight unseen” as an investment opportunity. When he arrived he found the entire complex in “very bad disrepair” and spent two months fixing everything he could.
Atkinson told the court that he’d asked Schumack about the condition of the condominium and was told efforts were being made to make some repairs, but those repairs never came about.
“I kind of had buyer’s remorse to some extent, but we’re trying to make the best of it,” Atkinson testified.
Atkinson told the court that he inquired with Schumack about financial records and budgets. He said he was interested in knowing where money coming in to the complex through homeowner dues and assessments were going and—because he planned on renting his unit out—wanted to ensure he could provide safe quarters to guests.
Schumack declined to hand over any material until compelled to do so, Atkinson testified, and what he finally gave the homeowner’s association board access to was insufficient to allow the board members to determine where money collected by Schumack was going.
He testified that in November of 2021 a meeting of owners was called and Atkinson was elected president of a homeowner’s association. He said the new association, made up of five owners, including Schumack, spent well over $100,000 trying to renovate the dilapidated building complex.
“Everybody on Navarre Beach would say, this is the biggest — they’d come up and say, ‘You’re an owner here? This is the big eyesore … We hope you change it around,'” Atkinson testified.
For his part, Schumack continued to decline to provide records to the new homeowner’s association board, and Atkinson testified that Schumack refused to pay fees and assessments for any of the four units he and the Gulf Asset Group owned. He was eventually suspended from the board.
And though he had voted along with the other owners to create the homeowner’s association as required by law, Schumack would later deny the board’s legitimacy, claiming the vote had been taken illegally.
Protecting the Boardwalk Shop and Terrie Masters
Once established, the new homeowner’s association at Summer Sands embarked on an effort to re-take common areas that Schumack had allowed Masters to utilize at no cost, according to his own testimony.
One of its first orders of business was sending a cease and desist letter to have Masters remove her RV. Atkinson testified it would take months to get Schumack and Masters to comply and that she only did so when a recall on the vehicle was issued and she took it in to be serviced.
Atkinson testified that Masters’ use of the condominium’s electricity to power her RV and other items she used for her business had significantly impacted the costs the rest of the owners were paying, and her use of the common grounds limited the access to parking for other owners.
She also had drilled into the stucco, which Atkinson testified could damage the integrity of the building by allowing moisture to seep in and mold to form. A washer and dryer brought in by Masters was discovered to have “washed out” a building pylon.
Masters did not attend the court hearing in April, though efforts to compel her presence had been made.
Schuman testified in her defense. He said that she had operated her business for years without anyone having complained and that she had permission of the board, when he alone represented it, to utilize the common areas at the complex to rent amenities tourists would use.
Phone calls to the Boardwalk Shop and the offices of Gulf Assets Group were not immediately returned.
Judge Duncan’s ruling
When Duncan ruled on the case presented to him at trial, he came down firmly on the side of Atkinson and the rest of the Summer Sands Homeowner’s Association Board of Directors.
The defendants were wrongfully occupying the majority of designated parking spaces and common areas surrounding the condominium, he ruled, and therefore wrongfully depriving the other unit owners of the use of such common areas “of which they have an ownership interest.”
The judge cited Masters and Schuman for allowing an unauthorized structure to be placed in the complex’s common area so that food could be served and for placing picnic tables and umbrellas in parking spaces. He also cited them for using common areas for the storage of commercial rental equipment, including mopeds and bicycles.
He dinged them as well for unauthorized signage attached to the condominium’s stucco and permitting the use of a commercial ice machine that draws electricity from the condominium.
“All of (this) is being done without approval of the association and without compensation to the association,” the ruling states.
Duncan went on to write that Master’s continued use of the property as her own place of business constitutes an “ongoing nuisance” for other complex residents, and that the only remedy available would be the issuance of a permanent injunction.
He found all defendants liable for damages because of their violations of the declarations (of condominium) and Florida Statutes.
He found Gulf Asset liable as the unit owner that allowed the violations to occur, and the Boardwalk Shop liable for committing the violations. He also found both Schumack and Masters personally liable and subject to damages.
Under his order all property attached to or located in the complex’s common area was to have been removed within 60 days.
He enjoined Masters, Schumack and Gulf Assets from “placing, storing or maintaining any business equipment and movables in the common areas” and from “constructing or placing any other structures on the general common area in any manner without securing advance written permission of the (homeowner’s) association.”
He ordered all insurance policies held by the Boardwalk Shop to be provided to the association board within 30 days and barred Masters from parking her RV on condominium property and using electrical outlets at the complex without permission.
Masters’ failure to comply
A motion seeking Masters, Schumack and Gulf Assets be held in contempt was filed in early September. It states that as of the date of the filing the only action taken to clean up the common spaces at the Summer Sands complex had been the removal of a structure where food and snow cones were sold.
The motion contended that a commercial ice machine, signs affixed to the condominium exterior and rental equipment including mopeds, kayaks and bicycles remain and alleges that Majors had actually added to her inventory of bicycles.
It also states Majors and Schumack had failed to turn over the insurance information the judge had ordered delivered within 30 days of his ruling.
Jeffery Toney, the attorney representing the Boardwalk Shop, Masters, Schumack and Gulf Assets, filed a motion claiming his clients had not been sufficiently briefed as to what items were to be removed from the Summer Sands common area.
“The alleged violations concerning business inventory and signage are vague and fail to specify how they constitute willful violations of the order,” his motion stated. “The order does not clearly prohibit all business activity or specifically address inventory levels or permissible signage.”
The judge made clear at the December hearing what actions he expects to be taken ahead of the March 7 hearing.
