AN ABSOLUTE USELESS AGENCY

By Jan Bergemann

Published February 23, 2017

 

Well, latest since the Miami Grand Jury report dated February 6, 2017 was published it’s official: The Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes is about as useless as it comes. A total waste of finances of due-paying condo owners.

 

Years ago, when Michael Cochran was the Division director, we always thought that the Division was horrible. But when Kevin Stanfield took over the Division went from bad to worse. And this was difficult to understand since Kevin Stanfield knows the problems condo and co-op owners are facing. He was present when the owners from all over the state testified in front of State Representative Julio Robaina’s FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SELECT COMMITTEE ON CONDOMINIUM & HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION GOVERNANCE.

 

Obviously all he learned at these hearings was how to avoid getting involved in the issues these owners are facing on a daily basis.

 

Normally complaints filed with the Division are answered with a form letter stating that the Division has either no jurisdiction or couldn’t find any evidence that the complaint had any merits – or proof is missing. I’m always wondering how these “investigators” come to this conclusion if they don’t even bother to contact the folks listed as witnesses to the violations. To me it’s just an attitude problem of the Division employees who obviously want to get paid without doing the work they are getting paid for.

 

And the office of the Condo Ombudsman? It started real well with good intentions until Donna Berger from Becker & Poliakoff filed all kinds of complaints against Ombudsman Virgil Rizzo – because he took his job seriously and tried to help the owners – much to the dislike of these attorneys.

 

Now we have a Condo Ombudsman named Bruce A. Campbell, who in my opinion just fills the job in order to earn a “second” pension. He allows a guy in Ft. Lauderdale named Luther to run the show. And we have seen at many occasions that the guy often doesn’t know what he is doing!
 

Talking conflict of interest? In Ft. Lauderdale one of the folks “populating” the Bureau of Compliance is Harold Hyman. He is actually the brother of Michael Hyman, a named partner in the law firm of Siegfried, Rivera, Hyman, Lerner, De La Torre, Mars & Sobel, P.A. – a law firm specializing in community association law. Does anyone really believe that there is no conflict of interest? This firm represents many associations – especially in the Miami area. And I know that many complaints have been filed against associations represented by this law firm.

 

With other words: Condo owners are paying for an agency that totally fails to do the job!

 

Since years we are trying to get as well a regulatory agency for homeowners’ associations regulated by Florida statutes 720. But I absolutely understand homeowners who don’t want to be regulated by this Division. Sometimes it’s just better to have no regulatory agency at all than paying for one that makes life even more difficult.


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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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