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AN ABSOLUTE USELESS AGENCY
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
February 23, 2017
Well, latest since the
Miami Grand Jury report dated February 6, 2017
was published it’s official: The
Division of Florida
Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes is about as useless
as it comes. A total waste of finances of due-paying condo
owners.
Years ago, when
Michael Cochran was the Division director, we always thought
that the Division was horrible. But when Kevin Stanfield took
over the Division went from bad to worse. And this was difficult
to understand since Kevin Stanfield knows the problems condo and
co-op owners are facing. He was present when the owners from all
over the state testified in front of State Representative Julio
Robaina’s
FLORIDA HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
SELECT COMMITTEE ON
CONDOMINIUM &
HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION GOVERNANCE.
Obviously all he learned at these hearings was how to avoid getting
involved in the issues these owners are facing on a daily basis.
Normally complaints filed with the Division are answered with a
form letter stating that the Division has either no jurisdiction
or couldn’t find any evidence that the complaint had any merits
– or proof is missing. I’m always wondering how these
“investigators” come to this conclusion if they don’t even
bother to contact the folks listed as witnesses to the
violations. To me it’s just an attitude problem of the Division
employees who obviously want to get paid without doing the work
they are getting paid for.
And the office of the Condo Ombudsman? It started real well with
good intentions until Donna Berger from Becker & Poliakoff filed
all kinds of complaints against Ombudsman Virgil Rizzo – because
he took his job seriously and tried to help the owners – much to
the dislike of these attorneys.
Now we have a Condo Ombudsman named
Bruce
A. Campbell, who in my opinion just fills the job in order to
earn a “second” pension. He allows a guy in Ft. Lauderdale named
Luther to run the show. And we have seen at many occasions that
the guy often doesn’t know what he is doing!
Talking conflict of interest? In Ft. Lauderdale one of the folks
“populating” the Bureau of Compliance is Harold Hyman. He is
actually the brother of Michael Hyman, a named partner in the
law firm of
Siegfried, Rivera, Hyman, Lerner, De La Torre, Mars & Sobel,
P.A. – a law firm specializing in community association law.
Does anyone really believe that there is no conflict of
interest? This firm represents many associations – especially in
the Miami area. And I know that many complaints have been filed
against associations represented by this law firm.
With
other words: Condo owners are paying for an agency that totally
fails to do the job!
Since
years we are trying to get as well a regulatory agency for
homeowners’ associations regulated by Florida statutes 720. But
I absolutely understand homeowners who don’t want to be
regulated by this Division. Sometimes it’s just better to have
no regulatory agency at all than paying for one that makes life
even more difficult.
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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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