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RECORD INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS: A JOKE!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published October 4, 2024
Another homeowner won against his association in Appeals Court
for not allowing him to inspect the records in a timely manner (WILLIAM
PECCHIA and KATHLEEN PORTER v. WAYSIDE ESTATES HOME OWNERS
ASSOCIATION, INC.). Obviously these owners had
enough money to pursue their case up to the Appeals Court. Most
other owners don’t have this kind of money available and will
never see the records they attempted to inspect. With other
words: If you are an owner who wants to see the financial
records you have to make sure that you have enough money
available to pay a high-priced attorney to pursue your case even
into Appeals Court. Is that really what our Legislators had in
mind when they enacted these record inspection laws?
It can get even worse – see the cases of the Boca View
Condominium in Boca Raton – a condo I named the
CONDO FROM HELL. In this case the board is not only
filing appeal after appeal, they now want even to get a
favorable ruling from the Florida Supreme court, hoping that
they can continue to hide the financial records from the owners.
The board even tried the Federal Court -- and lost! To me it
looks like the board members have some serious problems to hide
and that they count on the statute of limitation to avoid
prosecution. And since they are located in Palm Beach County the
local state attorney, Dave Aronberg, makes it even easier for
them since his office considers anything going on in community
associations a civil matter. The trick is simple: You drag out
the case for longer than four years and nothing can happen to
you even if the records showing misuse of money, even in big
amounts. And obviously they don’t care about all the legal fees
it takes to hide these records.
In my opinion this case would have long been closed – and a lot
of legal fees would have been saved – if the Legislators would
have provided means to force boards to show the financial
records.
Owners have the right to be suspicious considering the many
cases of serious money being embezzled from association funds.
Just this week the president of the
Turnberry on the Green Condominium in Aventura was
arrested for stealing more than $1.5 million. It just adds to
the list of cases of association funds being misused,
When will the Legislature finally create laws with teeth, laws
that don’t require owners to spend huge amounts of personal
money to see the financial records – to make sure to put a quick
stop to prevent association funds from being misused or outright
stolen?
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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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