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I CALL IT APATHY
By
Jan Bergemann
Published May 4, 2018
I think it’s great
that Eric’s seminars are so well attended. I have been to quite
a few of his seminars – and they are always very educational.
But even more than 15,000 is a small number considering the fact
that according to numbers there are more than 1.45 million
condos here in Florida.
There are many good
board members that really try to do the right thing and are
trying to learn how their community should be managed – and how
to follow the laws regulating these associations.
And then there are
some owners who are interested in learning how the association
system works – mostly after they found out that something isn’t
right in their community.
Let’s face it: For
most people buying a home or a condo is the greatest investment
of their life. Wouldn’t one assume that they are interested in
“protecting” this investment that most of them worked hard for
to be able to buy it?
A wide majority of
owners living in community associations have never attended a
board meeting. Many of the owners will look at you like deer in
the headlight if you ask them about the last budget meeting.
Shouldn’t owners
minimum care what happens with their money?
People seem to
forget that their condo/home is collateral for any debt the
association occurs. Shouldn’t owners care if boards take out
million dollar loans using the maintenance fees – or even
special assessments -- as collateral?
It’s nice to see
that quite a few board members and owners are attending Eric’s
seminars, but in reality the apathy of a majority of owners
allows the bad guys to run the ship into the ground.
Many more people
should care about their investment – the home of their families!
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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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