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IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL TIME
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published August 3, 2015
It’s the end of the summer. Millions of kids across our state
have to suck it up and return to school. And if the kids have
to endure school for the next ten months, all of you can endure
a measly three hours. I’m talking of course about Condo and HOA
Board Certification.
There’s a lot that goes into my job as a lawyer in
this area of the law. Working on the current cases I have,
keeping abreast of the changes in the law, advocating for
legislative reform, doing the Condo Craze Radio Show each week
and writing this blog each weeks as well. Without a doubt
however, my favorite part of what I do is teaching and meeting
all of you at our state-wide seminars.
As you all know by now, condo and HOA directors must get
certified within one year prior to getting elected or appointed
to the board or within 90 days of actually getting elected or
appointed to the Board. They can do so in one of two ways. The
first way is the chicken’s way out and quite frankly is an
embarrassing loophole in the law. The law actually allows you
to sign an affidavit which basically states that you have read
your association’s governing documents and 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.”
Honestly, this is ridiculous. Many of you have illegal
provisions in your governing documents. Your affidavit
apparently requires you to promise to uphold these provisions
even if they are illegal and unenforceable. Worse yet, the
affidavit does not even require you to read or even acknowledge
Florida Statute 718 (the condo statute) or Florida Statute 720
(the HOA statute).
Thank heavens that the law provides that you can
also get certified by taking a DBPR approved course. I fought
hard three years ago to ensure that HOA members had the ability
to get certified by attending these classes and am very proud of
helping to pass legislation which did just that. I am also
proud to say that I have taught the course to over 10,000 of you
all across the state. At each class, not only do the attendees
learn something, but I do as well. So do the attorneys in my
firm. Your questions always help raise awareness to so many
issues and often times you provide practical answers to what may
seem like complicated issues. The bottom line is that we all
learn from each other.
CLICK HERE FOR OUR UPCOMING SEMINARS AND TO REGISTER!
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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 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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