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MORE FREEDOM TAKEN AWAY BY ASSOCIATIONS
By
Jan Bergemann
Published December 6, 2019
Decorating homes for Christmas is an old American tradition.
Many families had annual house-decorating parties, fun for the
whole family. But that seems to be another tradition that is
slowly being killed by the community association system.
Every year we read more ugly stories about families getting sued
for decorating their homes for Christmas. This year the “crime”
committed by a family was the timing of decorating the home.
According to the HOA: TOO EARLY.
Other common complaints received by families in form of
“threatening” attorney letters: “Too much”, “Not approved”, “Not
allowed without permission of the Architectural Review
Committee” – and the list goes on. By far not all associations
like to spoil the fun, but some association boards react like
the homeowners committed a crime worthy of exiling the owners to
Siberia.
Like it or not, moving into a deed-restricted community
association means you are giving up lots of the freedom given to
you by the US Constitution – including Freedom of Speech. I all
reality you may legally still be the deeded owner of your home,
but you are no longer free to change the view of your home
and/or landscaping, or even decorating your home for Christmas!
BAH
HUMBUG!
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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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