|
IS THE NEW LAW FIXING “EMINENT DOMAIN” FOR CONDOS?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
July 10, 2015
It took two Democrats (Senator Geller and Representative
Schwartz) in 2007 to create an outrageous “eminent domain”
provision for condos, allowing greedy investors to kick out good
families out of their homes for “peanuts. But it took until 2015
before two Republicans (Senator Latvala and Representative
Sprowls) were able to enact a bill (H
643 EG) that puts a stop to this nonsense that was
created in 2007.
Not all condo owners are protected because changes to the
originally proposed bill were made in committees, but it is
minimum guaranteed that the families whose units are homesteaded
will get monetary satisfaction before getting kicked out of
their homes.
We had heard horror stories from families who bought their
condos from sellers, the same sellers who later terminated the
condominium and kicked these families out of their homes paying
them not even half of what they originally charged them for the
unit.
I call it a scam, but as we all know Florida laws often
encourage such scams – and even make them legal!
And make sure you understand: Geller and Schwartz knew exactly
what monster they were creating when they sponsored S314/H407
in 2007. More or less the same bill was vetoed by Governor
Jeb Bush a year earlier, citing the same problems that CCFJ
forwarded to Geller and Schwartz when they filed the bill in
2007. But they didn’t care – as long as the backers of this bill
made big profits at the expense of the condo owners.
Let’s make no
mistake, there are still some loopholes to close, but in all
reality this bill (effective July 1, 2015) will help thousands
of condo owners under siege by greedy investors.
The legislators
behind this bill have to be congratulated for their efforts to
protect Florida’s condo owners against greed.
But in all reality:
IT WAS ABOUT TIME!
|
|
 |
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
|
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
!
|
