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BOARD
MEMBER APATHY
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published April 6, 2015
It
seems like no matter how early, or on what day of the week we
hold our Board Certification seminars for both condominium and
HOA members, the classes are packed to the rafters.
There’s often times complaints about communities going
to hell because of unit owner apathy.
When you see a room full of hundreds of owners at 7:30 in
the morning on a Saturday attending an educational course, you
realize that while there certainly are people out there who
would never participate in the affairs of their community, there
are countless others who do care and who care about becoming
educated and striving to be the best board member they can be.
For me, it is truly inspirational every time I address a
crowded audience. What
an honor!
And
then there’s the flip side.
For those of you that have attended my seminar, you know
how angry I am that the law still allows Board members to get
certified by signing what I call a silly self-serving affidavit
that certifies :
in writing to the secretary of the
association that he or she has read the association’s
declaration of condominium, articles of incorporation, bylaws,
and current written policies; that he or she will work to uphold
such documents and policies to the best of his or her ability;
and that he or she will faithfully discharge his or her
fiduciary responsibility to the association’s members.
The
same ridiculous affidavit can be signed by condo board members
and HOA Board members. Simply
by signing this affidavit, the person is certified to the same
extent as anyone else who bothered to attend a class.
The
affidavit does not even require a director to acknowledge that
they read or even know that Florida Statutes 718 or 720 exist.
Moreover, many of you have illegal provisions in your
governing documents (for example – no children allowed even
though you’re not a 55 and over community).
Yet, this affidavit requires the director “to uphold
such documents and policies to the best of his or her
ability.” You’re
actually swearing to uphold illegal provisions.
Some
of you are disappointed that The
Florida
Legislature won’t allow the DBPR to assist homeowner
associations in our state. You’re
upset that there’s little to no protection against fraud or
theft in your community. You’re
upset that even when fraud or theft is found, nothing is done
about it. Unfortunately,
to correct much of these problems would require legislative
change which is somewhat out of your hands.
There
is one way to help yourselves.
There is one option that lies exclusively in your hands
and one way to immediately bring change to your community.
This same law allows owners to get certified within one
year before getting on the Board of Directors.
If someone cares about your community and is serious
about doing a good job, they should only get your vote only if
they have already become certified by participating in an
approved class. Countless
people have taken the course I teach before
getting on the Board, because they care enough to learn
something before taking over the awesome responsibility of
running your community. On
the contrary, shame
on any director who is too lazy to learn something for a few
hours while sipping coffee and eating breakfast or who won’t
attend a class because they think they already know everything,
having been on the
board for decades. How
about…….No vote for you if you’re not interested enough to
take a class and learn something?
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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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
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decades
and is the owner of Glazer and Associates, P.A. a seven eight
attorney law firm with offices in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and
Naples.
The
firm also has satellite offices in Tampa and Fort Myers.
Since 2009, Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and
HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show 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 8,000 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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