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PICKING THE RIGHT ASSOCIATION ATTORNEY?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
March 6, 2015
Let’s
be very honest: It’s very tricky to pick the right attorney
for the specific needs of your community.
And
it has gotten even more difficult since the latest recession in
2007. With many citizens having financial problems they thought
twice about hiring an attorney – and many attorneys
specialized in certain fields were suddenly looking for new
clients.
The
ever-growing problems in community associations were obviously
reason enough for these attorneys to promote themselves to
“community association law specialists.”
I can tell you that I have seen the weirdest filings and
interpretations from these “newly appointed” specialists.
From filing liens on condo-units using language from FS
720 to using Robert’s Rules demanding certain procedures that
are clearly violating FS 720 – I have seen a long list of
incompetent advice and filings.
Make
no mistake: Community Association law is a very specialized
field with lots of available case law interpreting the often
vague language in the statutes.
A
few little hints that might help you to make the right decision:
-
Go
to Google and type in the name of the attorney (firm) adding
complaint behind the name. You often find quite a few
articles that will quickly change your mind.
-
Find
out how long this “specialized” attorney is already
practicing community association law.
-
Look
up communities where the attorney you are researching is the
registered agent and talk to owners, not the board members.
You might hear a few interesting stories, especially if
it’s an attorney who thinks he/she is the KING of
membership meetings and elections.
You
might want to pick an attorney whose advice prevents lawsuits --
not create some!
You
might sometimes be well advised to hire an attorney who charges
of few more dollars hourly than hiring an attorney who wants to
learn community association law at your expense.
Be
smart: A greedy attorney can cost your association a
truckload of 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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