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FINANCIALS? OFTEN A TOTAL CHAOS!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published April 12, 2024
There are lots of HOAs with million dollar budgets. But there
are often treasurers who don’t know how many zeros go in a
million and a budget? What the heck is that?
Let’s face it: HOAs are big business and have to be run as a
business. But only too often you have amateurs as board members
who never had any business experience in their lives. And that
often causes serious problems!
I’m not talking here about “bad actors” – I’m talking about
folks with good intentions, who just don’t have the necessary
know-how.
And not even the well-intended provisions in HB 1203 can change
that.
Only too often are these board members relying on the so-called
professionals – community association managers and attorneys.
But they forget that these “professionals” are in business to
make a profit – they are not welfare workers “helping” board
members with the best interests of the homeowners in mind.
Will the new provisions in HB 1203 change that? Most likely not,
even if board members have to have now proof that they
participated in a mandatory education seminar.
Financial transparency is a must – owners do have the right to
know where their money is going. But will financial transparency
make business people out of board members? I seriously doubt it
– but time will tell!
Prohibiting debit cards being used in associations was long
overdue. I will never forget the case in Palm Beach County where
a HOA president used an association debit card to withdraw money
from the ATM at the Hard Rock Café to pay for gambling – lots of
times. Guess what? The State Attorney’s office refused to
prosecute the HOA president, calling it a civil matter. The new
law now calls it THEFT – will state attorneys
follow the law?
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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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