TRANSPARENCY OF FINANCES? NOT REALLY?

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published June 16, 2026

We hear so much about transparency and the right of owners to inspect all kinds of records – the statutes even list all the records that can be inspected -- and the records only accessible by the board members. There is even a legal requirement to publish all financial records on a website accessible to all owners!

It all sounds great on paper, but in all reality all these laws are toothless tigers if the board members and/or management company are unwilling to obey by the law.

Legislators have even given the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes subpoena powers, if the association is ignoring the record inspection laws. The legislators have – last year – given the Division another $7.1M for them to hire more help and improve their service. But nothing has changed!

Owners still have to fight expensive lawsuits trying to get the financial records from associations – and most complaints filed by owners are still getting the well-known treatment: A form letter from the Division saying that “no wrong-doing could be found by the investigator and that the case was closed!”

And even if owners are willing to spend all kinds of money and resources on trying to enforce record requests -- even winning their cases in Appeals Court -- some boards and their attorneys are still unwilling to allow inspection of these records. I guess we all know why, but until our government changes its attitude and is willing to actually enforce the laws enacted by our Legislature, it's all just a money maker for the attorneys.

In reality I blame these attorneys protecting these board member. They passed the BAR, so they should actually realize quickly that the clients are bad actors and are fighting these record requests because they have something to hide. Aren't these attorneys actually helping bad actors to hide their wrongdoings? One thing is sure: They obviously don't care about their reputation! But the media is actually helping these attorneys: In the articles discussing court battles and record request fights, they most often don't name the attorney helping these board members hiding the financial records.

Remember: The receiver appointed by the judge in the case of the HAMMOCKS HOA sued the law firms who helped the board to hide the financial records -- and quickly won big settlements from all these law-firms.

How good are laws that can only be enforced by people with the necessary finances to hire expensive attorneys and fight court battles lasting many years -- and then still don't see the financial records, despite winning these lengthy court fights!