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COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION BILLS 2021
By
Jan Bergemann
Published February 19, 2021
A large number of community association bills have been filed so
far for the upcoming Florida legislative session starting on
March 2. You can find a complete list of all these bills on our
website at
PRIORITY
BILLS, where you will find as well the analysis of
the bills filed so far. Two of the most important bills – SB
56 and SB 630 -- have already had successful
committee hearings and are on its way.
There will be more amendments – and additions – to the bills
filed before they end up on House and Senate floors for final
votes. Since all these bills are filed by Republicans – I
haven’t seen one community association bill filed by a Democrat
– the bills should have in the end no problems ending up on the
desk of Governor Ron DeSantis for his signature.
In the bills filed so far, a lot of different issues are being
addressed, but a lot more issues need to be added for much
needed reforms.
Since about 50% of Florida’s population lives in community
associations, it is imperative that these families are protected
against abusive boards and service providers – and that the
statutes are written in a clear language, preventing smart
lawyers from reading “between the lines” and creating costly,
but totally unnecessary lawsuits.
And there is one thing that has to be made clear to all parties
involved: Virus or not – there is no excuse for violating the
statutes regulating community associations. Owners have rights –
and these rights should be easily enforceable.
Next week I will be talking about our CCFJ Legislative Wish List
for this session – and the real need to finally create election
laws for HOAs. Last November definitely taught us that fair
elections are the foundation to create “peaceful” living in our
communities. Otherwise the maintenance fees are not used for
much needed maintenance of the properties, but for litigation
that in the end has no real winners.
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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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