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SOME
CLARITY FOR CAMs MAY BE COMING
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
February 10, 2014
We have blogged before about the battle brewing in
Tallahassee
between Community Association Managers and The Florida Bar.
In fact, we are awaiting a decision from The Florida
Supreme Court concerning what activities a community association
manager can perform and which actions go too far and constitute
the unauthorized practice of law.
In the mean time however, a bill has been filed in the
Florida House of Representatives which seeks to clarify and
potentially expand the role of community association managers.
PCB CJS 14-02
would still not allow unlicensed managers to operate
associations with more than 10 units or budgets in excess of
$10,000.00. However,
the bill does expand the allowable duties of a community
association manager to now include:
-
Determining
the number of days required for statutory notices;
-
Determining
amounts due to the association;
-
Calculating
the votes required for a quorum or to approve a proposition
or amendment;
-
Completing
forms related to the management of a community association
that have been created by a statute or by a state agency;
-
Drafting
demand letters;
-
Drafting
meeting notices and agendas;
-
Calculating
certificates of assessments;
-
Responding
to requests for an estoppel letter;
-
Negotiating
monetary or performance terms of a contract subject to
approval by an association.
Before jumping to a conclusion on
any item just yet, keep in mind that if the association decides
not to hire professional management, and instead chooses to be
self managed, any unlicensed member of the Board of Directors
would be allowed to do any of these things and need not be
concerned about being charged with the unauthorized practice of
law. This is because
the board member is not charging a fee to the association for
the service.
Community
association managers charge a fee for these services, and that's
what makes what they do subject to an "unauthorized
practice of law" inquiry.
So, in reality, what is really in play here is whether or
not a community association manager is going to be allowed to
get paid by the association to
do these things, as opposed to the association's attorney being
the only one able to charge.
In a nutshell, it's all about the money.
In general I have no objection to community association
managers being allowed to perform almost all of these tasks as
mentioned in the bill. If
they can't look at the documents and determine how many owners
are needed to constitute a quorum or vote in favor of a proposed
amendment, I don't want them managing my community.
The statute requires the association to maintain an
accurate detailed ledger for all units, so what's the harm in an
association manager reading the ledger that they are required to
maintain and telling an owner how much they owe?
If the file is already in legal they simply better check
with the lawyer first to see if attorney's fees and costs should
also be tacked on. Why
can't they use fill in the blank forms right off of the DBPR's
website? If they can't prepare a simple agenda for a meeting,
then I don't want them at the meeting. Ever.
For heaven's sake, why make a community association
manager get licensed and take continuing education classes if
they are not going to be allowed to perform these tasks?
It gets a little more complicated though when allowing
community association managers to draft demand letters and
negotiate contracts. Forgetting
to include certain buzz words in a demand letter or including
too many demands can seriously delay an association's right to
proceed to arbitration or obtain relief.
Forgetting to include terms in a contract or allowing
certain horrific clauses to remain in a contract can truly be
detrimental to associations as well.
Many of you are familiar with contracts for laundry
equipment that last forever.
I once argued that such a contract is illegal because it
is a contract in perpetuity and can go on forever with no way
out for the association. The
judge asked one question at the hearing: "Was the
association represented by an attorney before signing the
contract?" When
I said "NO," the judge simply said "Well they
should have been. Case
dismissed."
So who supports the new bill?
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from the University of
Miami School of Law in 1992 after receiving a B.A. from
NYU. He is currently entering his 20th year as a
Florida
lawyer practicing |
community association law and is the owner of
Glazer and Associates, P.A. an eight attorney law firm in
Orlando
and Hollywood. For the past two years Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and
HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show on 850 WFTL. See: www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the State of Florida
that designed a course that certifies condominium residents as
eligible to serve on a condominium Board of Directors and has
now certified more than 7,000 Floridians. He is certified as a
Circuit Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has
mediated dozens of disputes between associations and unit
owners. Finally, he recently argued the Cohn v. Grand
Condominium case before The Florida Supreme Court, which is
perhaps the single most important association law case decided
by the court in a decade.
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