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EXCESSIVE FUNDS – MONEY FOR
BOARDS TO PLAY WITH?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published March 30, 2018
Various provisions
in FS 718 (The Condo Act) discuss what should be done
with “common surplus” – as it is called in the statutes. But
obviously our esteemed legislators think that homeowners
associations don’t have “common surplus.” No mention in FS
720 (The HOA Act). Obviously nobody from “special interests”
wanted to use favors bought with campaign funds to deal with
this issue in HOAs.
And as nice as it
may sound in the Condo Act – it’s another useless provision due
to lack of enforcement. Even if FS 718.501 requires the “DIVISION”
to investigate complaints regarding financial issues, the
Division in its infinite wisdom always finds ways to circumvent
this requirement and send complainants form letters stating that
their “investigation” couldn’t find any “wrongdoing”.
Well: Another joke
in Florida’s “Condo Paradise” – with board members and certain
law firms and community association management firms plainly
ignoring these statutes.
This is another case
where association attorneys tell complaining owners at public
board meetings – not really needed any more after July 1
according to HB 841 – that they should sit down and shut up
since they don’t have the money to start legal action to enforce
the “common surplus” provisions.
This is just another
provision that looks nice on paper but has in real life little
influence on the daily dealings in Florida’s condominiums.
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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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