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IS
ASSOCIATION CRIME ON THE RISE?
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published September 8, 2014
Many
of you heard the Condo Craze show a few weeks ago concerning the
Mainlands VII HOA in Tamarac, where a President was arrested for stealing over $180,000.00
from her association. Earlier in the week, I appeared on the
local news regarding yet another President allegedly taking tens
of thousands of dollars for management fees, despite not being a
licensed community association manager.
Condo
president accused of using community funds for personal items
Lately,
it seems that week after week we hear about an association’s
board member getting arrested for stealing.
It’s alarming.
In all fairness to directors of condos and HOAs, we also
hear almost every day about doctors getting arrested for
Medicare fraud, attorneys stealing from trust accounts, and
government officials taking bribes.
The question is…..are directors of associations more
likely to commit financial crimes than members of other
professions? Is it
because they don’t get paid and at some point believe they are
deserving of these funds? Is
it simply because nobody is watching and the temptation is too
great?
For a long time, the condo statute automatically removed
board members who were arrested for stealing association funds.
HOAs on the other hand had no such protection until Jan
Bergemann and I worked hard two years ago to have the same rule
of law apply to HOA directors and officers who steal.
We both got tired of hearing about directors who stole
money and continued to serve as President of the association ---FROM
PRISON.
Should directors who steal be subject to harsh discipline
because in effect they are stealing from all of the members of
the community and there are more victims than a typical theft?
Would a salaried board cure the temptation and the
problem? I don’t
pretend to know the answers, but the more we hear about arrests
of board members gone awry, the more difficult it becomes for
board members with pure hearts to gain the trust and confidence
of the members of their own communities.
Suggestions, suggestions we want suggestions……..
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from the University of
Miami School of Law in 1992 after receiving a B.A. from
NYU. He is currently entering his 20th year as a
Florida
lawyer practicing |
community association law and is the owner of
Glazer and Associates, P.A. an eight attorney law firm in
Orlando
and Hollywood. For the past two years Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and
HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show on 850 WFTL. See: www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the State of Florida
that designed a course that certifies condominium residents as
eligible to serve on a condominium Board of Directors and has
now certified more than 7,500 Floridians. He is certified as a
Circuit Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has
mediated dozens of disputes between associations and unit
owners. Finally, he recently argued the Cohn v. Grand
Condominium case before The Florida Supreme Court, which is
perhaps the single most important association law case decided
by the court in a decade.
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