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NEW
YEARS RESOLUTIONS: A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
January 7, 2013
For
all eternity, the first week of the new year brings talk of
resolutions for the coming year.
We resolve to eat right, exercise, lose weight, spend
less, save more and the list goes on and on.
We even write these resolutions down.
While I think writing out resolutions is a worthy
endeavor in our personal lives, I certainly would counsel a
community association that it would be a bad idea to discuss and
write down resolutions for the Board in the upcoming year.
The problem is…by making a list of new year
resolutions, you may be admitting to not following the law the
previous year, breaching your fiduciary duties and even
intentionally harming the unit owners.
A list of resolutions for a community association Board
may look something like this:
1.
We resolve to timely prepare our financial reports
this year. (This
certainly may be construed as an admission that they weren't
timely prepared last year, or the year before for that matter.)
That can result in fines and penalties from the DBPR.
2.
We resolve to prepare the budget timely and
accurately. (This
may be construed to mean that the Board failed to notice the
budget meeting timely last year or prepare a budget that
accurately projects the costs of the community.)
3.
We resolve to respond quicker to requests for
access to records by our unit owners.
(This may be construed that the association previously
failed to timely respond to records requests and subject the
association to monetary penalties in an arbitration action)
4.
We resolve to treat all non paying owners equally
and even handedly. Does
this mean that some delinquent owners were given breaks while
others were not? Were some owners charged interest and late fees
while others were not?
5.
We resolve to finally fix all of the common
elements that are leaking or may be a danger to our owners.
(This is the one that can really hurt the association)
Admitting that necessary repairs to common elements were
ignored is exactly the type of information that owners who
suffered water damages or tripped and fell on the common areas
are looking for) I
have been involved in numerous cases over the years where these
types of admissions appear in minutes of Board meetings and they
help prove an owner's case immensely.
So…….
rather than write down a
list of new year resolutions, a better idea would simply be for
the Board to simply follow Florida law and your governing
documents in the year ahead.
Because if any lawyer got his or her hands on an actual
list of resolutions prepared by the Board, it could be a very
costly new year for the association.
You know how those lawyers can be…
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