Heritage Bay Golf & Country Club

Heritage Bay Golf & Country Club is 1,250 homes and a 27-hole golf course off Immokalee Road in North Naples, with I-75 to the west. Two quarry lakes sit at the entrance, with a cypress preserve to the north and west. Building started in 2006, and the community is complete at that number. The mix is 998 condominiums to 252 detached houses, roughly four to every house.

The club is the association. One corporation holds the recorded declaration that governs every home and owns the golf course outright, with no outside golf company in between. Through the club, the course belongs to the owners, and that makes membership compulsory. Compulsory isn't the same thing as free.

Is golf membership included when you buy?

No. The recorded declaration is blunt: "Every Living Unit has one (1) Club Membership. Club Membership is an appurtenance to and may not be separated from ownership of a Living Unit." A buyer can't decline the membership and can't sell the home without it going along. The obligation attaches to the property, which is a different thing from being included in the price.

What falls due at closing is a resale capital contribution, levied by the club on any sale. The declaration is explicit about whose bill it is. "Payment of the Resale Capital Contribution shall be the legal obligation of the new Owner." The board fixes the amount by resolution and can change it. Every home pays the same, whatever it cost, so it bites harder on a two-bedroom condominium than on a house. Ask what the board has it set at before you sign: it's a one-off closing cost, not a monthly one.

What gets billed, and by whom?

Three separate bills arrive from three separate bodies, and no single monthly figure covers them. The club, as master association, assesses every home once a year, payable by 1 January, with a finance charge on anything late. A second comes from one of 21 neighborhood associations, each at its own rate. A third charge lands on the Collier County tax bill in November. Television and internet are bought in bulk and sit inside the club's annual assessment.

There is also a minimum spend: "Each Heritage Bay unit owner is required to spend a minimum amount on food and beverages, including alcohol, for each calendar year as set forth in the Club's annual budget." Anything unspent on 31 December is billed that month and due by 31 January. An owner who never eats at the club pays it anyway.

What can you buy at Heritage Bay?

Four products, and the price bands barely touch:

• Terraces. Nine associations, 450 two-bedroom units in four-story buildings. Sold from the $280,000s to around $440,000.
• Verandas. Eight associations, 364 units in two-story buildings, two and three bedrooms. Sold from the $340,000s to around $570,000.
• Coach homes. Three associations, 184 three-bedroom units. Sold from the $620,000s to around $810,000.
• Houses. 252 detached homes, three and four bedrooms. Sold from the $930,000s, with around $1.5 million at the top.

Nothing trades between the top of the coach homes and the bottom of the houses. If your budget stops in the $800,000s, you are shopping for a coach home, not a house.

What is the golf, and what else is at the club?

The course is 27 holes in three nines, designed by Gordy Lewis and Jed Azinger, and it opened in November 2006. Each nine sets out from the clubhouse, so any two can be played together.

A capped number of memberships goes to people who don't live here. "Outside Memberships for golf are limited to One-Hundred Twenty-Five (125) members and Outside Memberships for tennis are limited to One Hundred (100) members." They carry no vote, and the course takes play from beyond the 1,250 homes.

The clubhouse holds a Grille Room over the course and water, a main dining room, a billiards room and locker rooms with saunas. Outdoors: seven lighted Har-Tru tennis courts, pickleball and bocce, plus a resort pool with an open-air restaurant called The Cabana and a fitness center, with five more pools spread around the community.

Can the home be rented out?

Yes, with a floor of 30 consecutive days, and a tenant gets nothing at the club unless the owner hands the membership across. The club's rules are flat. "A Non-transferee Tenant is limited to lodging only and is not entitled to utilize any of the club or common facilities." Handing it across takes a form filed thirty days before a lease begins, sign-off from the club and the building's association, and a fee. The transfer dies with the lease, and individual associations can set tighter leasing rules.

What are the rules at the gate, and on pets?

The entrance is on Immokalee Road, with what the club calls "a 24-hour manned gatehouse". Visiting vehicles are logged, a license scanned for each non-resident vehicle. Attendants won't accept packages, luggage or keys.

Pets are cats or dogs, two to a household, and no pit bulls or pit-bull-like breeds. They stay leashed and are barred from the clubhouse, the pools and the golf course, with service animals under the ADA excepted.

Every home carries one membership, one vote, and up to two named Designated Club Members, changeable once in twelve months. Where two people own a home, either may cast the vote; if they disagree it is not counted.