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IMPORTANT: CREATING A HEALTHY BUDGET!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published November 12, 2021
This year
it is more important than ever before for boards to create a
healthy budget – not a budget intended to guarantee re-election.
Make no mistake: The ever increasing cost of living, the growing
inflation and a serious increase in insurance premiums will
cause the monthly maintenance fees to go up quite a bit.
Many
families have to deal anyway with financial hardship caused by
outrageous gas and grocery prices and really can’t afford to get
hit with special assessments of thousands of dollars.
Boards
have to make sure that all the line items are fully funded and
estimated price increases are considered.
And board
members working on the annual budget should take a close look at
possible legislative changes that will be made in the next
legislative session. The collapse of the Champlain Tower South
was a serious warning signal and it will definitely reflect in
bills that will be enacted during the 2022 legislative session.
Most
likely there will be a serious discussion about fully funded
reserves, removing the provision that allows owners to vote
against fully funded reserves. But legislators have to make sure
that these “fully funded” reserves are protected against abuse,
meaning that the money can only be used for the purpose intended
– meaning that criminal charges will be levied against any
person(s) removing money from the reserve funds. The argument of
the folks opposing fining or charging board members that there
will be no more candidates at election time is nonsense. Board
members have nothing to be afraid of as long as they don’t
knowingly violate the provisions of the statutes.
Do people
stop driving because there are laws that punish drunk drivers?
If you don’t drink and drive – and follow the rules – you will
have nothing to be afraid of. And that goes as well for members
of community association boards.
Make sure
you create a “FULLY FUNDED” budget in order to
avoid nasty surprises in the upcoming financial year!
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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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