A judge’s ruling this week sunk the Town of Windermere’s long-held claim to ownership of five historic boathouses on the north side of Lake Butler, perhaps ending a costly, taxpayer-funded property-rights dispute that dates back more than four decades.
The decision by Circuit Judge John E. Jordan declared the private users of the boathouses near Palmer Park to be their rightful owners, noting they had for years paid Windermere rent “based upon the parties’ mutual mistake of fact that the Town had the right to charge rent” for the wooden structures.
The town sued in 2022 to wrest possession of the boathouses from the renter/owners and evict them.
“This was essentially government trying to take away private property rights,” said Daniel W. Langley, an attorney with Fishback Dominick and co-counsel with Charles Greene for the boathouse owners. “The town didn’t even have the right to ask my clients to pay the rent they’ve paid all these years.”
Town Manager Robert Smith did not reply to an email about whether Windermere will appeal and what it has spent on legal fees.
Neither did Windermere Mayor Jim O’Brien.
The prominent Central Florida law firm, GrayRobinson, represented the town in the dispute.
Before the town lawyer submitted final arguments to the judge last month, Bozena Siemian, a co-owner with her husband Trevor of one of the boathouses, posted in protest a sign announcing “The Town of Windermere had spent “$423,221.01 and rising in TAXPAYER MONEY suing town residents to take these private boathouses” though town officials had been provided proof of private ownership.
Built more than a century ago on wooden pilings in the lagoon, each boathouse has three sides and a roof. They function like a carport for storage of personal watercraft. The Siemians keep a kayak in theirs. The structures’ true value is access to Lake Butler, a popular space for boating, fishing and other water recreation and the largest of 13 interconnected lakes in southwest Orange County.
In his ruling Monday, the judge said the boathouse owners had proved ownership and, over the years, had “enjoyed all of the privileges of owning the boathouses, including the exclusive possession and use of them, and also took on all of the burdens of ownership.”
That included paying the property taxes on them.
The judge also pointed out the boathouses were built before the town was incorporated in 1925 and the town never held title to any of them, though a former mayor and a descendant of the founding family, John Palmer Luff Sr., had once owned one, maybe two.
Windermere boathouses in a lagoon in front of Lake Butler, on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. A judge’s ruling this week sunk Windermere’s long held but disputed claim to ownership of five small boathouses built on the north side of Lake Butler more than 100 years ago, before the town was incorporated. The town has spent an estimated $500,000 on the lawsuit. In his ruling Monday, Circuit Judge John E. Jordan pointed out Windermere did not construct the five boathouses and has never had physical possession of them. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
Bozena Siemian said she and her husband were aware of the controversy in 2023 when they bought their home.
“It’s hard to find homes on the lake,” she said, explaining her husband had grown up around the Butler Chain of Lakes. “We felt like we had found our place and just sort of inherited the headache that was the ongoing lawsuit over the boathouses…On the face of it, it seemed like it was so straightforward especially when a state analyst came in and said this has always been private land.”
But town leaders were unpersuaded and forged ahead with the lawsuit.
The judge’s ruling said Windermere’s claims of ownership and control are grounded on “incorrect assumptions” that Florida owns the bottom of the lagoon in which the boathouses are located, giving the town the right to restrict who comes and goes.
He invoked complex law involving “riparian rights” and navigable state waters.
The judge, citing expert testimony, also pointed out the lagoon was dug out and connected to Lake Butler by a dredged canal.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, he noted, has determined that the land underlying the boathouses is not sovereign state land but privately owned and the deeds are held by the owners of the boathouses, not the town of Windermere.
Bozena Siemian said she hopes the judge’s ruling settles the issue, but the decision rests with town leaders.
“I’d like to think that they, you know, can just take the loss and walk away, but we’ll see,” she said.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/08/judges-ruling-sinks-windermeres-claim-to-boathouses/