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THE FOX GUARDING THE HENHOUSE?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published July 9, 2021
As usual, any tragedy attracts the profession that makes the
most money out of disasters: ATTORNEYS!
I
really got a good laugh when I read that the Florida Bar wants
to create a Taskforce to make recommendations to improve the
laws in order to prevent disasters like the condo collapse in
Surfside.
Names like Sachs, Caplan and others are being thrown in the
ring. Are we getting the usual: The fox guarding the henhouse?
Let me throw a few names in the discussion: Former Senator Maria
Sachs (wife of Peter Sachs, Esq.), who made all kinds of
promises at a town hall meeting, only to vote later in
Tallahassee against owner-friendly bills. Or the names of Peter
Dunbar (Lobbyist Florida Bar), Donna Berger (CALL -- Becker Law Firm) and other attorneys, who testified in
committee hearings year for year against owner-friendly bills –
together with the lobbyists for the COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
INSTITUTE, the trade organization for service-providers.
So these are the folks who now want to make recommendations?
Since many years we have been asking our legislators to create
laws that would requiree mandatory reserve funds – not only for
beautification projects, but especially for structural
maintenance and repair. At various occasions – starting in 2004
– we had asked to require earlier building-certification reports
– 40 years is much too long considering Florida’s climate.
We have asked for enforcement of the laws, which is more or less
non-existent due to the failure of the Division of Florida
Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes to do its job as
required by FS 718.501. Enforcement for FS 720
(The HOA ACT) is absolutely non-existent. NEVER
FORGET: THE BEST LAW IS USELESS WITHOUT ENFORCEMENT!
How good is an engineering report if it’s hidden from the
owners, and owners requesting these reports are getting instead
nasty letters from the association attorneys. Boards are often
rather spending $500 on a letter by an attorney making excuses
why these records are not available, instead of doing the right
thing – handing over the requested records as required by the
Florida statutes
All these proposals and suggestions have been defeated by just
the same people who now want to make suggestions on how to avoid
such disasters. What kind of results could anybody expect?
Nothing favorable for the owners! We have seen it over and over
again!
Don’t believe it? Ask former State Representative Julio
Robaina (R-117) who filed many owner-friendly condo and
HOA bills (HB 995 included 5-year certification) intended to avoid these kind of disasters, only to see
these bills defeated or watered down because of the strong
opposition of the attorneys and community association managers,
whose interest in making more money was definitely superior to
the idea of protecting the owners living in these communities.
Do we really want to rely on the recommendations of these
so-called “service-providers”, who have always worked hard to
defeat owner-friendly bills?
I think it's high time to have the owners
call the shots and make the recommendations. Their lives and the
welfare of their families are at stake!
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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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