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EVERY
YEAR AGAIN: THE ARGUMENT ABOUT FINANCIAL REPORTING!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
February 13, 2015
A
very famous German Christmas Carol starts with the words:
“Every year again ….”
And
every year again we see the arguments about financial reporting
popping up!
Most
of you are paying the monthly maintenance fees (dues) in a
timely manner. If not, you are quickly receiving some nasty
letters. Most boards and CAMs are fast when it comes to telling
you that you are late with a payment.
But
on the other hand many boards and CAMS are unwilling to follow
the
Florida
statutes when it comes to telling you what “happened” with
your money.
The
Florida
community association statutes are telling you in detail the
obligations of the board to keep you informed about the
financials of your association. In the statutes it’s called FINANCIAL REPORTING. The wording in the statutes [See
FS 718.111(13); FS 719.104(4); FS 720.303(7)]
may differ a little in these statutes, the main requirement is
the same: Financial Reports have to be available to the
association members within a certain time span after the
financial year ends.
While
the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile
Homes strictly enforces these requirements to supply financial
reports to the association members, owners in HOAs are not so
lucky. Since there is no regulatory agency for members they
often face board members and/or CAMs who are unwilling to follow
the laws and tell people who demand these financial records:
“What do you want to do if we don’t give you the financial
records? Sue us?”
My
verdict, when it comes to board members and/or CAMs unwilling to
follow the law, is simple: “They have something to hide!”
Make
sure that the folks in charge of your community association
follow the laws and show you where exactly they are spending (or
wasting) your money!
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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
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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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