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ELECTIONS – AN AMERICAN HORROR STORY!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published May 31, 2024
Not one day goes by without the media
– or upset condo or home owners – report about some sort of
election fraud. It starts with Federal elections all the way
down to elections in community associations.
Election fraud is very high on the
list of arbitration and court cases – Number 2 behind record
requests. In reality election law in community associations –
especially in condominiums – is very detailed and shouldn’t be
difficult to handle. But, as usual, fraudulent actions come into
play, often caused by board members who want to stay in power.
Holding elections was even easier
before the Legislature allowed electronic voting, another option
to create a fraudulent election. Many of these electronic voting
apps have all kinds of frills that invite fraud. How about
having more ballots than owners?
But the worst enemy of elections in
community associations is, according to the latest arbitration
ruling in the case of
Maureen Short v. Windhover Condominium 2024-00-4504, the
Florida Supreme Court ruling in the case of
SUSAN COHN vs THE GRAND CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC..
A wide majority of community associations don’t have the
necessary Kaufman language in their declaration: “as
amended from time to time”. If this problem is not corrected by
the Florida Legislature we have total chaos in all the
associations that don’t have the necessary language in their
declaration.
Most all of the legal actions in these communities will be
governed by the laws that were valid at the time when the
governing docs were filed. Especially older communities, created
before even FS 718 and FS 720 were created, will have a hard
time dealing with statutes, rules and regulations. Who knows
what laws were valid at the time the declaration was filed?
As long as the Florida Legislature is not correcting the Supreme
Court ruling by adding the necessary language to FS 607 and FS
617, the lack of the Kaufman language in the declaration is
creating total chaos. One sentence in these statutes would
immediately restore legal sanities in these communities!
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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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