THINGS CAN CHANGE QUICKLY!

By Jan Bergemann

Published February 18, 2022

 

Remember last year in January? Our government changed – and things quickly began to unravel. Remember the gas prices? Remember the food prices? Things were pretty great, considering that vaccine to fight the Chinese Virus was on the way – and the State of Florida took things pretty easy without big lock-downs and serious mask mandates. We are still doing great, especially if you look at many other states in our nation.

 

But then came June 24, 2021 – a day that not only cost the lives of 98 people living in the Champlain Towers South Condominium in Surfside, but that will as well change condo life in Florida forever. But again it seems that our legislators are listening not to the owners, but to the same people that succeeded in 2010 to repeal all the good provisions State Representative Julio Robaina had created with his bill HB 995 in 2008.

 

These folks (CAI, attorneys and developers) made sure that there were no longer earlier mandatory inspections of hi-rise buildings, no longer the necessity to fund reserves, removing most all of the safety provisions HB 995 had included. In my opinion the disaster in Surfside could have been prevented if the measures created in HB 995 would have been left intact.

 

We will see in a few weeks what our legislators will come up with, but so far it looks like the measures included in the bills on the move in Tallahassee are NOT REALLY PROTECTING the families living in Florida’s hi-rise condominiums, but will definitely seriously increase the cost of living in these condos. As one newspaper put it: “Condo Owners will be priced out of Paradise!


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Jan Bergemann Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice, Florida 's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group. CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in community  

associations. He moved to Florida in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues for his own purposes. End of retirement!

 

CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in Tallahassee - finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.

 

The organization has two websites to inform interested Florida homeowners and condo owners:

News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.

Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.

   
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all service providers surely have a different interest! We are trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking in Florida !


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