By Eric Glazer, Esq.

Published August 26, 2013

As we all know from our days in grade school, this country was founded on the principle of “no taxation without representation” and, more importantly, the idea of “one person one vote.”

After gaining its independence and after more than a century of fighting to expand the propositions of our Founding Fathers, America matured to a point where it saw its minorities and women fight for and ultimately obtain an equal right to vote.

It's safe to say that the right to vote is something that we Americans hold sacred. In fact, the numbers of those who sacrificed and even died for the right to vote and participate in the affairs of our government is staggering to those of us who take it for granted today. 

Given how sacred we consider our fundamental democratic right, how is it possible that owners in Florida condominiums and homeowners associations can lose the ability to vote in the affairs of their community without any due process what-so-ever?

            A few years ago the Florida Legislature thought that a good way to get delinquent owners to pay their assessments would be preventing them from voting in their community elections.  As a result, the law now states that Florida condominiums and homeowners associations may suspend the voting rights of a unit, parcel or member because of the nonpayment of any monetary obligation due to their association that is more than 90 days delinquent. While the statutes require that the suspensions occur at a noticed board meeting, there is no mention in the statutes as to what, if any, due process is afforded to the owners before they lose their right to vote.

Believe it or not, it is “possible” that someone handling the receivables for an association can make an error and an owner who is not more than 90 days delinquent will be deprived of a fundamental right with no recourse. But who cares about that due process nonsense when there are overdue assessments to collect … right?

            Actually, it can get much worse for an owner in Florida now.

At the board certification seminars I teach there are always plenty of board members that want the ability to list the names of the people they call "bad guys" in big bold letters on their community’s bulletin board. They want the world to see who is behind in paying their assessments. For years I’ve always told my association clients that publishing these “deadbeat lists” are a bad idea and could land them in the defendant's chair in their local courthouse. It seems however that I'm wrong. Apparently, if an association wants to suspend the voting rights of a “bad guy,” they have to let everyone know, at least according to a decision by the arbitration division of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

In Leonardis v. Portofino Gardens an arbitrator ruled that a condominium association’s board must state which owner's voting rights are being suspended at a board meeting and their names must be included in the minutes of that meeting.

So now, your name is published both verbally and in print, as a deadbeat who lost the right to vote, before being entitled to any hearing or defense what-so-ever.  Pursuant to this arbitration decisions, I also see no reason why a board can't legally post the minutes of the suspension meeting, just in case any of your neighbors missed it.

            Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of doing what we can to make people pay their assessments. But, should it be done by throwing out the ability to defend oneself and trampling on the American theory that a person is innocent until proven guilty?

            I have a better idea Florida Legislature, if you want to crack down on those harming the financial interests of our communities, you may want to start with the banks who are sitting on tens of thousands of cases in the foreclosure pipeline and at the same time are also harming our civil courts by clogging up our dockets. I know that's a tougher fight than taking away the voting rights of people who may have lost their jobs, or senior citizens who can barely make ends meet, or people who, unfortunately, may live in communities with sketchy bookkeeping, but that's where the biggest problem lies.

But you knew that already … didn’t you?