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SMART MOVE BY FLORIDA BAR
By
Jan Bergemann
Published June 1, 2018
Well, the Florida BAR finally made a consumer-friendly move by
acknowledging the fact that not every law firm/attorney adding
HOA/Condo Law as specialty to their website is
really knowledgeable.
They gave really experienced attorneys in this field the right
to be “Board Certified in Condominium and Planned
Development Law.”
It was about time because after the economic breakdown in 2007
many attorneys in need of new clients just added HOA/Condo Law
to their website, luring new clients to their practice under the
pretense of being knowledgeable HOA/Condo attorneys.
In my opinion HOA/Condo Law is pretty tricky and requires a lot
of knowledge, especially knowing case law. The laws, often
written by attorneys with dollar signs clouding their view, are
not easy to interpret and it takes in my opinion long years of
experience to be a good HOA/Condo attorney.
With other words, associations and owners should make sure to
look at the credentials of an attorney they are planning on
hiring:
Can the attorney claim that he/she is Board Certified in
Condominium and Planned Development Law?
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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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