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ELIGIBILITY TO SERVE ON THE BOARD?
JUST MORE LAWS WITHOUT TEETH!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
March 11, 2016
This goes specifically for homeowners’
associations regulated by FS 720 (The HOA
Act):
Over the last few years the Florida
legislature added quite a few more provisions regarding the
eligibility of owners to serve on the board.
But in all reality: Who cares?
We have seen many folks serving on
association boards who were – according to Florida statutes
– not eligible to serve on the board. But even if owners
know that one of their board members shouldn’t be on the
board, what are they going to do if that board member isn’t
willing to relinquish his seat voluntarily?
SUE THE ASSOCIATION – and risk his
own private money to enforce the Florida statutes? Come on
Florida legislators: Are you really serious?
Eric’s blog from
Monday explained in detail the eligibility
provisions contained in the Florida statutes. But as usual:
How good are laws without enforcement?
These HOA eligibility clauses are a
typical example for pretty useless laws created in recent
years by the Florida legislature.
When will the legislators learn that by enacting such laws
they just waste more of our valuable rain-forests – and/or
create some more sources of income for the association
attorneys.
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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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