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ATTENTION
CAMs -- ONE SENTENCE MAY MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
September 20, 2013
It
seems that many Community Association Managers (CAMs) have not
figured out that one little sentence added to FS
468.436(2) can make the difference between paying a fine
(or worse) and getting away with violating community association
laws.
House
Bill 7119 added one
little sentence to the Disciplinary Proceedings: 7.
Violating any provision of chapter 718, chapter 719, or chapter
720 during the course of performing community association
management services pursuant to a contract with a community
association as defined in s. 468.431(1).
These
few words will hopefully stop CAMs from using what I call the
“Nuremberg Defense”:
the old excuse, “I acted on orders,” is really a very lame
excuse. History tells us that it didn’t work in Nuremberg in
1946, and it shouldn’t work today in Florida. Everyone should
be responsible for his/her actions; and, if the CAM writes
anything that clearly violates the Florida Statutes in a letter
that shows his/her (or the firm’s) letterhead and is signed
with his/her signature, the CAM should be liable for his/her
actions and the contents of the letter.
For
years, we saw valid complaints against CAM licenses closed by
the Department of Business and Professional Regulations (DBPR)
because the CAM responded to the accusations with some version
of this short sentence: “The
association board told me to do that!”
So,
a CAM does anything the board says – even if it clearly
violates the law? That makes me wonder: if the board president
tells the CAM to jump from the top of a building, does the CAM
just jump???? I
honestly doubt it!
But,
in order to avoid the use of that excuse in the future, this one
short, sweet sentence was added to the provisions in the
statutes that deal with the rules of disciplinary proceedings
for CAMs.
Will
it work? Will it
stop CAMs from claiming that they “acted on orders of the
board?”
Only
the future will tell, and we must wait and see.
But
the ball is now in the court of DBPR CAM Licensing, and it’s
up to them to use the added language for the purpose intended:
Weed out the bad apples among the CAMs. It’s about time!
The legislative intent is clear!
But, will the DBPR do what the legislators had in mind
when they added this little sentence to the statutes?
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