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“SNOWBIRDS”:
LOVE THEM OR HATE THEM?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
June 8, 2012
Snowbirds
are common in
Florida
– and so are the problems connected with owners who are not in
residence for most of the year. But believe it or not -- there
are actually communities where the only residents in summer are
the manager and the security guard – everybody else is up
North.
In
mixed communities there are often “wars” being waged between
the year-long residents and the snowbirds. And despite the fact
that snowbirds pay the same monthly maintenance fees as the
year-long residents, we often see the permanent residents trying
to limit the rights of the snowbirds.
Let’s
make it very clear: Rules requiring board members to be in
residence for 6 months + 1 day etc. are a clear violation of
Florida
statutes. Make no mistake: “Snowbird” owners have the same
right to serve on the board of directors as any other owner in
good standing. If you look in the statutes you will not find any
residency requirements in the eligibility provisions for board
members.
We
see resident-owners campaigning against snowbirds: “They are
never there when needed!” With today’s communication
technology that is not necessarily true.
But then you have the boards in some associations where
snowbirds are the majority of owners, who vote their fellow
snowbirds into office. Much to the dismay of the year-long
residents, who complain that there are no board meetings all
summer long – with the board president making decisions by
phone or by e-mail. That’s neither a good solution, because
association business goes on – no matter if the snowbirds are
in residence or not.
In
recent years we saw fights popping up over the question: Should
snowbirds be allowed to put up their hurricane shutters before
they leave for the summer? I think it’s not really worth
fighting over, since many hurricane shutters available on the
market are more or less “invisible.” Boards should consider
that option when making the rules regarding the kind of
hurricane shutters that are “allowed” by the rules of the
architectural review committee. If the hurricane shutters are
barely visible, there is no argument over snowbirds installing
the hurricane shutters before leaving for up North. They are
“invisible”!
Many
of the hurricane shutters on the market are in reality serving
double duty as protection against burglaries. Some of the models
on the market are imported from
Europe, where they are actually used to prevent break-ins.
In
Europe
they don’t have hurricanes – just lots of nasty weather
sometimes.
There
are lots of stories about fights between snowbirds and year-long
residents. I have heard my share of these sometimes ugly stories
over the years. Most of the fights really go nowhere – besides
costing everybody lots of money in legal fees.
Year-long
residents should see as well the advantage of neighboring units
not being occupied all summer long: Pool much less occupied,
tee-off times on the golf course more easily available and
nobody coming home to the unit above at 2 o’clock in the
morning wearing stiletto heels on tile floors. Always see the
positive side!
This
argument is like everything else in life: There are always two
sides to the story – and life is too short to argue about it.
Snowbirds or year-long residents – all are owners who,
hopefully, pay their fair share to maintain the property and pay
the bills.
Like
Eric always says: “Why can’t we be friends?”
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