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OWNER-FRIENDLY LEGISLATION AND
POLITICS?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published September 11, 2020
Labor Day is over
and we have to get back to daily life. A good opportunity to
explain a few things that are always open for discussion.
Some folks always
complain when I add my political views to the blog. Let’s face
it: Lobbying for owner-friendly bills in Tallahassee is nothing
but POLITICS.
Let’s be very
honest: In the last twenty years the only legislators willing to
fight for owner-friendly bills were Republicans. Remember
State Representative Julio Robaina, the father of
most owner-friendly provisions in Florida’s community
association laws? Or Senator Alan Hays who fought for
owner-friendly provisions in the HOA ACT?
The latest attempt
for Condo-Reform that was done in a bi-partisan fashion came
from our friends in Miami – and ended with a total disaster: A
condo recall-provision we can only hope that somebody in
Tallahassee will put back into the original version of 2004. The
language in the bill, supposedly helping owners, created nothing
but total confusion.
In the past few
years some Democrats filed some bills claiming to be
owner-friendly loaded with nothing but nonsense. It was obvious
that these bills were just filed for “PROPAGANDA.”
Reading the bills
filed by State Representative John Cortes (D-43) -- for
example -- one could only laugh. Nobody in his/her right mind
could honestly believe that these bills would ever receive a
hearing in a committee. And they were right! These bills were
only filed for one purpose: To tell constituents (who often
don’t really understand the full meaning of the wording of these
bills) that Democrats are trying to work for the benefit of
owners, but that the “bad” Republicans killed the bills. In my
opinion filing these kind of bills is "Voter Deception".
REALLY -- WHAT
KIND OF NONSENSE IS THAT?
In twenty years in
Tallahassee I have learned one thing: If we want to enact
owner-friendly bills for community associations we have to get
the help of some influential legislators in
Tallahassee. With other words: REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS.
Like it or not:
That’s the exact reason why politics and owner-friendly
community association laws are going hand in hand!
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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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