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LET’S GET BACK TO OUR LIVES AS WE KNEW IT
By
Jan Bergemann
Published July 23, 2021
The executive “emergency” orders are
over and done with –Thank You Lord! Let’s get back to our lives
as we knew it – with real meetings, doing business as required
by the Florida statutes. Our lives were restricted long enough
with stupid statements from the CDC that turned later out to be
wrong.
I have to disagree with statements
saying that the VIRUS improved the digital communication in
community associations. During the time when COVID ruled our
lives, I got permanently complaints from owners stating that
boards were using the Pandemic as a power-grab, circumventing
the requirements of the Florida statutes.
Let’s make one thing very clear: Even
these “emergency” orders didn’t make the statutes moot.
Here is a list of the most common
complaints I received during the last 16 months:
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Not
holding annual meetings with elections
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Announcing board meetings by Zoom without giving owners the
access code
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Not allowing owners to speak at these Zoom meetings or cut
them off if their statements were not favorable to the board
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Refusing access to records – claiming the office is closed
due to virus restrictions
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Levying fines without giving owners the opportunity to speak
at a “grievance” committee meeting as required by the
statutes
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Boards making decisions without owners’ input, even in cases
where membership votes would have been required
More or less: Dictatorial boards were
at its best – totally ignoring the voices of the owners.
Even today we have boards refusing to
re-open pools, clubhouses and/or gym-rooms and even risk
expensive lawsuits in order to force their will on their
neighbors.
Let’s face: These times are officially
behind us – and there are no more valid excuses for boards,
their attorneys and/or their CAMs to ignore or circumvent the
Florida statutes regulating community associations.
FREE AT LAST?
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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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