Reporting illegal condo activity can be risky

Article Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel

By Joe Kollin

Published June 11, 2008

 

Your condo association refuses to tell you how it is spending your money or won't let you see the books.

You want to file a complaint with the state, but you cannot do so anonymously. If you give your name, chances are you could become a pariah in your building or community.

Angry unit owners facing that situation say the state puts them in an untenable situation.

"I just tried to file a complaint against my condo for a violation of state law and was told I had to disclose my name and phone number, etc.," said an owner in Fort Lauderdale who, for obvious reasons, doesn't want to be identified. (The alleged violation was the use of proxies to elect the board of directors.)

"What is the point of making a complainant's details a public record?" the owner asked. "Sure, let me get my car vandalized and/or alienate numerous neighbors with whom I have to live and interact."

The owner said the state should either exempt disclosure from public records or assign some kind of code that state staffers can link back to the person's information.

Without that, the owner said, illegal activity goes unreported, "unremedied and unpunished."

That owner is hardly alone. Vindictiveness is so common in condos that attempts have been made, unsuccessfully, to make it illegal.

"I'm afraid to make a records request for fear of retaliation," an owner told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on March 21.

A resident of a Boca Raton high-rise told earlier this year of objecting to a board action. "I was ostracized," she said, adding that she lost all her friends.

"These people retaliate, they cut your tires," a Pompano Beach-area owner said.

Sam Farkas, a spokesman for the state Department of Business & Professional Regulation, the parent agency of the division that oversees condos, gave several reasons why it can't keep names secret.

"It's an issue of due process," he said. "Everyone has a right to confront his or her accuser so we try to maintain the integrity of that."

"Then there is the practical consideration: We couldn't do investigations with it being confidential," he added.

Also, the state's broad public records law doesn't exempt condo complaints. The department won't recommend changing the law because, Farkas said, "that's a legislative issue."

Keeping the names public does have benefits, he pointed out. For example, it discourages those who might be vindictive from hiding behind anonymous complaints.

The state enforces condo law and not what goes on at individual associations.

"We don't have jurisdiction in many complaints, like when an association changes a rule so there can't be dogs," Farkas said. "Condo associations have the prerogative to change their rules. We can't step in and enforce them because one person doesn't believe something fits in with their lifestyle."

Another concern of condo owners is that if the state can't resolve a violation by working with a board, it will fine the whole association. That means everyone must pay.


Q&A

Q Despite what has happened since Hurricane Wilma, owners in condo and homeowner association communities ask why they should be forced to pay money into reserves. It increases their monthly costs and may never be needed, or may not be needed until after they die. So, they ask, why bother?

A We asked accountants Jeffrey L. Ducker and Steve Feldman of Kane & Co., a CPA firm in Miami, Boca Raton, Orlando and other cities. They explained the positives outweigh the negatives. By maintaining a reserve for such things as roof repair, painting and paving, they said, "owners are not only spreading out such expenditures over time, but they are contributing to the overall value of the community."

Communities opting to include reserves in their annual budgets, they added, "are better equipped to handle expenditures for major repairs and replacements, since reserve funds, if set aside at the levels recommended by professionals, would be available when needed."

That minimizes the need for special assessments.

"Although some argue that they may not be alive when the funds are spent, it's the board's obligation to ensure that the community is maintained at all times," they added.

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