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Article Courtesy of The
Miami Herald
Guest Opinion By Katherine
Fernandez Rundle
Published November 30, 2022
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Several leaders of the Hammocks Community Association have been arrested and
charged with, among other things, racketeering and money laundering. Several
leaders of the Hammocks Community Association have been arrested and charged
with, among other things, racketeering and money laundering.
The recent arrests of Hammocks Community Association members have cast a
long-overdue light on the plight of helpless homeowners when the directors of a
homeowners association (HOA) go deliberately wrong.
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The Florida
Legislature specifically designed the state’s HOA law to
limit government’s ability to regulate HOAs, explaining, “It
is not in the best interest of homeowners’ associations or
the individual association members thereof to create or
impose a bureau or other agency of state government to
regulate the affairs of homeowners’ associations.”
While this may be a virtuous conceptual approach, it has
created the unintended consequence of leaving homeowners
with little, if any, protection or opportunity of redress
when HOA board members raid association bank accounts. In
this criminal case, we believe the evidence can prove the
theft of well over $1 million of homeowners’ monies. But we
think the actual loss is much higher.
Sadly, we have seen instances of greedy or unscrupulous
board members take advantage of this lack of oversight
before. They often hide their misconduct by making it
extraordinarily difficult and expensive for homeowners to
effectively access and examine any records. Ironically,
homeowners typically are stuck paying exorbitant legal fees
for accessing information to which they should be entitled.
Current law renders the only Florida agency with the
slightest regulatory authority, the Department of Business
and Professional Regulation (DBPR), impotent to provide the
oversight that HOA residents deserve. |
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Katherine Fernandez Rundle is the Miami-Dade County
state attorney.
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The law also makes it unnecessarily burdensome for law-enforcement officers to
obtain evidence of wrongdoing.
In 2016, I brought similar problems regarding condominium oversight and
financial records accessibility to the attention of our grand jury. Their
detailed report included a number of recommendations to alleviate the problem.
While condominiums are not HOAs, the problems of records accessibility and
financial mismanagement are surprisingly similar. Homeowners in HOAs should be
protected. Based on experiences learned during our criminal investigation, the
Florida Legislature can take several steps that would go far to help vulnerable
homeowners throughout Miami-Dade County, and all of Florida, without creating
the government overreach the lawmakers rightfully wished to avoid:
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Amend the HOA law to include the same minimal protections
given to condominium owners. ▪ Amend the HOA and condominium laws to provide
criminal penalties for the destruction of association records or the failure
to provide records upon lawful request. ▪ Amend both statutes to include
criminal penalties for election fraud.
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Amend the law to allow DBPR to oversee HOAs and
condominiums more effectively. At a minimum, the Legislature should
authorize DBPR to inspect records and to personally fine board members for
failing to comply with the law or provide reports to members in a timely
manner.
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Expand the Florida condominium ombudsman’s ability to
oversee condominiums and allow the ombudsman to review HOA complaints.
I
was gratified to see the Miami Herald’s Editorial Board recognize some of the
challenges we face during our ongoing criminal prosecution and continued
investigation into the Hammocks Community Association and the clear need for
focused change in the oversight of Florida’s thousands of HOAs.
As always, I would welcome the opportunity to work closely with any of our
legislators who want to address the homeowners victimized by one of Florida’s
largest HOAs. This issue is far too important to ignore.
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