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DISADVANTAGES OF COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION LIVING!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published October 30, 2020
Remember when you moved into your home that was part of a
community association with lots of great amenities like golf
course, tennis courts, swimming pool, clubhouse with fitness
room and lots of other gimmicks.
But the amusement quickly stops when these amenities are closed
even for a longer period of time you still have to pay your
share of the cost for these amenities. There are lots of
different reasons why amenities are being closed or just are
not open for your convenience: Start with repairs and/or longer
lasting maintenance or even closure because of a deadly virus
imported from China.
Since the closures last a long time in the moment you may
consider that you are due for a refund. But sorry, thats not
the case in community associations. Even if the amenities coming
with your membership to the association are closed, the
association still has to pay for the regular cost of
maintenance, insurance and staff etc.
The pool-guy still has to show up and check out if all the
chemicals are in top shape, and the landscapers have to maintain
the golf course or you will quickly see a field of weeds
instead of a well-manicured golf course.
Make no mistake: One day when all these Pandemic chaos is over
you want to have the use of these amenities again and you
expect them to be in top shape!
Community association living comes with quite some disadvantages
and this is one of them.
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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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