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DO ASSOCIATION MEMBERS HAVE ANY REASON TO BE THANKFUL?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
November 28, 2014
Definitely
not, according to the many e-mails and telephone calls I’m
getting daily. The complaints I’m receiving go from election
fraud, dictatorial behavior of board members and managers, nasty
letters from attorneys, waste and/or embezzlement of money,
fines for unjust “violations” – and the list goes on.
Make
no mistake: Families could live a lot more peaceful when no
community associations existed. In former times neighbors
brought neighbors in need chicken soup and cookies. Nowadays
neighbors are serving neighbors with law-suits and foreclosure
notices. Is that the kind of progress owners expected when
buying into mandatory community associations?
Should
owners be thankful for the fact that they are “allowed” to
pay their neighbors’ cable and water bills (and other bills)
– neighbors who have given up paying their maintenance dues
for whatever reasons?
Should
owners be thankful for the fact that the
Florida
legislature created laws protecting banks from paying their fair
share of maintenance dues – forcing these neighbors to pay
what the banks and mortgage companies should actually pay?
Should
owners be thankful for the fact that the
Florida
legislature allowed quite a few of the homeowners’
associations turn into dictatorships, because there is no
regulatory agency to enforce all the laws the legislature
enacted over the years. And most owners don’t have lots of
money to spare to pay the legal fees necessary to enforce
existing laws.
We always hear that these community associations help to protect
the property values? That’s a good story for somebody who
believes in fairy tales – but factual, it’s absolutely
untrue!
So,
what should association members 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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