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REGULATORY AGENCY FOR HOAs = CONSUMER
PROTECTION
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
May 3, 2013
Since
many years homeowners living in mandatory HOAs asking
Florida’s legislators to add HOAs to the list of community
associations regulated by the Division of Florida Condominiums,
Timeshares, and Mobile Homes.
Since
FS
720 was created in the year 2000 (before HOA
provisions have been part of FS 617) legislators have added many
provisions to FS 720 – some good, some bad! But no matter
what, all these provisions have one thing in common: In order to
enforce them the owner must have a lot of money to spare –
even simple enforcement of record requests doesn’t come cheap.
We
have seen many homeowners losing their home caused by expensive
lawsuits, not only because they lost the lawsuit, but because
the association lost a huge lawsuit and the owner didn’t have
the money to pay for the special assessment levied by the
association to pay for the legal fees.
Even smaller associations can’t really afford to file
lawsuits since there is no guarantee that they’ll win the
lawsuit.
With
other words: Justice in HOAs is only available for the rich
folks/associations. For example retirees living on a fixed
income rather make sure that they will not become part of some
litigation in the community- it could cost them their home.
Regulatory
agency sounds pretty strong -- in reality it’s nothing but a
tool to create consumer protection, making sure that justice and
provisions in the statutes are not only affordable for the rich!
Why are we creating rules and regulations if people don’t have
the money to enforce these rules and regulations?
Does
Florida
just have JUSTICE just for the RICH?
In
order to put
Florida
’s HOAS under the umbrella of the Division nobody has to
reinvent the wheel. It’s all in place. What nobody knew was
the number and location of all HOAs and the number of lots that
are part of these associations. For years we all had to deal
with estimates. But H7119,
just passed by the
Florida
legislature, includes a provision that finally requires all HOAs
to register with the Division – deadline November 23,
2013.
We
heard a lot of things – good and bad – about the Division,
but make no mistake: even a bad Division is better than NOTHING.
And NOTHING is what homeowners living in mandatory HOAs have in
the moment.
A
“regulatory agency” doesn’t only regulate, it supplies a
huge amount of services HOAs and their owners have to pay for at
this time. Make no mistake, in the moment every little
information has to be “bought” at high cost – and very
often the information is not official and may not even be
accurate.
Here
is a list of services a Division for HOAs will supply:
-
An 800-number to get simple questions answered.
-
An
Ombudsman’s Office to get even more detailed answers to
your questions.
-
An
Ombudsman’s Office that will supply an election monitor on
request.
-
A
website with lots of info and forms – and a Q&A page
that gives you the official response to many of your
questions, not just the personal opinion of an attorney –
for free.
-
Florida
Administrative Code with official interpretations of the
statutes.
-
Declaratory
Statements.
-
Review
and approve the governing documents of a new homeowners'
association to make sure they comply with existing laws.
-
A
relatively easy ARBITRATION process helping to resolve
disputes at much lower cost – and normally much faster --
than a lawsuit in court.
-
And
the list goes on.
And
if all goes well for the cost of $2 annually per unit. Because
that’s the beauty of this proposal: If the money from all
homes in HOAs will be paid into the trust fund, the legislators
consider reducing the annually fee for ALL community
associations under the jurisdiction of the Division to $2,
because then there will be more than enough money to finance
such an agency – even with money to spare.
In
my opinion – besides law firms who may take a hit to their
billing hours – only dictatorial board members could bring up
a good reason to oppose this kind of consumer protection: They
are rightfully afraid that they will be held liable for
violations of rules and statutes or wasting homeowners’ money,
losing the ability to use the association attorney as their
private bodyguard against “unruly” owners.
These
HOA board members, opposing the creation of feasible consumer
protection, most often without the knowledge of the owners they
claim to represent, are pretty selfish considering that they as
well oppose a reduction of fees for condos and other community
association members.
With
other words: Adding HOAs to the list of community associations
regulated by the DIVISION is clearly a WIN-WIN SITUATION
for all owners living and/or owning property in
Florida
’s community associations.
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