Homeowners board officers fear proposed law

backed by frustrated owners

Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post

By Meghan Meyer
Published March 31, 2005

TALLAHASSEE — Late-night calls from neighbors with rodent problems and the constant threat of lawsuits by residents are the burden of those who serve on community association boards.

It's hard to find people willing to put up with the thankless job, and the two retired women roaming the halls of the state Capitol Wednesday didn't want it to get any harder.

Rhoda Berman and Litzi Marsh tried to convince legislators on Wednesday that two bills filed recently would make it hard to run associations like the one that governs their Delray Villas neighborhood.

"This bill would absolutely destroy homeowners associations," Marsh said. "It's hard enough to find volunteers as it is."

The two Delray Beach women joined about 300 other board members from condominium and homeowners associations across the state who made the trip to Tallahassee. Some traveled on a jet chartered by the Hollywood law firm Becker & Poliakoff, which represents community associations.

Board members wandered around the Capitol in red-and-white "Community Association Day" T-shirts, sometimes bursting into bewildered legislators' offices, demanding to know why they would support such legislation.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, who filed the bill (HB 1229) to give the state more power to regulate homeowners associations, staged an impromptu rally with a few groups of frustrated homeowners. Robaina said his bill would fix a flawed system that has given too much power to overzealous boards.

"What we can't accept is having people come here and tell us there's no problem," Robaina told a crowd that included several opponents of the bill.

Robaina's bill is backed by homeowners groups, including one started by an Amelia Island man angered by his condominium association's decision to stop allowing residents to rent out their homes. It also has the support of Jupiter resident George Andres, who made national news when the association that governs his neighborhood fined him for flying a huge American flag in his front yard.

"Someday you're going to be in a homeowners association and you're going to put some flowers out, or put a flag up, or do something a board member doesn't like," Andres warned the opponents who had assembled at Robaina's rally. "And you're going to end up in court."

Robaina's bill, scheduled for a hearing in the House Civil Justice Committee next week, would require associations to set up cash reserve accounts and train board members. It also would give more power to the state condo ombudsman.

Another bill (SB 2632) would prohibit associations from foreclosing on residents' homes to pay overdue bills if the debt was less than $2,500.

Attorney Gary Poliakoff said the state shouldn't make laws based on a few residents' problems with their homeowners associations.

"This is over-regulation of community associations by government," he said.