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OCCUPANCY
RULES
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
July 18, 2014
In
the past many kids moved out of their parents’ homes to make
their own living in the whole wide world. But nowadays many of
these kids are forced to return home, caused by the bad economy
and many other circumstances.
What
many parents and their kids overlook is the fact that many
parents “down-sized” in the meanwhile and moved into
“smaller” homes and condos located in deed-restricted
communities with lots of different occupancy rules.
And
– as you can easily imagine: The fight between associations
and owners is on.
And
to make matters worse for kids trying to return home: Many
counties and cities have additional occupancy rules that are
being strictly enforced.
Other
kids had to return home after parents running into financial
hard ship were no longer able to pay for college tuition and
rent in college towns.
No
matter what the media says: The economy is still bad and in many
locations good-paying jobs are hard to come by. Many of these
kids who moved out trying to conquer the world failed miserably
and the parents’ home is often the only safe haven they can
turn to after being unable to pay the rent any longer.
Many
parents realized that the kids “returning home” create lots
of issues with the association they have moved to.
Over
the years we have seen many lawsuits regarding these kids, who
were not “officially approved” occupants of homes and
condos.
Lots
of legal fees have been wasted over this “occupancy” fights.
We have even seen associations blocking access to the
homes/units of parents for these kids after so-called “warning
letters” were exchanged.
As
much as it seems ridiculous for associations to disallow kids to
move back into their parents’ homes, the old wisdom for
community association inhabitants still goes: Rules are Rules!
With
other words: Make sure that no occupancy rules are violated in
order to avoid to make the financial hardship that caused the
kids to return home even bigger.
Always
remember: Community associations are definitely not the Home of
Common Sense!
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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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