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A CATASTROPHE ATTRACTS VULTURES!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published October 1, 2021
Any
catastrophe attracts vultures who are looking to make money out
of the misery of others. We already read the news stories about
the arrest of folks who used the ID of Surfside victims to make
big bucks.
Now it’s
up to the attorneys to make lots of money. Lawsuits have been
filed – and rumor has it that there are more to come.
Normally
e always hear: Let the unit-owners decide their own fate and
make the necessary decisions. But as we have seen that doesn’t
always work. 98 lives can testify to that!
Now it’s
in the hands of ONE JUDGE to make the decision that will
influence the future of all these families.
The big
question: How much money will there be in the end when it comes
to distribute funds to the victims and the families who lost
their homes?
One thing
Judge Hanzman definitely got right so far: The families who lost
their homes need money fast in order to buy new homes.
But the
fight among the survivors is already on: Should there be a big
Memorial, should the site be sold to the highest bidder or
should a new hi-rise be built on the property for the families
who lost their homes. One thing is sure: The money that is
expected to be paid by the insurance will definitely not be
sufficient to pay for a replacement building. According to Judge
Hanzman the amount of the insurance payment will be about $50
mill. That surely doesn’t pay for a new hi-rise.
So, what
can we expect to happen? Lot more court fights, attorneys
fighting to get their share of the cake for their clients – and
more headlines in the media.
But
hopefully Judge Hanzman will achieve one important goal: To not
let the vultures take big amounts of money from the funds that
will finally be available for distribution.
We all
can only hope for one thing: That we all, including our
legislators, learned from this catastrophe that cost 98 lives.
We need laws that will prevent another such catastrophe, laws
that protect condo owners – even if they don’t like these new
laws since it most likely will increase their monthly
maintenance fees. But safety is definitely more important than
money!
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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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