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WHO
PAYS FOR THE MISTAKES?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
May 9, 2014
The
food fight between attorneys and community association managers
is still raging. I guess the only issue they agree: “Who will
pays the bills?”
The straight forward answer: The folks owning property in
community associations.
Make
no mistake: It’s all about money!
There
are certain things that are easily handled by CAMs. But then
there are other issues where even attorneys have a hard time
making the correct decisions. Remember all the lawsuits we have
seen over the years in regards to the percentage needed to enact
amendments to the governing documents?
That
leads me to the really important question: Who pays for the
mistakes of these service providers?
If
attorneys make mistakes and give the wrong advice leading to a
lawsuit lost, the association can always sue for malpractice.
The malpractice insurance companies are often willing to settle
instead of risking high legal fees – and a possible judgment
against the insured.
But
who pays if the CAM makes these mistakes? In short: The owners
of the community! Make no mistake: The association that will get
sued for these mistakes – and the owners will pay for the
cost.
Read
the contract your association has with the management company.
In most contracts you will find a clause – normally in small
print hidden on one of the last pages – that makes the
association responsible for the legal defense of the CAM.
And
that is clearly wrong!
People
who get paid for their services should be liable for the
mistakes made when rendering these services!
I
always have to laugh when I hear about the fights among these
“professionals.” Isn’t it funny that these groups are
permanently at war in Tallahassee, fighting each other? But when
it comes to fighting owner-friendly bills, a majority of these
professionals is united fighting these bills – forming a
united front against the owners. To me that’s just another
sign that we owners are only considered the CASH COW for these service
providers.
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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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