It’s the end of the summer. Millions of kids across
our state have to suck it up and return to school. And if the
kids have to endure school for the next ten months, all of you
can endure a measly three hours. I’m talking of course about
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 four 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
15,000 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.
If you would like to register
for any of our classes, please go to:
www.condocrazeandhoas.com
