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ISN'T LIFE OF CONDO OWNERS ALREADY COMPLICATED
ENOUGH?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
July 15, 2016
I think we all are in the meanwhile familiar
with the infamous magic words: As amended from time to time! The
language appeared first in the ruling of the 3. DCA in the case
of
KAUFMAN v. SHERE , where it reads: " or in lawful
amendments thereto, the provisions of the Condominium Act as
presently existing, or as it may be amended from time to time,
including the definitions therein contained, are adopted and
included herein by express reference."
And it was repeated -- and strengthened in
the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court in the case of
SUSAN COHN vs. THE GRAND CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC.
In my opinion, the courts didn't do
Florida's condo owners any favors when ruling this way. Florida
condo law FS 718, the law regulating homes and lives of millions
of condo owners, is already complicated enough -- and normally
much too complicated to be understood by Joe or Jane Condoowner.
My explanation: It was created by, for and for the benefit of
attorneys who are using these owners as their private cash cows
-- and make sure that the laws are getting more and more
complicated.
If the provisions of the Florida Condo ACT
wouldn't be already complicated enough, these court rulings make
life for millions of condo owners even more complicated. Imagine
you take the time -- and make the effort -- to become familiar
with the provisions of today's Condo Act, only to find out that
your condo's governing documents don't carry the magic language
"as amended from time to time" -- meaning your association maybe
governed by the Florida statutes that were valid in the year
your association was incorporated. Would you even be able to
find the statutes that were valid in that year? GOOD LUCK!
But I guess that's just part of the reason why
the system of "community associations" was invented in the first
place: To make life of homeowners and ciondo owners complicated
and to create an easy source of income for the service
providers.
As an afterthought: So far, nobody
tried to use this ruling for mandatory homeowners' associations,
but it would be interesting to see if the courts would rule the
same way. A lot of nasty anti-owner legislative amendments to FS
720 passed in the last few years by the Florida Legislature
would not be valid for a wide majority of Florida's homeowner
associations, because their governing documents lack the "magic
language". Wouldn't that be nice?
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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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