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 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
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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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