|
THE “EMINENT DOMAIN BILL FOR CONDOS”
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
October 3, 2014
In
my opinion it was bad enough when legislators pushed by attorney
lobbying groups passed in 2007 bill we immediately named
the “Eminent Domain Bill For Condos” – as
soon as this bill was published.
We
wrote e-mails and made telephone calls to the sponsors of the
bill, Senator Steven Geller and State Representative Elaine
Schwartz, warning them of the downfall of this amendment to FS
718.117(3) – allowing an optional termination of
the condominium form of ownership for all or a portion of the
condominium property pursuant to a plan of termination approved
by at least 80 percent of the total voting interests of the
condominium.
Despite
the fact that both of these legislators are attorneys by
profession and should have been able to read between the lines
and should have realized the serious repercussions this bill
would have on the remaining condo owners, who made every payment
required, but could be kicked out of their homes being paid
peanuts. That’s when the American Dream of homeownership
turned into nightmares for the owners who – in good faith –
believed that their home is their home as long as they pay
mortgage, property taxes and insurance and monthly maintenance
dues.
WAKE
UP PEOPLE: That may be true everywhere but not in FRAUD FRIENDLY FLORIDA
where legislators enact bills that allow greedy investors to
kick families out of their homes paying them peanuts.
But
what’s in my opinion even more disgusting is the fact that the
attorneys and law firms that were publicly pushing this bill,
even testifying in front of legislative committees, are now “washing their hands in innocence” – now that the media is tearing this bill apart, showing the
downfall of these amendments to FS 718.117 enacted in 2007.
They
now claim that they didn’t realize what damage the bill would
do to good families who invested their life-savings into the
American Dream.
MAKE
NO MISTAKE:
A very similar version of this bill was vetoed by Governor Bush,
who wrote in his Veto
Letter for SB 1556 (2006) that he vetoed the bill
because of the “only” 80% requirement to vote on
termination. What more obvious warning is needed to make these
“smart” attorneys realize what issues this bill has?
If
these attorneys, who normally claim they know it all, can’t
see the clear writing on the wall they might look for other
kinds of occupation since they are clearly unable to see obvious
downfalls in the bills they are pushing.
To
me it seems that lots of
Florida
families are now losing their homes because of the incompetence
of these legislators and lawyers!
|
|
 |
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
!
|
