The DBPR and the industry members of the HOA Task Force created SB 2984, the bill  filed by Senator Atwater. But as you all know, the three homeowners' representatives on the Task Force spoke out against this bill. We feel that without a government agency with enforcement power homeowners still have nowhere to go and alternative dispute resolution as suggested is definitely detrimental to the financial welfare of the owners.

If we want to try to harmonize and improve relations in Homeowners' Associations we need to even out the playing field and create checks and balances. Everybody, who read the letters and heard the testimony of the homeowners at the meetings, knows that the problems are the deep-pockets of board members and their attorneys, who use the association dues to defend their own violations. 

Homeowners need an Ombudsman's Office as proposed for the condo associations in SB 2498/ HB 1223. Only then can we talk about a serious attempt to create the necessary reforms. For many years everybody, homeowners and legislators alike,  relied on the expertise of the attorneys of the Community Association Institute. But hearings all over the nation show that they failed miserably to create workable statutes, protecting homeowners' rights. And with the growing number of families living in homeowners' associations, so is the amount of problems and lawsuits. Much to the joy and happiness of just these attorneys!

It is easy to figure out why attorneys are definitely having a conflict of interest. Creating harmony would make them jobless. Only lawsuits pay their expenses and fill their bank accounts. Homeowners would like to see their dues used for the purpose intended: maintenance and beautification of their neighborhood. If annual expense sheets show  legal fees of more than 50% of the whole budget something is obviously totally wrong. 

Without checks and balances the old saying definitely holds up:
Living the HOA life is a risky, unpredictable life style and you are always only...

• ONE election away from disaster 
• ONE board member away from tyranny 
• ONE management company away from embezzlement 
• ONE HOA lawyer away from the litigious vortex of HOA life 
• ONE insurance broker away from fraud 
• ONE maintenance vendor away from kickbacks 

In our letter to all Florida Senators we pointed out the necessary changes we propose to the bill as filed. These are proposed by homeowners, who would finally like to have a say in their own fate.

Our proposal uses an Ombudsman's Office as foundation we all can build on. See:

Please consider this when discussing these proposals. Millions of Florida's families depend on your decision. It is about time something decisive happens: 
ENOUGH is ENOUGH!

Our founding forefather Benjamin Franklin said:
To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish.