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UNUSUAL TREND?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published May 8, 2020
Eric posted on
Monday that he is realizing an unusual trend during the Corona
Virus Pandemic: People are a lot more positive and less
controversial.
That maybe in his
law firm relating to lesser telephone calls from annoyed board
members or owners, but on my side I can’t really confirm this
trend. To me it seems that people have more time to figure
things out – meaning I’m getting a lot more questions and/or
complaints by phone or by e-mails.
Recalls are in full
swing and complaints are being filed, even if many HOA owners
finally realize that there is no government regulatory agency
where they could file a complaint.
When they hear that
there is no regulatory agency, most of them are asking: WHY?
But when they hear that the only way to go after their board is
by filing for presuit mediation and taking them association to
court, their enthusiasm for filing a complaint quickly
diminishes – even in cases where the owners could prove clear
violations of the law.
Let’s just face it:
The association system doesn’t really work – no matter how many
laws are created. I always compare the community association
system to communism. It looks great in theory on paper, but as
soon as humans get involved it totally fails the property
owners.
Too many people just
forget that they often put their personal financial fate in the
hands of often incompetent board members and/or management
companies when buying a home in a community association.
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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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