COMMENTS ABOUT THE DBPR REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann
President, Cyber Citizens For Justice, Inc.

October 9, 2006

The DBPR published the report and recommendations regarding HB 391 as requested by Governor Bush in his veto letter. All in all -- no surprises! Or maybe some? The DBPR actually agreed with many of our concerns and recommended some desperately needed changes that we had already proposed during meetings of the Governor's HOA Task Force in 2003/2004.

The recommendations fall short of proposing regulation of HOAs by the DBPR, claiming, "it's against the legislative intent!" Now, what really is the legislative intent? To protect the welfare of Florida's citizens or to protect the income of certain service providers?

The writing is clearly on the wall: Without regulation all changes are just band-aids that don't create the necessary legislative reforms. The recommendations talk about the creation of an HOA Ombudsman, mandatory mediation/arbitration programs conducted by the DBPR, HOA election reforms, necessary education programs, reserve funds, financial reporting and many other things that have been discussed over the years.

So, let's go ahead, let's create the necessary reforms, charge the $4 from each homeowner to have the necessary funds in place (it will be the best investment Florida's homeowners ever made) and go ahead with rewriting FS 720, with all the necessary reforms in place.

The AARP just published an excellent model statute called "A BILL of RIGHTS for HOMEOWNERS in ASSOCIATIONS". All the required reforms are included in this proposal and just have to be rewritten for Florida. Many of the necessary provisions are already written and have just to be added to a final bill proposal.

The study agrees as well with homeowners advocates' claim that the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) falls way short of protecting homeowners' rights and shouldn't be considered any further! UCIOA is just another attempt of the Community Associations Institute, the trade organization of the service providers, to create another bill with no teeth. See as well the report of the hearing of the Texas Senate Committee about TUPCA, the Texas version of UCIOA.

Let's ask our legislators in the 2007 session if they want to pass a comprehensive HOA bill to protect their constituents, or if they want to continue to protect the income of special interest?

The posted comments from various sources were quite impressive -- negative and positive.

On the Negative Side:

Letters from professionals and service providers that showed that their knowledge about the laws and regulations are very limited, despite being happy to provide all their professional alphabet soup!
Richard Spears seems to be under the impression that it helps to write many letters and e-mails using various letterheads, without really stating facts or making real proposals.
E-mails from association officers that clearly show how desperately needed is mandatory education of board members.

On The Positive Side:

The many public comments asking for necessary reforms in regards to enforcement, accountability and education -- coming from many owners who are not part of the CCFJ Consumer Alliance!
The fact that even the DBPR in its study underlines the need for more protection for owners and the necessity to speed up the process.

We have seen the study; we have seen the recommendations:

NOW LET'S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

We plainly can't afford any more lip service.

Fairness In Associations Is The Goal

DBPR REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS