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THE FIGHT WILL BE ON!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published January 20, 2023
As much as I liked Rafael’s headline
on Wednesday: “WE
MUST STAND TOGETHER…!”
– that will never happen. Since I went first to Tallahassee in
1999 there were always to opposing sides when it came to
discussing and/or enacting community association bills: On one
side the COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE (CAI) and on the other
side the owners.
And no matter what the CAI is trying to tell you, this
organization is the national trade organization for all the
folks who make money from community associations, claiming to
provide services to these communities. Starting with attorneys
(our worst opponents), developers, community association
managers, insurance agents, landscape companies, contractors –
and the list goes on. There even some board members listed as
members, board members who most likely love to be dictators and
hope to get protected by CAI attorneys. And guess what,
financials of some communities have shown that these board
members even pay the CAI membership fees from the association
account.
And yes, all these folks use the money they are making from
these community associations to pay for lobbyists to lobby
against the owners’ interest.
We will see in the near future some bills filed for the upcoming
legislative session that are definitely OWNER-FRIENDLY. But I
can already assure you that these CAI lobbyists will fight these
bills claiming that it is not in the interest of owners to
punish board members who violate the statute, abuse reserve
funds and ignore record requests. Their argument: “If this
happens there will be no volunteers willing to serve on the
board and the whole system will collapse! I have heard that only
too often in the last twenty years.
There is no difference to real life: If you don’t violate the
laws, you are – normally – not accused of violating the law.
With other words: An honest board member, who follows the
statutes, doesn’t have to fear some sort of prosecution. If you
don’t rob a bank you don’t have to be afraid to be prosecuted as
a bank robber! Isn’t that how life works?
As far as I know we will – so far – looking at bills that will
deal with:
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Spreading out the FINANCIAL BURDEN of condo-owners in
hi-rises over more years.
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STRICT ENFORCEMENT
of record requests
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A WORKING enforcement agency for Condos and
HOAs
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PUNISHMENT for board members for knowingly violating
the statutes, especially for abusing reserve funds
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MANDATORY EDUCATION (Seminars – no more stupid forms
that say “I know it all” to be signed)
LET'S FIGHT FOR IT -- IT'S WORTH FIGHTING FOR!
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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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