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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! |
