Dear Florida Homeowners and Condo Owners:
Community Association Bill S680 will be heard today by the senators of the Committee on Regulated Industries. Please see below the text of my message to the senators. The bill needs serious additions in order to be considered association/owner-friendly!
Take care
Jan
| |
| Dear Senators, The Committee on Regulated Industries will hear today community association bill S 680, sponsored by Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff. I guess everybody familiar with the issues of these associations knows that legislative reforms are desperately needed. Just read the headlines of two major Florida newspapers from this weekend: Homeowners association pursues extreme option -- foreclosure -- against Korean War veteran (Orlando Sentinel) While the foreclosure could be avoided - not thanks to our government or the laws regulating HOAs, with the outpour of legal and financial help from neighbors and owner-friendly attorneys who were disgusted that something like this can happen in our society. In the case of the 13-year legal battle we can be pretty sure that most of the retirees will be dead before a solution is reached - after spending most of their retirement life fighting in courts for their dream-home in the Sunshine. These are the headlines that are making national news. Do you honestly believe that retirees looking to relocate will chose Florida after reading these headlines? This is just one weekend! This article shows why reforms are desperately needed: 1 in 3 Florida retirees who receive Social Security survive solely on government checks (Sun Sentinel). A wide majority of these retirees live in community associations and can no longer pay the ever increasing monthly dues and special assessments caused by unpaid dues and foreclosures, caused by banks and mortgage lenders dragging their feet. These retirees are losing their homes. Senator Charlie Dean listened to the outrageous accusations made by retirees about problems in their communities during the meeting of the Marion County Legislative Delegation. Senator Dean expressed his outrage about these abuses and promised to help with legislative reforms. Group to government: Watch developers (Ocala Star Banner) At the same meeting an attorney from Katzman Garfinkel & Berger claimed that CAN - the lobbying arm of KG&B -- is a non-profit organization that represents over 60,000 homeowner and condominium associations throughout the state. Not only is that absolutely NOT TRUE, in my opinion they can be happy if they have the actual support of about 600 real people. CAN (KG&B) and CALL (Becker & Poliakoff) are the driving forces behind this bill, claiming to represent the wishes of community associations. If you really read the bill, you will see that absolutely nothing in this bill will help associations/owners deal with the financial crisis. There are a lot of provisions in this bill that will help attorneys and other service providers, at the expense of your constituents, the homeowners and condo owners. Please help your constituents by adding a few provisions that will really have an impact on people living in community associations. Your constituents need help, but so far S680 does nothing to help them. Please read the linked articles and you will realize that these folks really need the help of their Senators. Thank you for listening to my concerns! Warm Regards, Jan Bergemann, President Cyber Citizens For Justice, Inc. |
