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DID SB 154 SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published May 19, 2023
The answer to this important question: DEFINITELY NOT!
Senate bill
SB 154 – soon on the way to the Governor’s desk –
covered a lot of ground, clarifying inspections, reserve
studies, budget meetings and all kinds of details that have been
discussed since SB-4D was enacted during a special session in
2022. SB-4D was supposed to be the “CONDO SAFETY BILL”,
but in reality it created all kinds of financial hardships for
owners of property in hi-rise buildings.
The legislature should have listened to the warnings from all
kinds of different interests, telling them that the financial
burden will cause many families to lose their homes. Recent
budgets of condominium association have shown huge increases in
monthly maintenance fees, and many associations have to levy
huge special assessments to cover the cost of the requirements
demanded by these bills.
We are always talking about the cost of reserve studies,
engineering reports and inspections, but this year even more
cost will have to be covered by hi-rise condominiums.
It seems that many condo owners forgot, that this year is the
deadline for the
Florida Fire Prevention Code
[see
FS 718.112(2)(l)]
-- and the legislature just passed
HB 1575
[Public
Safety Emergency Communications Systems], adding even more cost
to the budgets.
All this adds up – but nobody is telling all these families how
to pay for it.
The change of the law in 2010, allowing owners to vote down
mandatory reserves, is now coming back to haunt many of these
owners in hi-rise buildings (3 stories or 75 ft.).
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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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