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ARBITRATION SECTION OF THE
DIVISION? USELESS!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published January 25, 2019
According to a bill proposal of the Florida BAR – not officially
published yet – the Arbitration Section of the
Division of Florida Condominiums,
Timeshares and Mobile Homes
will be dissolved. And I have to
agree: The attorneys manning this section of the Division are in
my opinion useless.
But in
reality the whole Division is useless, because this government agency
has turned into a
total waste of condo-owners’ money. If the employees of the
Division would just read – and follow – the words printed on top
of the Division Home page, all would be great.
In
very uncertain words it’s spelled out what this Division should
be all about: “The
Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes is
charged with providing oversight of the Florida residential
communities we regulate through education, complaint resolution,
mediation and arbitration, and developer disclosure.”
But over the years more and more useless employees have been
hired and the whole Division turned into a total disaster, who
effectively ignored the fact that the Division was created to
provide oversight and enforce the laws created by the Florida
legislature.
Florida’s condo-owners are paying $4 annually for something that
is not worth a dime. The employees of the Division plainly fail
to do what they are being paid for!
Let’s face it: The idea of a Division enforcing the laws and
making inexpensive – and fast – rulings on disputes is great –
only the people manning the Division have totally failed to
supply these services the condo owners are being charged for.
For many years CCFJ has tried to get the legislature to enact
bills that would put HOAs (FS720 – The HOA ACT) under the
jurisdiction of the Division. No more – since this Division is
doing more harm than good to Florida’s condo owners.
In all reality the Florida Bar should have a bill filed that
dissolves the whole Division – because it’s totally useless as
is - caused by the unwillingness of the employees to do the job
they are being paid for.
Then we could altogether work on creating an agency that would
be providing oversight over Florida’s community associations. An
agency that is really doing what it is tasked to do. Without
employees who have obviously nothing better to do than writing
ridiculous letters and waiting for their next paycheck.
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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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