|
BILLS WITH ANY CHANCES?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published March 29, 2019
First of all, I want to say a BIG
THANK-YOU to Darlys, for sticking with us over the years,
supplying our readers week for week with interesting blogs.
THANK-YOU DARLYS -- and all the best wishes for the future!
In my opinion only two kinds of bills have
any chance of passing this year.
While the so-called Fire-Safety bills are
boring us every year, all we see is the fact that there will be
just another postponement of the requirement for older condo
hi-rises to retrofit with a sprinkler system.
Remember: This discussion goes on since 2004
-- with no end in sight, only because none of the law-makers
came up with the idea to require the creation of a reserve fund
to pay for the cost when they gave in to more whining. Year for
year we hear the associations crying that this requirement to
retro-fit with a sprinkler-system will be too expensive and will
cost families their homes. How about their lives? Many of these
associations have plenty of money to pay for other restorations,
but saving lives obviously is not one of their priorities.
The other bill that might have a slight chance to make it to the
Governor's desk is the bill that has been dubbed the "LOCK-THEM-UP
" bill. The first committee hearing went pretty smoothly. See:
SB 610 -- COMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE
It will be interesting to see how the House
companion bill is doing! Such a bill making certain acts
"criminal" is long overdue -- with these kinds of crimes going
on day for day -- not only in condos, but as well in many
homeowners' associations. But we had long ago established that
the more than 2.5 million owners of property in mandatory
homeowners' associations are treated by the Florida legislature
as the stepchildren of our society.
|
|
 |
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
!
|
