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NO CHANGES TO REQUIREMENT FOR SPRINKLER SYSTEM
By
Jan Bergemann
Published March 23, 2018
For the
second year there was no change in the law requiring high-rise
condominium to install sprinkler systems. Last year Governor
Rick Scott vetoed the Moraitis’ bill – this year it quickly
stalled in committee.
This is the
law – and it stays that way:
FS718.112(2)(l)
For anybody
not familiar with this legislative topic: It occupies valuable
time of the Florida Legislature. It started in 2003 – and
already Governor Jeb Bush vetoed a bill dealing with this issue.
The normal excuse of condo boards trying to postpone the costly
sprinkler-system retrofitting: “We don’t have the money!”
They all
should remember: It saves lives! Just recently a
fire in a high-rise condo in Pompano Beach cost the life
of an 80-year old resident. The Fire Chief stated: “The
outcome would have been very different if there had been fire
sprinklers in the building.”
If condo
boards would have collected $1 a unit a month starting at the
time the legislature put this life-saving requirement into the
statutes, the necessary money – and then some – would have long
been available to do what the law requires.
Instead
certain boards – like the ones from the Galt Mile Gulag in Ft.
Lauderdale – rather spent the money to hire expensive law firms
to lobby for a postponement of the sprinkler-retrofitting
requirement instead of saving the money for doing what’s right.
If condo
owners complain about a special assessment for the cost of the
sprinkler system, please blame your board for lack of foresight
than the legislature.
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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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