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55+
HOUSING – OFTEN NOTHING BUT TROUBLE!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
June 6, 2014
Florida
has most likely the biggest number of so-called 55+ communities
in the nation. Developers had in the past created many of these
communities – all over Florida.
But
the past has shown that many of the folks who moved into these
communities didn’t really understand the meaning of the laws
regulating these kinds of communities!
The
Florida
Commission of Human Relations has a very good
website – trying to explain the requirements and the laws that
were created to regulate 55+ communities.
According
to FCHR the “requirements” are short and can be summarized
in a few sentences:
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Requirements
Federal Register 24 CFR Part 100; section 760.24-760.37 (4a), Florida Statutes
For a community to be considered "housing for older persons" as a 55+ community, the housing must be intended and operated for occupancy by persons 55 years of age or older and meet the following requirements:
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At least 80% of the occupied units are occupied by at least one person 55 years of age or older.
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The facility or community publishes and adheres to policies and procedures that demonstrate its intent to in fact be a provider of housing for older persons.
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The facility or community complies with rules established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for verification of occupancy.
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The
problem that seems to cause the many lawsuits we are reading
about in the media is obviously the fact that many folks –
including lawyers and community association managers – are
misinterpreting the rules and requirements.
Paragraph
1 makes it in my opinion very clear that units and homes within
these communities can be occupied by folks who don’t have the
required age of 55+. The occupancy rate of homes and/or units
requires that minimum 80% are occupied by at least one person 55
years of age or older.
With
other words: 20% of the homes and/or units in these communities
can be occupied by people who are less than 55 years old. There
is no requirement that anyone in these 20% of the homes and/or
units is 55 or older.
Only
the governing documents of the community may have bigger
restrictions – like no person under the age of 18 can live in
the community. But these are requirements specific to these
specific communities – not requirements caused by the Housing
for Older Persons Act of 1995.
We often see older people being strong advocates for
these 55+ communities, claiming that these kinds of communities
protect their life-style. Let’s say one thing: They may be
correct for the moment, but in the long run these 55+
requirements are not good for the property values, especially
not if the owners of property have to move and are forced to
sell their properties.
These requirements limit the number of potential
buyers – and recent surveys have shown that many of the
so-called “baby boomers” – the generation now retiring and
hopefully moving into Florida – is not so fond any more of
moving into communities only occupied by “older” folks.
I am pretty sure – no matter what the Housing for
Older Persons Act of 1995 really says – that the lawsuits
arguing the requirements of this Act will continue, mostly
because people misunderstand the actual occupancy requirements
in these communities.
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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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