It’s the end of the summer.  Millions of kids across our state go back to school today.  And it’s time for you guys to go back to school too.  I’m talking of course about our Condo and HOA Board Certification and Legal Update Course.

There’s a lot that goes into my job as a lawyer in this area of the law.  Working on the current cases I have, keeping abreast of the changes in the law, advocating for legislative reform, doing the Condo Craze Radio Show each week and writing this blog each week.   Without a doubt however, my favorite part of what I do is teaching and meeting all of you at our state-wide seminars.

As you all know by now, condo and HOA directors must get certified within one year prior to getting elected or appointed to the board or within 90 days of actually getting elected or appointed to the Board.  They can do so in one of two ways.  The first way is the chicken’s way out and quite frankly is an embarrassing loophole in the law.  The law actually allows you to sign an affidavit which basically states that you have read your association’s governing documents and that:

“he or she will work to uphold such documents and policies to the best of his or her ability; and that he or she will faithfully discharge his or her fiduciary responsibility to the association’s members.”

 Honestly, this is ridiculous.  Many of you have illegal provisions in your governing documents.  Your affidavit apparently requires you to promise to uphold these provisions even if they are illegal and unenforceable.  Worse yet, the affidavit does not even require you to read or even acknowledge Florida Statute 718 (the condo statute) or Florida Statute 720 (the HOA statute).

Thank heavens that the law provides that you can also get certified by taking a DBPR approved course.  I fought hard five years ago to ensure that HOA members had the ability to get certified by attending these classes and am very proud of helping to pass legislation which did just that.  I am also proud to say that I have taught the course to approximately 12,000 of you all across the state.  At each class, not only do the attendees learn something, but I do as well.  So do the attorneys in my firm.  Your questions always help raise awareness to so many issues and often times you provide practical answers to what may seem like complicated issues.  The bottom line is that we all learn from each other.

Whether the issue is budgets, reserves, insurance, year-end financial reporting, your fiduciary responsibilities as board members, the election process, foreclosures, suspension of rights, access to records, arbitration, mediation or even all the new laws passed this legislative session, we really try to cover it all and a lot more.

            Our course not only certifies directors, but also provides Legal Update and Continuing Education continuing education credits for community association managers.  It’s great to see so many Board members take the course together with their manager.  We always serve food and drink, we often assemble a panel of experts, the setting is always first class, and best of all….it’s completely free.  You even leave with a nice certificate and a summary of everything we just taught.  Here’s what’s coming up:

In order to register, just go to: www.condocrazeandhoas.com.  Or……just download our Condo Craze App on your I-Phone or Android device– and just click on the “Register for Our Seminars” Tab.  Once registered, you will get an e-mail confirmation.

I really look forward to another year of meeting all of you.  It is a true honor and privilege.