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the legislative session 2004 is over and as the smoke clears SB 1184 - the engrossed association bill - is what we got - like it or not! See: http://www.ccfj.net/PB04SB1184ERSUMM.html We won some, we lost some! But altogether we made quite some progress! While condos will get some kind of enforcement of existing laws through the ombudsman's office, homeowners living in associations got lots of new regulations, many good, but are still left to fight expensive legal battles by themselves. The arbitration provisions, much praised by the industry stakeholders, will do very little to reduce the high legal fees. This system only works if the parties are willing to work together in good faith. Something we see missing in associations every day! Why should something work for homeowners that didn't work for condo-owners? Condo-owners got protection against amendments prohibiting unit-rentals. Homeowners came up empty - again! Are homeowners step-children of our society? Where is EQUAL RIGHTS? We consumers need to thank our legislators, who fought for our rights against overwhelming odds, specialized attorneys and other industry stakeholders. Representatives Julio Robaina, Juan Zapata and Gus Barreiro -- and all the other members of the House Select Committee on Condominium Governance - and Senator Rudy Garcia turned out to be the champions for our cause! But we found out as well where our enemies are. This needs to be further analyzed! Every good fight has 12 Rounds. This was Round 3! Task Force Bill 2002 + 2003 and the Condo and HOA bills 2004. We have a long way to go! But we are just warming up! We need to watch how the ombudsman's office for condos will develop. It's important for the future, who will be the ombudsman and how the problems with the DBPR will be resolved. We fought to have the Governor make this decision. It's now up to him to help the condo-owners by appointing the right person! Next year we will shoot for more improvements for the condo bill, enforcement for the HOA bill + some minor changes and grandfather rights. And improvements for our CDD people, mainly disclosure! And good regulation of community managers, so we can weed out the dishonest guys! Something the DBPR fails to do in the moment! That will give us owners a much bigger piece of mind! And it is imperative that we finally find a solution to solve the puzzle of how many homeowners' associations with how many homes we have in Florida. This is an excuse used against regulation since 1994, and was used again by Peter Dunbar and other industry stakeholders this year. Where there is a will, there is a way. Other states have solved the puzzle, why is Florida behind again? Or is it just a convenient excuse to avoid government regulation? We definitely found out who is fighting consumer-friendly bills. And we learned one serious lesson: we have to educate certain board members, who haven't figured out yet who their friends are. Definitely not the attorneys who have a serious financial interest to kill consumer-friendly bills. Harmony? The biggest enemy of attorneys! Board members have to realize that it
is definitely not part of their fiduciary duty to use association funds
to finance Legislative Action Committees of trade-organizations, who then
fight bills that would help unit-owners!
IN ALLIANCE WITH:
as you all know the homeowners' representatives on the Task Force are definitely not in favor of the bill filed as SB 2984 by Senator Atwater. We feel that this proposed bill still leaves homeowners in need without a place to turn to. And we just can't hire an attorney every time somebody violates the laws - because it happens too often! Many of us came to Florida to spend a peaceful retirement, not to waste our life-savings in legal fees. In order to make SB 2984 homeowner-friendly some amendments are necessary. Please see our proposal at: http://www.ccfj.net/HOAbillSB2984AM.html And it's time to act now! Postponing the decision will ruin even more Florida families! The difference between the two proposals?
Jan Bergemann
IN ALLIANCE WITH:
Here in Florida we don't have Marie Brown and Evelyn Lyles, but we have Anne Grove, a 74-year old widow from Ocala, who found her belongings on the curbside after failing to pay HOA dues. Or Robert Denson, a father of four small children, who lost the family home to foreclosure for failure to pay $230 in HOA dues, despite having a verbal agreement with the board president. And we have Governor Jeb Bush, who seems to be willing to let millions of Florida homeowners and condo-owners hang out to dry, unprotected against these abuses -- speaking out against regulation -- and obviously unwilling to promote consumer-friendly legislation in Tallahassee! And if that's not enough, we have, according
to today's headline in the Tampa Tribune,
a Florida Naturist Park in Hudson filing a lawsuit against the neighbors
to pay dues to a "mandatory homeowners' association", formed by a property
owner obviously without any authority!
Warm Regards
IN ALLIANCE WITH:
The news didn’t exactly crackle across the wires Monday afternoon when word came down that President Bush is coming to the Valley. In fact, the news didn’t even crackle across the White House Web site. The White House was busy with other stuff. It was rebutting criticism from its former antiterror chief. It was worrying about whether the Middle East would blow up. It was doing battle with John Kerry. So Bush didn’t have time to go on national TV to announce he’s coming here, the way Nixon did when he said he was going to China. Besides, Bush has been here before. He comes here a lot because he needs Arizona in the "R" column in November. He was here just two months ago, playing to a packed house at Mesa Community College. The topic then was jobs. This time, a White House press aide said, "The president is going to Phoenix on Friday to make some remarks about homeownership." To which I say, it’s about time. We have some real homeownership issues here in the Valley, not least of which is roof rats. In fact, the jobs issue and the homeownership issue merged recently in the person of one Christian Alf of Tempe. Until state pest-control bureaucrats squashed him like a bug, Alf was making extra dough helping homeowners rat-proof their homes. Maybe when he’s in the Valley the president will say it’s OK for a 17-year-old kid to create his own job and for homeowners to make up their own minds about whom they’ll hire around the house. Also, while Bush is talking about homeownership in the Valley, I wonder if the case of Marie Brown will come up. She was 77 years old when they hauled her out of her home in the northwest Valley three years ago because she couldn’t or wouldn’t trim some bushes. This is what can happen to Arizona homeowners who live in communities overseen by homeowners associations. Fail to trim bushes, fail to pay a fine or two, and pretty soon they’re taking your house. The same thing almost happened last year to Evelyn Lyles, only the issue in her case wasn’t bushes. It was cancer. She fell behind in her bills, and her homeowners association in Gilbert threatened to foreclose. The home owners association was ready to throw Lyles and her three kids on the street until Mayor Steve Berman led a community wide effort on her behalf. Then there’s the case of Kenneth and Mary Ann Pillow of Tempe. Last year the city tried to seize their home of 36 years so a developer could replace it with some fancy condos. The Pillows resisted, as did a couple of other homeowners. Finally the city relented, but not because of the principle of the thing. No, City Hall said the project was just getting too expensive. The real reason Bush is coming here, of course, is that he doesn’t want to get kicked out of the home he currently occupies at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But here’s hoping he has some kind words for all the Arizona homeowners who, thanks to petty tyrants, can far too easily lose theirs.
Homeowners and Condo-Owners need Legislative Changes to protect their Welfare! Misery
by Association!
Meeting
turns violent; two arrested!
And don't forget to read the editorial,
written by the editor of a Marion County newspaper. It ends with the sentence(quote):
Family
with 4 children loses home to HOA foreclosure for $ 230 in unpaid dues!
If these are the headlines you want to
read in your newspaper or see in your evening news, then please ignore
the cry for help from many owners all over Florida.
SB 2984 would create a headline like this
if enacted like filed:
It's time for legislative changes now, not after reading another 500 ugly headlines! Jan Bergemann
IN ALLIANCE WITH:
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For comments please send e-mail to : [email protected]
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