Article Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel

By Daniel Vasquez

Published February 17, 2011

Mel Glickman, of Boca Raton, wants Florida lawmakers to make life even harder for condominium owners who fall behind in payments to community associations. He thinks legislators should give condo boards the authority to cut delinquent owners' access to cable TV and the Internet. 

Fellow owners Dag Hanssen in Fort Lauderdale and Ralph Lizza in Port St. Lucie also support more statutes that put the squeeze on owners in arrears.

With the Florida legislative session just weeks away, condo residents and homeowners are once again looking to lawmakers for help in responding to the fallout from the state's foreclosure crisis.

Despite a wave of laws passed in Florida in the last several years, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find anyone not in favor of more legislation aimed against owners behind in maintenance payments and other association fees. Last year, Florida passed a law that allows HOAs to file liens against owners in debt to the association for assessments, fines or other fees by $1,000 or more. Condo associations also were given the authority to ban delinquent owners from common areas.

And signs point to more legislation that goes further in strengthening board and association authority in such cases.

"I would support a law that would allow associations to cut off cable TV and Internet services," Glickman said. "If those services are included in the maintenance fee that is in arrears, absolutely."

Glickman believes some owners take advantage of their communities by stopping payments on mortgage and maintenance fees. "We had a case of a unit owner who moved out all his furniture except for a bed, a TV set, and a laptop computer. He was living in his unit for more than six months, in arrears for $2,000 plus legal fees," said Glickman. He said he urged his board to shut off the cable TV feed to the owner's unit but was told the board did not believe it had the authority to do so.

Glickman supports a new bill filed by Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Sunny Isles, which would strengthen the law passed last year allowing condo associations to stop owners behind in payments from using common areas. It would more clearly define common areas as including — but not limited to — pools, gyms, meeting rooms and other recreational facilities.

No surprises there. Most people consider pools and clubhouses, paid for by the association, to be common areas. But the bill would also list for the first time cable television and Internet as services the association may cut to owners behind in payments to the association by 90 days or more.

Hanssen, of Fort Lauderdale, supports a bill filed by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, that extends the reach of a current law allowing cooperative associations to file liens against owners who do not pay fees charged by management companies for late-payment collections. Fasano's bill would provide condos and HOAs the equivalent authority.

"Nowadays people just walk away from the bills," Hanssen said. "They're still living in the condos, still reaping the benefits of condo living, but have their neighbors pay for maintenance and services." 

He is not unsympathetic to homeowners who are struggling to make mortgage and maintenance payments. Hanssen said he has suffered job losses in his own life "and spent one year struggling, but did whatever manual labor I could to pay bills." And yet, he says, "I am in favor of legal action and collection agencies knocking on doors."

While it is harder to find folks who disagree with people like Glickman, Hanssen and others, they are out there.

Richard Warden, of Boca Raton, contacted me recently to remind us that while some owners choose to stop making payments, others, by financial circumstance, have little other choice.

"I have not been cut off from services but I am behind because of being unemployed for the last eight months," Warden said. "It is really hard to make the money stretch. I cannot afford to pay them their fee's and eat. I am actively looking for a job but you can't go from making $90,000 per year to making $12,000 per year without something falling by the wayside."

Florida lawmakers reconvene on March 8 when bill-tracking begins in earnest.