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Article
Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By
Kristen M. Clark
Published March 25, 2017
TALLAHASSEE — A plan from Miami-Dade lawmakers to
penalize fraud and abuse in condominium associationsearned unanimous initial
approval in House and Senate committees this week.
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The bills, most
notably, impose new criminal penalties for falsifying
association documents, committing fraud in association
elections and refusing to turn over administrative records,
among other reforms.
“A lot of these reforms are a long time coming,” said Sen.
José Javier Rodríguez, D-Miami, who is sponsoring the Senate
bill (SB 1682) with Sen. René García, R-Hialeah. The Senate
Judiciary Committee voted 8-0 to advance their bill
Wednesday.
García said some condo associations have “gone a little
rogue; it’s gotten out of control.”
“There are hundreds of people living in condos who don’t
feel they have a voice,” he said. “We, as elected members,
represent a constituency and these board members also
represent a constituency. There should be accountability
measures in place to ensure they take care of the monies of
the association and the residents of the association.”
The Florida Bar opposes the provisions creating new criminal
penalties, fearing it could be a “major disincentive” to
volunteers who serve on condo boards, attorney William Sklar
said. |
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Condo owners protest outside the government center in
downtown Miami in support of condo law reform on Wednesday, February
22, 2017.
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Rodríguez said the criminal penalties are a necessity,
though, because “people think there are violations already when there are
not in existing law.”
“Criminal penalties allow local law enforcement to do what they’re willing
to do — which is, if an election is stolen, to get involved,” Rodríguez
said.
A similar House bill — HB 1237, from Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami — got
unanimous approval from the Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee on Tuesday.
Both bills each have two more committee hearings before they could reach the
floor.
Many of the proposed reforms stem from recommendations in a Miami-Dade grand
jury report, which came after el Nuevo Herald and Univision 23 published a
series of investigative stories one year ago on condo abuses in South
Florida — revealing electoral fraud, falsification of signatures, conflicts
of interest, embezzlement and cases of fraudulent bidding. The series also
exposed the lack of enforcement by authorities, from local police
departments who refused to investigate allegations of fraud, to widespread
negligence at the state agency in charge of enforcing condo laws and
regulations and investigating complaints.
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