THE FOX GUARDING THE HENHOUSE?

By Jan Bergemann

Published July 9, 2021

 

As usual, any tragedy attracts the profession that makes the most money out of disasters: ATTORNEYS!

 

I really got a good laugh when I read that the Florida Bar wants to create a Taskforce to make recommendations to improve the laws in order to prevent disasters like the condo collapse in Surfside.

 

Names like Sachs, Caplan and others are being thrown in the ring. Are we getting the usual: The fox guarding the henhouse?

 

Let me throw a few names in the discussion: Former Senator Maria Sachs (wife of Peter Sachs, Esq.), who made all kinds of promises at a town hall meeting, only to vote later in Tallahassee against owner-friendly bills. Or the names of Peter Dunbar (Lobbyist Florida Bar), Donna Berger (CALL -- Becker Law Firm) and other attorneys, who testified in committee hearings year for year against owner-friendly bills – together with the lobbyists for the COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE, the trade organization for service-providers. So these are the folks who now want to make recommendations?

 

Since many years we have been asking our legislators to create laws that would requiree mandatory reserve funds – not only for beautification projects, but especially for structural maintenance and repair. At various occasions – starting in 2004 – we had asked to require earlier building-certification reports – 40 years is much too long considering Florida’s climate.

 

We have asked for enforcement of the laws, which is more or less non-existent due to the failure of the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes to do its job as required by FS 718.501. Enforcement for FS 720 (The HOA ACT) is absolutely non-existent. NEVER FORGET: THE BEST LAW IS USELESS WITHOUT ENFORCEMENT!

 

How good is an engineering report if it’s hidden from the owners, and owners requesting these reports are getting instead nasty letters from the association attorneys. Boards are often rather spending $500 on a letter by an attorney making excuses why these records are not available, instead of doing the right thing – handing over the requested records as required by the Florida statutes

 

All these proposals and suggestions have been defeated by just the same people who now want to make suggestions on how to avoid such disasters. What kind of results could anybody expect? Nothing favorable for the owners! We have seen it over and over again!

 

Don’t believe it? Ask former State Representative Julio Robaina (R-117) who filed many owner-friendly condo and HOA bills (HB 995 included 5-year certification) intended to avoid these kind of disasters, only to see these bills defeated or watered down because of the strong opposition of the attorneys and community association managers, whose interest in making more money was definitely superior to the idea of protecting the owners living in these communities.

 

Do we really want to rely on the recommendations of these so-called “service-providers”, who have always worked hard to defeat owner-friendly bills?

 

I think it's high time to have the owners call the shots and make the recommendations. Their lives and the welfare of their families are at stake!


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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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