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NEW SHERIFFS IN TOWN?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published January 21, 2022
On Monday Eric talked in his blog about
Senate Bill 274, a bill filed by Senator Ana Maria
Rodriguez (R-Miami). To be honest, I would rather see the
version filed as House companion bill be enacted:
House Bill 811 – filed by Representative Tom
Fabricio (R-Miami). Not only does this bill cover all Florida –
which makes a lot of sense – but it will create the
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT under the umbrella of the Department of Law
Enforcement.
We all know that the Division of Florida Condominiums,
Timeshares and Mobile Homes has a really bad record if it comes
to their willingness of enforcing the laws. They are rather
sending out useless form letters instead of doing what they are
being paid for by Florida’s condo owners.
If the bill is enacted as initially filed, it will give this
newly created unit lots of enforcement powers up to referring
the case to the appropriate state attorney for prosecution.
Embezzlement and scams in community associations are rampant and
really need to be taken care of. Especially if the bills
requiring mandatory reserve funding will pass, these reserves
have to be protected – and serious punishment will definitely
deter quite a few folks from getting their hands in the
cookie-jar.
The only issue I find with this bill: It only deals with condos
(FS 718) and Co-Ops (FS 719) . The more than 2.5 million owners
of homes in mandatory homeowners’ associations (FS 720) are
again left out in the cold ti fight for themselves!
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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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