-----
Original Message -----
From:
<[email protected]>
To:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent:
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Subject:
WHAT COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION BILLS ARE CURRENTLY BEING DEBATED?
Dear
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,:
It
has been an extremely busy Session in terms of community
association legislation.
Thanks
to so many of you who have already weighed in on Rep. Julio
Robaina's HB 1373, this bill was amended two weeks ago at its
first committee stop. 1373 was pared down from 221 pages to 80
pages. The regulations regarding homeowners' associations were
removed but all of the onerous condominium and cooperative
restrictions still remain. This bill's next stop will be the
House Council on Jobs & Entrepreneurship which is chaired by
Rep. Ron Reagan [email protected]
(850-488-6341).
Committee
members are:
Representatives
Don Brown [email protected]
(850-488-4726);
Jennifer
Carroll [email protected]
(850-488-5102);
Carlos
Lopez-Cantera [email protected]
(850-488-4202);
Dave
Murzin [email protected]
(850-488-8278);
Ralph
Poppell [email protected]
(850-488-3006);
Steve
Precourt [email protected]
(850-488-0256);
Garrett
Richter [email protected]
(850-488-4487);
Trey
Traviesa [email protected]
(850-488-9910);
Will
Weatherford [email protected]
(850-488-5744);
Ronald
Brise [email protected]
(850-488-4233);
Charles
Chestnut [email protected]
(850-488-5794);
Terry
Fields [email protected]
(850-488-6893);
Wilbert
Holloway [email protected]
(850-488-0766); and
Curtis
Richardson [email protected]
(850-488-1798).
In
addition to emailing these Committee members, please continue to
let your own State Representatives and Senators know the
potential impact HB 1373 will have on your communities. SB 2816
(the senate companion bill to HB 1373) still contains the
original 221 pages so please discuss that bill as well.
In
addition, CALL is currently tracking the following bills:
1.
SB 314 sponsored by Sen. Geller is the condominium termination
bill which is very likely to pass as it has the strong support
of the Real Property Section of the Florida Bar and is one of
their highest priorities. A very similar bill passed the
Legislature last session (unanimously) and was vetoed by Gov.
Bush because he felt the threshold to terminate could be too
easily attained. Hearings were held around the state this summer
to strike a balance between the property rights of condominium
owners as a whole against the rights of a lone holdout who
opposes the termination plan. The bill was modified to address
those concerns and is now working its way through the process as
SB 314. Neither Governor Crist nor the DBPR is currently
opposing the bill. This bill has gone through all of its
committee stops and will go to the full Senate for a vote as
soon as it is put on the Special Order Calendar. The bill
provides a method of terminating condominiums in the event of:
economic waste, disrepair of the property, and when continued
operation of the condominium is made impossible by law or
regulation.
In
the event of economic waste, the percentage needed to terminate
is the lesser of the lowest percentage of voting interests
needed to amend the declaration or as provided in the
Declaration for termination of condominiums. There are special
provisions in this bill for the termination of timeshare units.
Optional termination can be effectuated by 80% of the units
owner. Mortgagee consent is not required unless the plan of
termination will result in less than full satisfaction of the
mortgage lien;
2.
HB 433 sponsored by Rep. Carl Domino passed out of the Safety
and Security Council with one negative vote cast by Sen. Rudy
Garcia. 433 contains language which would make it easier to
amend condominium documents that are currently burdened with
lender consent requirements; extends MRTA reinstatement
procedures to voluntary homeowners' associations and contains
revisions to the mediation procedure for HOA's. This bill also
contains language which would allow a majority of owners in a
homeowners' association to petition the board to implement
reserves as well as language restricting an HOA board's
architectural control rights. This is basically the same bill as
last year's HB 391 which was passed unanimously by the House and
Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Bush over concerns regarding a
sprinkler retrofit extension and the mediation language. The
sprinkler language has been removed from the bill this year and
the mediation language has been revamped;
3.
SB 396 sponsored by Sen. Margolis) is a Condominium Conversion
bill which deals with certain converter reserves and insurance
fixes. This bill would require additional disclosures in
contracts for the sale or lease of residential units and
clarifies that the definition of condominium common expenses
includes the costs of certain insurance or self insurance. The
bill also requires notice for special assessments for self
insurance purposes. This bill contains incremental insurance fixes that attempt to make commercial
self-insurance funds more attainable;
4.
HB 923 sponsored by Rep. Ambler is known as the Home Court Pilot
Program which would establish a pilot mediation program in
Hillsboro and Pinellas counties. This bill has many problems
including the fact that community association managers can serve
as magistrates with apparently no experience requirement while
attorneys serving in the same capacity must have 5 years
experience. The program will consist only of complaints
regarding the reasonableness of any deed restriction to real
property or fines imposed for failure to comply with a deed
restriction. There are constitutional problems with this program
as well since it restricts access to the courts. The bill was
amended at its first committee stop but it still has problems;
5.
SB 348 sponsored by Sen. Mandy Dawson would prohibit
associations from requiring a prospective buyer of a property to
present evidence of any financial status or to make a monetary
deposit to the association so long as such prospective buyer has
been approved by a lending institution to obtain the financing
that is necessary to purchase the property. If it passed, this
bill would impact many communities that run background financial
checks on potential purchasers to ensure that those purchasers
can meet their monetary obligations once they become community
residents;
6.
SB 714 sponsored by Sen. Siplin is back again for the third
year. This bill would prohibit associations from liening/foreclosing
and/or pursuing a monetary judgment for amounts less than $2,500
and would remove the association's ability to recoup attorney's
fees and costs. Known as the anti-foreclosure bill, SB 714
would greatly impact an association's ability to timely and
efficiently collect its assessment stream in order to ensure the
continuation of essential community services;
7.
SB 1844 sponsored by Sen. Ring would require attorneys handling
collection matters for association clients to accept a 90-day
payment plan for their attorney's fees when pursuing a
delinquent owner. It is anticipated that this bill will be
amended with more reasonable language but in its current form it
could greatly reduce the number of attorneys willing to handle
collection matters for associations and thus increase the costs
related to that process;
8.
HB 1365 was sponsored by Rep. Gibbons at CALL's request. This
bill contains emergency powers language to assist boards dealing
with community preparations pre-storm as well as dealing with
post-storm reconstruction issues. Currently, this bill is not
moving and needs your help if it is to be amended on to a moving
community association bill; and
9.
SB 250 sponsored by Sen. Posey would require developers to pay
maintenance on unsold units that the developer is leasing or
renting.
You
can view all of these bills by logging on to the CALL site at www.callbp.com
and then using the Legislative Links category to access the
Senate or House websites to pull up the bill you are interested
in reviewing. When reviewing a bill, always look for the latest
version which will be indicated by committee substitute numbers
(i.e. if a bill has been amended one time it will be reflected
as CS1). If a bill has not been amended, only the original filed
version will be available.
You
and your community members can make a difference in terms of the
type of legislation that is passed. Be sure to read the bills
and then send your emails via the Legislator Connect feature on
the CALL site.
If
you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. It's
always a pleasure hearing from so many of you.
Best
Regards,
Donna
D. Berger, Esq.
Executive
Director, CALL |