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EXPERT ENGINEERING REPORTS SAVE LIVES!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published August 13, 2021
No
building has an endless life-expectancy without proper
maintenance and repairs. No matter if it’s a single-family home
or a hi-rise condo building, any building requires repairs and
maintenance – and the owners have to pay for it. It’s
just common sense to put money aside to pay for these repairs,
or being one day faced with a sudden huge repair bill – in
community associations known as special assessments.
For
owners of single family homes it’s pretty easy to estimate the
cost of necessary repairs caused by wear and tear. In a hi-rise
condo building it’s a lot more difficult – and it takes experts
to figure out the life-expectancy of certain structural parts of
the building – and the estimated cost at the time when the
repair is needed.
That’s
why it takes licensed experts to provide the necessary reserve
studies to make sure that the required reserves are properly
calculated – not just Joe Blow who thinks he knows it all.
I know
people love to ignore the necessity of reserve funds and rather
use the money to go for dinner or even take a cruise.
But isn’t
creating fully funded reserves the much smarter choice, instead
of receiving one day a letter that you have to pay a huge
special assessment within 30 days due to the fact that serious
structural repairs are needed or the building will be
red-tagged, meaning you have to leave your home? Did you read
all the recent media reports about the buildings in South
Florida being evacuated on short notice?
That is
exactly what happens if the board postpones necessary repairs
due to the fact that there is no money to pay for it.
That’s
exactly the reason why every condo owner should be interested in
making sure that the association board is on top of these
issues, making sure that there are reserve-studies created by
licensed experts, fully funded reserves – used only for the
purpose intended – and maintenance and repairs are taken care of
as soon as known. Often small problems taken care of immediately
prevent huge repairs at a later time. A small leak in the roof
can quickly turn into the necessity of replacing the whole roof
if not addressed immediately.
As much
as I understand that lots of folks rather use their money to
have fun instead of saving money needed in the future – be
smart. Otherwise carelessness will come back to haunt you!
Remember the fable written by Aesop more than 2700 years ago
about the grasshopper and the ant? Who would you rather want to
be in that story? The Ant or the Grasshopper?
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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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