WHY CREATING LEGISLATIVE CHANGES?

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published September 16, 2025

Every year the Florida Legislature is busy creating and/or amending the statutes regulating community associations. It begs the question: WHY???

Everybody knows that any law without enforcement is absolutely useless. And there is no enforcement of these laws – as long as you as the property owner have enough funds to challenge the association in court.

The Florida Legislature gave the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes an extra $61 M in last year’s legislative session, to hire more staff to investigate complaints and/or enforce the statutes. Result: The Division is still sending out the same old form letters stating that the investigator found no violations and has closed the case.

Criminal violations? Some state attorneys still have the opinion that any violation in a community association is a civil matter since it’s based on a contract.

In my opinion the only ones really profiting from newly enacted statutes are the so-called “specialized” attorneys, because every new law normally creates some juicy lawsuits since interpretations of these new laws vary and you always have folks “reading between the lines”.

Instead of arguing about changes to existing laws lawmakers should finalize concentrate on finding ways to enforce the already existing statutes, which will be a different task.

The so-called industry is always opposing any kind of enforcement since it’s a lot easier to fleece owners who are not protected by easily enforceable laws. Owners, complaining at board meetings about the board taking actions violating the laws, have been told: “Sit down and shut up! You don’t have the money to sue the association!”

Is that a way Florida’s statues regulating community associations should be deal with?

Other states have put the enforcement of community association statutes under the umbrella of the office of the Attorney General – and that has been quite a success. Shouldn’t Florida consider doing the same?