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NO CONDO BILLS IN SPECIAL SESSION!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published January 31, 2025
Many media articles gave condo owners the false hope that the
special session called by Governor Ron DeSantis would deal with
condo issues. The huge number of associations that failed to
meet the deadlines for mandatory inspections and SIRS (Structural
Integrity Reserve Study) makes me think that the boards of these
associations had hoped that the legislature would again be
willing to kick the can down the road.
It looks like legislators (Republicans and Democrats) in House
and Senate dealing with community association bills agreed that
the bill they have been planning to file for the regular session
starting March 4, 2025 isn’t ready yet and they try to avoid
passing another quick-fix bill during a special session that
leaves no time for debate and possible changes. I guess they are
trying to avoid another bill like SB 4-D that passed in a
special session in 2022 after the collapse of the Champlain
Towers South and required in the end lots of fixes due to the
fact that this bill wasn’t properly checked for problems before
being signed into law.
Both Senators working on fixes to last year’s condo bill --
Senator Jennifer Bradley (R) and Senate Minority Leader Jason
Pizzo (D) – rather want to have their bill going through
committee hearing in the regular session in order to weed out
possible flaws. But nevertheless, some Democrats again couldn’t
help themselves and used it for political posturing claiming
that the Republicans don’t care about the welfare of Florida’s
condo owners. Total nonsense!
Let’s face it: A bill enacted during the regular session would
be effective July 1, 2025, meaning that no deadlines would be
effected, whether the bill passes during the special session or
the regular session. It actually makes no difference for the
condo owners. The next deadlines that could be changed would be
January 1, 2026!
Therefore, a bill enacted during the regular session with
committee hearings and debates makes a lot more sense than a
quick-fix bill enacted now that would most likely require more
fixes later!
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community associations. |
He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website:
http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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