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COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS: NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published February 23, 2024
The list
of provisions in the statute that are not mediated or litigated
is very small – or rather non-existing.
I get
daily e-mails and telephone calls from folks who complain about
serious problems in their community.
We
already see a myriad of lawsuits and arbitration filings, but
the real reason why we don’t see even more litigation: Owners
just don’t have the money to pay high-priced attorneys to file
lawsuits or start arbitration.
Even in
cases where the evidence of violations by boards and CAMs is
documented, owners decide not use the legal way to go after
these violations once they hear the possible cost of such
lawsuits.
Even if
the owners win and may get reimbursed for all the legal fees
they spent before getting a favorable ruling, they just don’t
have the $15,000 - $30,000 it takes to get the case into the
court room.
Law
firms, knowing full well that the board violated the law and
will lose in the end, are filing motions over motions – or
appeals (see:
BOCA VIEW CONDOMINIUM) – hoping that the owner will
run out of money to pay his/her attorney and will be forced to
settle.
Our
Florida Legislators are filing each year lots of community
association bills and the length of the Florida statutes for
community associations is growing each year, but as long as all
these provisions are not strictly enforced by a government
agency – preferably under the umbrella of the Attorney General’s
office – all these newly added provisions are not really helping
the owners.
Just look
at the huge amount of embezzlement cases – just the ones that
are prosecuted – and you see how easy it is to break the laws in
community associations – criminal and civil.
Adding
more “helpful” provisions each year doesn’t really protect the
owners from abuse and financial “mismanagement”.
As we see
with the crime wave in our nation, only serious punishment of
the guilty party will more or less stop all criminal and civil
violations. Punish the guilty parties, not the associations for
the violations committed by individuals.
We have
seen board members, who didn’t even get a parking ticket in
their life, violating the laws, because they know – or are being
told by attorneys and CAMs – that they only get a slap on the
wrist – if they get caught!
THIS
HAS TO CHANGE – if our legislators are really willing to
protect the families living in community associations.
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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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