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CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS IN HOAs?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published April 5, 2024
The Hammocks case made it possible:
HB 1203 is making criminal investigations in homeowners’
associations much easier.
While the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside,
that cost the lives of 98 people, caused a myriad of condo bills
to be enacted, the huge embezzlement case in the Hammocks –
according to latest numbers about $4M have been embezzled by the
board – caused legislators to finally act on protecting
association funds against “bad actors” in homeowners’
associations.
I
guess Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle fumed
when her office was sued for issuing subpoenas to get the
financial records of the Hammocks Homeowners’ Association, even
if she finally succeeded with the investigation and the five
board members were arrested!
But she did an excellent job in pushing for legislative action
to prevent future disasters like this. Many provisions in HB
1203 reflect her requests for changes – including strengthening
of the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile
Homes. Thank you Katherine Fernandez-Rundle!
FS 720
– the HOA ACT – reflect now multiple provisions that
allow criminal prosecution of “bad actors” – board members and
CAMs. From “hiding records” to kickbacks and serious election
violations – all this can now be prosecuted in addition to
embezzlement of association funds.
And as we have seen in the Hammocks case, even attorneys have to
be a lot more careful when it comes to protecting bad board
members and/or CAMs, helping them to cover up criminal
wrongdoing.
But the big question remains: Will certain state attorneys – the
same still claiming that embezzling of funds in community
associations is a civil matter – make use of these new weapons
given to them by HB 1203?
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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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