CONDO CRAZE & HOA'S will present a forum for Board members and owners to tell their side of the story. The show randomly has guest speakers who are experts on the daily problems associations encounter. All issues that our associations encounter each day are proper topics for discussion. Expect to hear from politicians, Board members, owners, tenants, community association managers, developers, community association accountants, construction industry personnel and other government officials. Listeners call in and ask questions of attorney Eric Glazer and his legal team as well as any guest present. Eric has been practicing association law since 1992, and his firm Glazer and Associates has represented associations and unit owners throughout the state. There is lots of great discussion and we have certainly had some screaming and yelling, not unlike your typical Board meeting. However, at the end of each show, our listeners come away with a greater understanding of the law and hopefully an appreciation of the various sides of this ongoing debate. Tune
in to Condo Craze and HOAs this Sunday at noon on 610 WIOD in the
South Florida area and to WHNZ 1250 in the Remember,
the new laws are effective July 1st! Jan Bergemann is the President of Cyber Citizens For Justice, a very large grass roots organization here in Florida which was founded in 2000. The group advocates for owners’ rights through Education and Legislative Reform. Their motto is "From Justice as a Foundation all Rights flow!" Their
goal is FAIRNESS IN COMMUNITY
ASSOCIATIONS. Jan
was a member of Governor Jeb Bush’s HOA Task Force 2003/2004. The
recommendations of that Task Force resulted in the large community
association bill that passed in 2004 with many reforms. Jan
will tell us why the new condo and HOA laws destroyed a lot of the good
reforms previously achieved and who is to blame for passage of this
legislation that he believes will only lead to greater financial distress
for associations throughout the state. For
more information about Cyber Citizens for Justice, visit their website at www.ccfj.net
and remember to call in with your questions during the show at 866-610-NEWS. The
show will also be streamed live on the internet at www.wiod.com
and at www.whnz.com.
You can also listen to the show on I Heart Radio. SUNDAY AT NOON! Nearly every Floridian today lives in either a condominium or HOA community. Ideally, the concept of many families all living together in one beautiful building or in one sprawling community, sharing expenses, sounds great. Then, everyone is told that there are laws, codes, bylaws and rules that everyone must live by and suddenly they're all miserable. The Board members who are put in charge by their neighbors of enforcing all of these provisions are often vilified for simply performing the job they were elected to perform. Many of these unpaid volunteers feel that you never hear anything positive about people who choose to serve for free on their condominium or homeowner’s association’s Board of Directors. They object to the term “Condo Commandos.” and can't figure out why you always hear a million stories about Boards gone bad, but never one about a Board who has worked hard to save their association from financial ruin or even closure. They say that the owners don't know what it's like trying to keep the association financially afloat despite a massive foreclosure crisis or what it's like to be woken up in the middle of the night when a pipe bursts somewhere in the community. Their battle cry is: instead of sitting by the pool complaining about your Board, how about stepping up to the plate and giving us a hand!
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On
the other hand, the residents argue that there's no doubt that some Board
members take the reigns of the association for their own personal benefit
and view it as the opportunity of a lifetime to line their own pockets.
After all, recent arrests of some Board members prove them correct. No
doubt some Board members have awarded lucrative association contracts to
themselves or family members, or have simply been brazen enough to funnel
the association's money to their own bank accounts. Some have simply let
the power of the Presidency go to their heads.