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RESTRICTIONS, RESTRICTIONS – AND
MORE RESTRICTIONS
By
Jan Bergemann
Published August 3, 2018
When moving into a
community association you will be surrounded by even more
restrictions than already created by your local government
entities. In the end you have to ask yourself the question: What
parts of my life are nor regulated yet? You might come up with
very few answers to this question – like: The color of your
underwear, or when you can use your private bathroom.
There is not much
that isn’t regulated nowadays. Living in a community association
makes life even more complicated than it already is, especially
when you live in an association where the board members are
trying to micro-manage your life.
Too many board
members don’t seem to understand that they can’t just make up
rules as they go along. The existence of a community association
is based on contract law – and the board members can’t just
change the “contract” if they feel like it. Their “rule-making”
is limited, but many board members, attorneys and CAMs don’t
seem to understand that.
And owners, who
challenge the “rule-making authority” of such power-grabbing
boards are often told by these board members, CAMs -- and even
attorneys – that they don’t have the money to challenge their
“rule-making” in court. Never forget: An owner has to pay the
legal fees for a court-challenge out of his/her own pocket,
while the board members, even if they violated about every rule
in the book, are covered by insurance - and can fall back on
the association funds – if need be.
In my opinion that’s
one of the main reasons why many board members think that they
can do whatever they want – even creating totally unreasonable
restrictions.
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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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