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LOTS TO BE THANKFUL FOR?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published November 24, 2023
Yesterday
was Thanksgiving Day and I hope you and your families had a
great day and a wonderful Turkey Dinner. That sure is one thing
to be thankful for: The prices for turkeys haven’t gone up and
are still very affordable! But that’s about the only thing in
the grocery store where the prices haven’t gone up like crazy.
The eggs I’m buying have doubled in cost in the last 2 ˝ years –
and so are many other items you need for daily living. Inflation
is hitting everybody in the pocket-book.
We have
to look at two wars and lots of threats from terrorists. Our
Southern border is wide open for every terrorist to walk in.
Thank god that crime is still pretty reasonable here in Florida
– unlike in many other states of the Union
For
members of community associations not much has changed. There is
still no government enforcement for all the statutes that have
been created in the past years. Fraud, scams and embezzlement is
still continuing to plague many associations – and the
maintenance fees are going up faster than the income of the
owners.
Sorry to be negative!
But maybe
there is some light at the end of the tunnel: A panel-hearing of
the Senate Committee on Regulated Industries high-lighted the
problems many associations are having due to the total lack of
enforcement.
Maybe
legislators are finally realizing that more than 50% of
Florida’s population is living in community associations and
desperately need some help to survive financially. Hopefully
next year we have some more things to be thankful for?
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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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