COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MANAGERS ARE IN THE CROSSHAIRS- PART 1
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published February 5, 2024
Representative Vicki Lopez, Senator Jennifer Bradley and
Senator Jason Pizzo have filed companion bills HB1021 and
SB1178. Leave no doubt, these bills take aim at community
association managers and community association management
companies.
I will tell you that in my 32 years of practice, too many
times management companies have refused to provide or return
copies of an association’s records after they have been
terminated by the association. These new bills address that
head on and provide:
468.4334 Professional practice standards;
liability.—
(3) A community
association manager or a community association management
firm shall return all community association official records
within its possession to the community association within 20
business days after termination of a contractual agreement
to provide community association management services to the
community association or receipt of a written request for
return of the official records, whichever occurs first.
Failure of a community association manager or a community
association management firm to timely return all of the
official records within its possession to the community
association creates a rebuttable presumption that the
manager or management firm willfully failed to comply with
this subsection. A community association manager or a
community association management firm that fails to timely
return community association records is subject to
suspension of its license under s. 468.436, and a civil
penalty of $1,000 per day for up to 10 days, assessed
beginning on the 21st day after termination of a contractual
agreement to provide community association management
services to the community association or receipt of a
written request from the association for return of the
records, whichever occurs first.
I’ll say this…………it’s a law long overdue. Condominium
associations simply cannot function without a return of
their records and there is no reason for a management
company not to immediately return the records when fired.
Too many times I have seen the records kept by the
management company simply because they were peeved that they
were terminated.
This is going to be a very interesting legislative session
coming up. Community association managers and management
companies have long had their way in Tallahassee. It seems
like there are a few new Sheriff’s in town that are about to
change all that.
