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TOO MANY FOLKS LIVING IN THE HOME/CONDO?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published July 13, 2018
Restricting the
number of people living in a condo/home is pretty tricky for any
community association. When trying, they have to be aware of
various Fair Housing laws that regulate the occupancy of a
home/condo.
Remember: Especially
in condos the monthly maintenance fees often includes
water/sewage and is billed by unit – not by the number of people
occupying the unit. That creates an absolute unfair billing,
considering that ten people definitely use a lot more water than
just two folks. But the maintenance fees are the same – meaning
the two folks pay as well for the use of the ten people. And
with the cost of water/sewage – especially in the South Florida
areas – it definitely creates a financial injustice.
Nevertheless, Fair
Housing laws can be very dangerous to navigate – and violations
of these laws can be very costly for the associations trying
trying to regulate the number of occupants in homes/condos.
But these
associations may consider looking at the county/city ordinances
regulating the occupancy of homes/condos. Most counties/cities
have occupancy rules – often even explaining the meaning of
“FAMILY” – that describe in detail who can – and who cannot –
occupy homes/condos.
Instead of making up
their own rules – risking violations of the Fair Housing laws –
association boards should consider using these ordinances as
samples for creating rules.
That may protect the
association against possible lawsuits – and may save a lot of
money in the long run.
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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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