MY HOME IS MY CASTLE? NO MORE IN THE USA!

By Jan Bergemann

Published August 19, 2022

 

FS 718 gives the association the irrevocable right to enter units.

 

(5)RIGHT OF ACCESS TO UNITS.—
(a)The association has the irrevocable right of access to each unit during reasonable hours, when necessary for the maintenance, repair, or replacement of any common elements or of any portion of a unit to be maintained by the association pursuant to the declaration or as necessary to prevent damage to the common elements or to a unit.

 

The statutes clearly state that the right is given to the association only for certain emergencies or necessary repairs. We know that this right is often being abused and board members and/or CAMs make up reasons for entering units without knowledge of the owner, or even enter units without any reason – just to have a look – or “worse”. I have seen many such cases in all these years – and that is the reason for many unit-owners to fight hard to prevent the association from getting a key. Remember: We even had cases where Cams rented out units while the “snowbirds” were away.

 

I will never forget the case of a condo owner well known for criticizing the board. One day the association broke into his unit – claiming emergency – and “found” fire accelerants in the bath tub. The case dissolved in thin air, as expected, but the damage was done. Some unit-owner in that association even believed the board’s claim that this unit-owner was going to fire-bomb the building.

 

Make no mistake: OUR HOME SHOULD BE OUR CASTLE! – but it seems no longer to be the case. In recent times we have seen many cases – in condos and in politics – where these rights were clearly abused.

 

It seems that history is not one of the priorities our school systems are teaching. But history is very important, especially considering the old saying: “HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF!

 

This is how abuse of citizens’ rights always started: Privacy was ignored and homes were searched – under false pretenses. Remember German history between 1933 and 1936? Hitler used the Federal Police (called GeStaPo) to search the homes of political enemies. And they always found “suspicious items”. In case of the burning of the Reichstag the police found fire-accelerants in the homes of the folks Hitler wanted to be the guilty parties. And they were later sentenced and convicted on this “evidence”. History showed that it was just a case of getting rid of political enemies. The guys convicted had nothing to do with the fire-bombing.

 

Do we want history to repeat itself in our great county? I don’t think so! OUR HOMES SHOULD BE OUR CASTLES – even if our opinions seriously differ from the opinion of the folks in power!


HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
 
Jan Bergemann

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  

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 !


Join the 

CCFJ Email List
Email:  

For Email Marketing you can trust