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THE BLAME GAME IS ON!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published September 6, 2024
No matter what media outlet report you are watching or reading,
the blame game is on. Condo owners in hi-rises are confronted
with the facts that are creating financial havoc for them. In
2006 State Representative Julio Robaina and CCFJ tried to
convince condo owners in various town hall meetings that it
would be in their best interest to create fully funded reserves,
because serious structural repairs and maintenance would be
necessary one day – at a very high price. But many condo
owners, with the help of the service providers like the
Community Association Institute, lobbied against this idea and
the Florida Legislature listened. Changes to statutes allowed
owners to vote down fully funded reserves listed in the budget
proposal. And many owners did – year for year.
Eighteen years later many owners are realizing that they are now
facing serious financial problems they will not be able to
solve without losing their home. The Florida Legislature enacted
HB 1021 – dubbed the CONDO SAFETY BILL, a bill that
finally requires building inspections, reserve studies and fully
funded reserves.
I know my opinion may not be very popular among many condo
owners who are blaming everybody for the financial misery but
themselves. It’s high time for these folks to understand that
they are now paying the price for their failure to create
sufficient reserves. I understand that the Legislature seems to
be unwilling to call a special session in order to kick the can
further down the road. Imagine we would see another collapse of
a condo hi-rise? Make a good guess who would then be blamed for
this? The simple answer: The Legislature!
If a bill would have required fully funded reserves 18 years
ago, most of the associations wouldn’t face the financial
disaster they are facing now. At that time we heard excuses from
owners voting against fully funded reserves: “I’m long dead
before we need a new roof” or “Our board would just spend
the money for other things!”
These same owners should have put money aside privately, so the
board couldn’t touch it. Every person owning a home or a condo
knows full well that any building needs repairs, especially in a
climate like we have here in Florida. And especially structural
repairs cost money – serious money! Who did these folks think
this money is coming from?
In my opinion these owners should finally face reality and stop
the BLAME GAME. If they are looking for guilty parties
they should look into the mirror – and they would see the guilty
party. Owning a home or a condo requires money to pay for
necessary repairs. Many condo owners kept the cost of living in
a nice hi-rise building artificially low. Now they have to pay
the piper!
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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 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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