By Eric Glazer, Esq.

Published April 29, 2013

       What an amazing legislative session it was for Jan and I this year.  I'm sure we would both agree that when we decided on what to focus on this year, our agenda was a little aggressive.  The strategy of course is to ask for a million things and be happy if you get a few.  Well…….looks like we got more than a few.  As far as legislative reform for HOA's goes…this was the biggest year in the last decade.

       Of course, our most grandiose plan was to have HOA's assisted by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, on the same scale as condominiums are.  I have to tell you, I never felt that there was much resistance to the idea from our legislators.  On the contrary, and understandably, most of them wanted to first get a handle on just how many HOA's there are to begin with.  It may seem incredible to you if you live in an HOA ---- but the State of Florida does not know that you exist.  There is no list with the name of each HOA on it.  The State does not know the name of your community, if you are an HOA, where you are located, how many parcels you have,  and the amount of your budget.  As the saying goes…….out of sight, out of mind.

      Starting July 1st however, all HOAs will be required to provide all of this information to the DBPR.  There will be no cost to the association for providing the information, unless your management company charges you for the 30 seconds it should take to fill-out the form.  By the end of the year, we should have a pretty good handle regarding the amount of associations, the number of people living in them and where they are all located.

       Then what?

       When it becomes clear that the number of people living in HOAs exceed the number of people living in condominiums, we may wonder why it's taken up until now to decide that these residents are entitled to the same benefits from the DBPR as condominium residents.

       But wait?  Some people may say that now allowing the DBPR to assist HOA's would be an example of over regulation.  The term "regulation" at one time meant a form of supervision by a government agency in order to promote and protect the public welfare.  It was a good thing.  Today however it has taken on the negative connotation of crippling bureaucracies and stifling progress.  In a word…strangulation.  

       So let's see what the DBPR already does for condominiums so we can determine if it's strangulation or much needed assistance.  The DBPR provides condominiums with a complaint department and assigns investigators to assist in uncovering illegal activities in associations.  At worst, they ask the associations to comply with the governing laws and issue guidance on how to become compliant.  Offenders are rarely asked to pay even a small penalty, and usually are only asked to agree to comply with the law in the future.  Hardly sounds like strangulation to me.

       The DBPR also has a telephone hot line and on-line website  to help answer condominium related questions.  This may save an association from having to pay a lawyer an hourly fee to answer the same questions.  Again….. this is assistance.  Not regulation or strangulation.

       The DBPR provides free educational materials to condominium associations. 

       The DBPR issues declaratory statements and arbitration decisions regarding a wide range of condominium issues.  Where's the strangulation?

       Oh wait!  There is one thing that the DBPR does that may be considered oversight.  They have examiners review and approve the governing documents of a new condominium in order to ensure that the developer's documents comply with the law and are otherwise not screwing over the eventual buyers in that community.  If the documents don't comply with the law, they don't get approved and the developer can't sell.

       And now you know where the real opposition is coming from.  Developers. 

       The developer lobby will be the first group to scream and shout that regulation by the DBPR will hurt the industry and prevent them from selling homes.  Ask them if it has hurt their ability to sell condominium units and they have no answer.  Ask them why there are more condominium units today than ever before with tens of thousands of more units on the horizon.  Make no mistake.  This time next year the developer lobby will be screaming that HOA regulation is equal to developer strangulation.  It's not.  It's just not the massage that they have gotten used to from The Florida Legislature until this year.