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COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION LAWS IN
FLORIDA SUCK!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published October 11, 2019
Let’s face it: The
Florida Statutes regulating community associations plainly suck.
They are ANTI-OWNER, written by special interest, for
special interest, for the benefit of special interests – to the
DETRIMENT of us: THE PROPERTY OWNERS.
MAKE NO MISTAKE:
WITHOUT ENFORCEMENT THE BEST WORDING IS USELESS
– and there is no
real enforcement. If living in a community association you have
to be wealthy enough to afford expensive litigation in order to
enforce your rights. With other words: If you live of social
security, you really have no rights!
Already during the
HOA Task Force meetings 2003/2004 it was discussed to use the
same language for all types of community associations when it
comes to MANAGEMENT ISSUES.
Let’s face it: It
doesn’t really matter how the building looks like when it comes
to elections, record requests, meetings of board and/or members
– and the list goes on.
On the other hand,
community associations shouldn’t be regulated by just one
statute. Special interest always had the idea of creating a
so-called OMNIBUS BILL.
Let’s be honest: The
wording of existing statutes is already confusing enough for
owners. Why should homeowners, living in a HOA, be bothered to
find all the insurance provisions of condominiums in the
statutes regulating HOAs.
Buildings are
different and the laws have to be treating them differently.
There is no question about it. But all the issues regarding
management should be treated the same.
Oh, by the way:
Talking about different buildings? Actually, I think, there
should be a separate statute for town-homes, aka Villas. In my
opinion they are neither multistory buildings – like condos –
nor single family homes -- like HOAs. Some are incorporated as
condos (FS 718), others are incorporated as HOAs (FS 720). But
very often neither FS 718 nor FS 720 works – and litigation is
on.
REMEMBER: Different buildings meaning different ownership
and different maintenance and insurance.
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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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