THERE ARE LOTS OF TRAPS!

By Jan Bergemann

Published February 5, 2021

 

When buying into community associations you seem to buy as well a lot of hidden traps. It’s just amazing what kind of downfalls some of the governing documents really have.

 

So, you buy a condo-unit, but the land your unit is built upon is just leased? What happens if the lease-holder doesn’t renew the lease? You can’t just move your unit to a different location, like you can with mobile home.

 

Remember the condos that leased the pool for 99 years? Most owners living in these associations didn’t even know that the pool was just leased and the cost of the lease was taken out of their maintenance fees. When the condo-owners finally found out and added up the numbers they realized that they might end up paying millions of dollars for a pool that may have been worth $ 50,000 when built.

 

And that in associations that were promoted with the slogan “EASY LIVING?

 

You can’t be careful enough when buying into these community associations. The contract and governing documents are normally full of traps!


HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
 
Jan Bergemann 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  

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 !


Join the 

CCFJ Email List
Email:  

For Email Marketing you can trust