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TAKING ADEQUATE SECURITY MEASURES?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published June 30, 2023
In our time and age – with the ever-rising crime rates reported
nearly everywhere -- adequate security measures should
definitely be taken – and the Florida Legislature acted
accordingly by enacting
HB 837, effective March 24, 2023.
FS 768.0706 requires multifamily dwellings – like
condominiums and co-ops, to make that all the required security
measures as stated in the statutes, are in place (for exact
explanations of these measures please see
Eric’s Blog). These provisions are supposed to
protect these communities from lawsuits, but again: These new
requirements come with a price, adding even more expenses to the
already over-burdened budgets of condos and co-ops.
In the last three years owners of condos and co-ops saw serious
increases to their monthly maintenance fees, caused by
legislative measures under the headline: SAFETY.
As much as all these recent legislative “SAFETY” reforms were
needed, the big question still remains: Can all the families
calling condos and co-ops their home afford the highly increased
cost of all the measures?
In my opinion these owners are now paying the price for the
neglect of past years. Already starting with the original sale
of the units the maintenance fees have been kept artificially
low in order to lure more families into buying into these
buildings.
Since many years we have been warning about the failure of these
associations to charge the real money required to keep up with
maintenance and repairs. The so-called service-providers fought
us every way in Tallahassee. For them it was more important to
make as much money as possible, because they rightfully feared
that any added cost to owners would lower the willingness of
boards and owners to pay for the high cost of their “services”.
The big question looms: How many families living in these
communities will be able to afford the much higher cost of all
the new “safety” requirements enacted in Tallahassee?
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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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