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VOLUNTEERING? YOU MAY PUT A TARGET
ON YOUR BACK!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
June 3, 2016
Let’s be very honest: Volunteering to serve
on the board of your community association may put a target on
your back! The attacks may come from different sides: Unhappy
neighbors, owners with private agendas, service providers who
don’t want you disturbing the status quo, dictatorial board
members who think you may know too much -- and about everybody
who has a stake in the community or makes money “serving” the
association.
It is just amazing how hostile the
environment in many community associations really is.
There are many well-run communities here in
Florida, but the number of associations where you see open
hostility on a daily basis is just horrifying. And it is even
more scary to see how certain attorneys and CAMs throw fuel on
the fire creating serious financial issues for the association
members instead of using the knowledge they are supposed to have
to educate the owners.
Let’s face it: The homeowners’ association
system has taken the words “peaceful” and “neighborly”
out of the vocabulary of the communities. Some have really
turned into battlefields where neighbors are fighting neighbors.
I know I repeat myself when saying: “In
former times neighbors brought cookies and chicken soup to
neighbors in need. Nowadays these neighbors in need are being
served with lawsuits, liens and foreclosure notices.
This
clearly raises the question: Are these community associations
really serving a purpose – besides making
so-called “service providers” rich?
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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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