|
YOUR HOME IS YOUR CASTLE?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
September 25, 2015
Not in the USA. You
can get kicked out of your home in a heart-beat, even without
the enemy (community association or investor) laying siege to
it.
Eric described in
Monday’s blog how bad behavior – or shooting up the neighborhood
– can get you kicked out. Believe me: I absolutely understand
that neighbors don’t want to find bullet-holes in their drywalls
or a neighbor running around in the community wielding a
machete. These folks belong in a lunatic asylum, not in a
(hopefully) nice neighborhood.
But there are other
ways to kick you out of your home – ways that are totally legal.
Remember the “Eminent Domain Bill for Condos Senator Geller and
Representative Schwartz passed in 2007?
You did everything
right: Paid your mortgage, paid your property taxes, paid your
maintenance fees, paid even special assessments – and you could
still get kicked out of your home for peanuts by greedy
investors. Courtesy of Steven Geller and Elaine Schwartz – who
couldn’t care less what happened to these condo-owners.
Remember Steven
Geller now wants to be a Broward County Commissioner. How much
damage will he do to condo-owners if he actually becomes elected
– Broward County is full of condominium associations. And he has
proven that he couldn’t care less about condo owners in his
district! I will never understand why people are voting
candidates into office that are their worst enemies.
In Florida’s
homeowners’ associations you can get kicked out by board members
who may not like you. All they have to do is levy unjust fines –
and you sleep under the bridge if you are unable to pay the
fines and legal fees trying to fight these fines.
Don’t forget, the legal eagles with the help of our elected
officials added again a provision into FS 720.305(2) allowing
fines to become liens – leading to foreclosure: “A
fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien against a
parcel.”
Tricky language – but in reality it means: Every fine of $1,000
and more can become a lien against your home.
These are all the little tricks of the trade that make sure that
your home is not really your castle. These laws make sure that
your home is not really your castle. You may be allowed to pay
your mortgage and the property taxes, but otherwise you may have
very little say in deciding what happens to your home.
|
|
 |
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
!
|
