HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATIONS
EDUCATION
THIS IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL HOMEOWNERS AND BOARD MEMBERS LIVING IN HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATIONS REGULATED BY FLORIDA STATUTES 720.

   

 

Florida's homeowners living in mandatory homeowners' associations are left on their own by our elected officials. Our government, benefiting from double taxation of these owners, plainly dropped the ball. 

Although legislators actually created statutes, these statutes have no teeth and can only be enforced by owners with lots of spare change to hire lawyers.

The most ridiculous sentence in the existing statutes can be found in FS 720.302(2): The Legislature recognizes that it is not in the best interest of homeowners' associations or the individual association members thereof to create or impose a bureau or other agency of state government to regulate the affairs of homeowners' associations.

What this sentence really means is: The lobby of the service providers has convinced our legislators that it is in the best interest of attorneys and community association managers to leave these owners unprotected -- meaning owners are easier to fleece!

They know that most of these owners, especially the elderly on a fixed income, can't stand up for their rights -- even if the statutes are clearly working in their favor.

And since we owners have nowhere to turn for the simplest of questions, it's about time that we owners create the information to deal with the common problems in our associations. 

A typical example that shows the incompetence of our legislature to deal with these issues is the provision in H433/S902 (Session 2007) that creates the so-called presuit mediation offer. Looked OK on first view -- if it weren’t for the requirement: "List the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and hourly rates." Owners are referred to the Florida Supreme Court, but there is no such list with this information, making it nearly impossible for owners to comply with this provision. Please see: PRESUIT MEDIATION OFFER.

We owners need to unite our resources and work together to create statutes, rules and regulations with enforcement and accountability of the people in charge. Only then will there be a chance that someday we can live in peaceful communities -- communities not riddled with lawsuits and legal wars among the neighbors. Even if it often may not look like it – we BOARD MEMBERS and OWNERS are all in the same boat.  The money that’s being wasted belongs to all of us!

This website is an attempt to help owners with the difficult and complicated issues they face daily in their associations. It's a start and a work in progress that will succeed, if we all work together to help each other.

  Believe me, there is nobody out there to help us -- if we don't help ourselves!

 

 


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