FINALLY A BILL TO PREVENT YOUR MONEY FROM GETTING STOLEN

By Eric Glazer, Esq.

Published March 25, 2019

 

As many of you already know, each owner of a condominium unit pays $4.00 per year to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes.  The money is supposed to be spent helping to regulate and provide services to condominium unit owners throughout our state.

 Each year, because the money is not spent, there is a huge surplus, often to the tune of millions of dollars.  Instead of the money remaining in a fund set aside for the condominium unit owners, this “Trust Fund” gets swept into the general fund and is used for any purpose The Florida Legislature wants to use it for.  Make no mistake about it, condominium unit owners are in effect being extra taxed.  Sure, it’s only $4.00 per year.  However, when you think about the number of condominium units throughout the state, you can understand how staggering the number actually is.

Year after year we have heard legislators act surprised and shocked to learn that this was actually happening to condo owners.  Many have promised to put an end to this shenanigans.  Nobody did.

This year, House Bill 1259 was filed by Representative Fernandez and it seeks to prevent The Florida Legislature from raiding these funds that should remain in the Trust Fund and should be spent only on those condominium unit owners who contributed.  I know this…..if I take funds from my law firm’s trust account that don’t belong to me, I get disbarred and face a prison term.  Why should The Florida Legislature be allowed to take the $4,00 from a trust fund that was paid into by condo unit owners and spend it on non condo owners?

This bill is long overdue and is worthy of your support.


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About HOA & Condo Blog

Eric Glazer Eric Glazer graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in 1992 after receiving a B.A. from NYU. He has practiced community association law for more than 2

decades and is the owner of Glazer and Associates, P.A. a seven attorney law firm with offices in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and satellite offices in Naples, Fort Myers and Tampa.

 

Since 2009, Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show that airs at noon each Sunday on 850 WFTL.

   

See: www.condocrazeandhoas.com.

   

He is the first attorney in the State of Florida that designed a course that certifies condominium residents as eligible to serve on a condominium Board of Directors and has now certified more than 10,000 Floridians all across the state. He is certified as a Circuit Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has mediated dozens of disputes between associations and unit owners. Eric also devotes significant time to advancing legislation in the best interest of Florida community association members.


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