HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATION TASK FORCE

 
PRESENTATION CHANNING GERBER (CHIP)
CONCERNED HOMEOWNERS IN PARTNERSHIP, INC.
Working to safeguard the rights of residents living in Florida’s deed restricted communities!
PO BOX 76142          OCALA, FL 34481
www.chipfl.org

STATEMENT TO THE HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATION TASK FORCE
TALLAHASSEE SEPTEMBER 24, 2003

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Concerned Homeowners In Partnership or CHIP is a not-for-profit corporation that was founded to protect homeowner rights in deed restricted communities.  The founders after purchasing their homes discovered many instances of abuse of authority by the developer. When the laws protecting homeowners were reviewed they were found to be worthless.  They contained no substantial penalties.  Further review comparing condo and mobile home laws with homeowner law found a lack of equal protection under Title XL (40) Real and Personal Property.  We feel this is a violation of our 14th Amendment rights. 

A. Flags
We believe the issue of flying the flag is not an appropriate issue at this time when considering the substantial issues of civil rights and due process abuse by developers and homeowner associations. 

We find it suspect that a government task force would have a pre-scripted  agenda that obviously fails to deal with the real issues involving homeowner associations. 

We urge the Department to reexamine the agenda and determine what the issues really are. 

Thank you !


 
  
CHIP POSITION PAPER
CONCERNED HOMEOWNERS IN PARTNERSHIP, INC.
Working to safeguard the rights of residents living in Florida’s deed restricted communities!
PO BOX 76142          OCALA, FL 34481
www.chipfl.org
September 24.2003

Department of Business and Professional Regulation
Homeowners’ Association Taskforce

Concerned Homeowners In Partnership or CHIP is a grass roots organization formed in Marion County to protect homeowners rights.  The founders of CHIP found that many homeowners in some deed restricted communities in Florida are being abused and exploited and that their constitutional rights are being forfeited. The laws needed to protect homeowners are non-existent or at best ineffective. 

Furthermore these homeowners found that their only avenue of protection from these developers was through the state’s court system. How many homeowners can afford to jeopardize their life savings in a protracted lawsuit? We have seen cases where the developer with deep pockets uses delay tactics to wear down the homeowner.  It isn’t pretty.

Developers fail to disclose information or provide misleading information to buyers, as for example: supposed community roads that suddenly become arterial highways; the size of the community; agreements that will increase the cost of living in a community when development has been completed or sometimes sooner; changing deed restrictions and covenants to increase profits after homeowners purchase their homes. One egregious and truthful example is an agreement by the developer made with the county to make the community’s homeowners’ association responsible for indemnification and maintenance of several drainage retention areas. The developer didn’t want to put the required 6’ fence around them. This agreement was signed without any input from the property owners. Another example is the developer changing the deed restrictions forcing homeowners to purchase cable service from him at inflated prices. He was even collecting sales tax on the cable without a permit to collect it. When the Department of Revenue was notified, the practice was not halted. The sales tax is charged to this day even though the communication tax now applies.

The requirement that, when mandatory amenity fees are collected, a financial accounting must be posted, is ignored by many developers and/or homeowners associations since there is no penalty for failure to do so. When they are provided, many reports are obviously bogus. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are collected and dispersed without proper accounting. In many communities no interest income is shown and the accounting begins with zero dollars and ends with zero dollars. Contracts are kept confidential so that the markup amounts can be hidden. Mysterious developer loans appear. (These are most likely for tax purposes to indicate that the community is operating at a loss.) It is apparent that little of the money collected is being used for its intended purpose. 

Deed restrictions are enforced in an arbitrary and capricious manner. Many times they are used as a weapon to punish homeowners for speaking out.  For example, when one homeowner group requested to use the clubhouse for a property owners meeting, the developer stated that they couldn’t speak against him in his clubhouse. They were told that their First Amendment rights didn’t extend to the clubhouse. If they wanted to use the clubhouse they would have to sign a statement agreeing not to discuss suing the developer. The group refused  to do this, even though this was not the intent of the meeting. The developer used his security guards to frighten people away, lock up the chairs, take away the microphone and record the meeting. The group eventually started to hold their meetings outside the community rather than subject homeowners to this type of abuse. The homeowner law states that owners have the right to use the facilities for peaceful assembly. However, again, there is no penalty for noncompliance. 

Homeowner problems are not confined only to the homeowner associations, but extend to larger communities identified as Community Development Districts [CDD]. The concept of the CDD may be noble in its creation, but in practice it is nothing short of state sponsored extortion.  At the heart of the problem is the ability of the quasi-government development district to indebt property owners without their representation. Essentially this is taxation without representation.

The State of Florida attracts retirees and then ignores them. CHIP has been trying to bring about legislative reform for over two years, in the area of financial account reporting and in the area of full disclosure. We have had the support of the Marion County Commission who enacted an ordinance in an attempt to get developers to comply with the financial reporting law. We have had support from the Marion County Legislative Delegation. Last session we joined an alliance with Cyber Citizens for Justice and others to have a property reform task force bill passed. The bill was pulled in the House after it was rendered useless in the Senate. 

Florida is losing out to other states. Homeowners in deed restricted communities are being deprived of their fundamental rights as citizens. We are fed up, and it is time to listen to us and correct the real issues. 

Channing Gerber, Vice President 
Concerned Homeowners In Partnership, Inc. 
TEL : (352) 873-2337   [email protected]