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NEW COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION BILLS – ANYTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
July 17, 2015
Honestly, I don’t really think so. The
language in some of these bills is horrendous – as usual – and
instead of clarifying provisions in community association law –
as the sponsors claimed – these bills just confuse the issues
even more.
We always know that the bill is
anti-owner if George Moraitis is named as the sponsor. Over the
years his bills have brought nothing but misery to Florida’s
home- and condo-owners.
His bill (H 791) tackles various
issues, but none really solves any important issues.
The “overhaul” of FS 720.305 creates
even more confusing language, making a very difficult issue even
more difficult. It sure does nothing to clarify this issue of
neighbors “fining” neighbors, something the US Constitution
clearly disallows/ The Supreme Courts of Virginia and Rhode
Island already stopped this nonsense by declaring fining by
community associations unconstitutional.
A bill that will definitely have a lot
more positive impact is
H 791 – Service Animals.
This bill is intended to help “real” disabled people whose
service dogs came under fire when owners of cute little dogs
registered their dogs as “service dogs” with the help of a
website like:
http://www.servicedogregistration.org For a small fee these
websites will provide the owner of a cute little dog ( or
anybody who pays the fee) with all kinds of official looking
“registration” documents, making a “service animal” out of a
cuddly lap dog. Many associations – and even judges – fell for
it – to the disadvantage of the disabled folks who really need a
service animal for daily life.
Unlike other bills this one really provides for penalties for
knowing and willful misrepresentation with respect to use or
training of a service animal.
Why can’t other provisions in community association law provide
for penalties and punishment of the guilty parties? Obviously
our legislators normally like to create laws without teeth.
That leaves me with the question: Why creating laws in the first
place if the people creating these laws are not really serious
about seeing them enforced?
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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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