OUR GOALS 2008
Do
you and your neighbors have concerns about the way your
Homeowners’ Association or Condominium Association conducts
business?
Do
you know what your “rights as a homeowner” are?
(You
might be surprised to see how few rights you really have as a
homeowner.)
THE MEMBERS OF CYBER CITIZENS FOR JUSTICE, INC.
worked
hard to create the necessary reform bills that will help you and
your neighbors.
BUT
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Many of
Florida
's owners are afraid that they can no longer afford their homes.
Uncertainty about a person’s home and finances can be
devastating to an individual as well as to the community and state
in which we all live.
Cyber
Citizens For Justice, Inc. was founded to unite Floridians in a
quest to improve the daily lives of citizens.
CCFJ, Inc. seeks to promote citizens’ interests through Advocacy,
Education and Legislative Reform.
Real
fixes for Property Tax and Property Insurance need to be enacted
to revive our “dead” economy.
Admittedly, real fixes will require hard work!
For many homeowners and condo owners, serious association reform
would immediately bring much-needed financial relief.
We just can no longer afford the financial mismanagement,
uncontrolled spending, and even clear embezzlement caused by vague
statutes and a total lack of enforcement and lack of
accountability of the people in charge.
With
the help of many members and friends nationwide, we have created
bills to be filed for the upcoming legislative session that will
attempt to stop many of the problems we owners face daily in our
communities! Drafting these bills is still a work in progress and
input is appreciated!
It is
estimated that more than two million families live in
homeowners’ associations regulated by Florida Statutes 720. The NUMBER
ONE PRIORITY will be to provide support for all of these
families. The AARP
Bill of Homeowners’ Rights shows clearly what is needed to protect the rights
of homeowners: Easy enforcement of the rules, accountability of
the people in charge, and easy access to information regarding
these associations.
Here is the preliminary draft for a comprehensive
bill that will fix the flaws of the current FS 720 by creating a regulatory
agency and an ombudsman
for homeowners --
all financed by the homeowners. How can anybody expect
these associations to function properly when there are not even
provisions to regulate board elections?
Banana Republics hold fairer elections than
Florida’s homeowners’ associations.
That’s why FS 720 needs a complete overhaul:
HOMEOWNERS'
ASSOCIATION (FS 720)
Some
additional provisions are still in the works!
Condo
owners need better security against kickbacks and embezzlement.
Creating term limits will stop certain board members from
“dominating their kingdom” – and the ability to receive
kickbacks and other sorts of disallowed enrichment.
Term limits are one of the easiest solutions for a serious
problem. The ability to hide financial records from the view of
owners -- or insurance payments behind the excuse
“Client/Attorney Privilege” -- is an invitation for financial
shenanigans. This bill is important for the financial welfare of
condo owners:
CONDOMINIUM
ASSOCIATIONS (FS 718)
Elderly
condo owners who suffer from severe financial hardships need serious
safeguards against liens, foreclosures and outrageous attorneys’
fees. With our
Florida
real estate market nearly non-existent,
condo associations should anyway think twice before throwing
owners out of their homes for small amounts of unpaid dues. This
bill proposal will stop liens and foreclosures for small amounts,
but it will definitely not protect deadbeats:
CONDO
(LIENS + FORECLOSURES FS 718.116)
Especially
at times where the economy is weak, it is of utmost importance
that prospective buyers in community development districts must be
told what bills and costs will be coming their way after purchase.
Sellers often try to hide all the costs of living in a CDD
– often coupled with an HOA – and new owners face bills nobody
told them about. Owners
move in and then have to move out again, because the hidden costs
kill their budgets. DISCLOSURE
before sale is of utmost importance, especially since many of
these potential buyers are from out-of-state and have no idea what
a CDD really is. Don’t
forget, a CDD is a
Florida
invention to give developers big profits without risking their own
money! In
general, nothing wrong with that principle, but the facts must be
disclosed and sellers that avoid disclosure must be punished in
order to enforce mandatory disclosure. This bill will make sure
that prospective buyers get the full picture. It is important for
the financial planning of prospective homebuyers:
COMMUNITY
ASSOCIATION DISTRICTS (FS 190)
Private
property rights are at stake when associations are allowed to
create retroactive rental restrictions.
Especially during times of a depressed real estate market,
for many owners renting units may be the only way to pay the bills
and thereby avoid foreclosure.
The ability to rent property should be a basic right for
owners. The
Florida
legislature already recognized this right for condo owners. It’s
as well necessary to create the necessary protection for owners in
co-operatives.
CO-OPERATIVES
(FS 719)
One
big problem in many associations is licensed Community Association
Managers (CAMs) that behave in an unprofessional manner.
Licensing is supposed to protect the public from
unscrupulous and uneducated "professionals."
Complaints from owners and boards pile up, but the laws regulating
CAMs are unreasonably weak. Disciplining CAMs -- especially
in very serious cases -- can take years. The biggest loophole is
that management firms are not licensed and complaints against
these firms go nowhere. Management
firms -- often the biggest violators -- have to be accountable for
their actions, inactions, negligence, culpability and bad advice.
Violators have to be stopped – quickly and efficiently.
This CAM Regulation bill will be the first important step in the
right direction.
COMMUNITY
ASSOCIATION MANAGERS
(FS
468.431-438)
Pets
– some love them; some hate them.
Emotionally-charged battles are fought amongst neighbors,
especially if regulations are changed in midstream.
But the problem with pets can as well involve Fair Housing,
and lawsuits can become very expensive – especially when
punitive damages are added.
Florida
is a state with lots of elderly folks, retirees who were lured
here under the pretense of carefree living.
But in associations life is often the opposite of carefree!
Experts have long acknowledged that pets are humans’ best
friends -- and especially folks with emotional problems can be
helped with a companion pet! In
order to avoid costly lawsuits and prevent neighbor turning
against neighbor, it is essential to see laws created that will
define right from wrong to stop these pet wars!
EMOTIONAL
SUPPORT ANIMALS
We
all know that our economy is weak, our real estate “market”
nearly non-existent. It
will not get better in 2008, despite what many “experts” are
trying to tell you.
Florida
’s citizens had been promised lower property taxes and lower
property insurance premiums. The tiny savings we really saw were
negligible. Admittedly, these are issues not easy to solve. The
mistakes were made years ago – and don’t blame the hurricanes.
The writing was on the wall!
Owners living in associations are double-taxed, fleeced by
incompetent board members and service providers or by scam artists
-- all under the cover of “protecting property values,” the
biggest fairy tale of all. Owners
need the protection of stronger laws that can be easily enforced.
Homeowners, left to fight for themselves against bad odds, need a
regulatory agency to turn to for help.
This
is most likely one of the worst excuses used in the
Florida
statutes: “The Legislature
recognizes that 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.” These
associations are imposed upon us, with no protection against
abuse! This must change to
protect the financial welfare of homeowners who just can’t
afford to be used as cash cows any longer.
These
proposed changes will not cost taxpayers a dime; no ballot
proposal needed. No
fight with big insurance companies is necessary.
All
that’s needed to achieve these goals is the goodwill of our
legislators. Our elected officials have to stop listening to
outright lies from special interests – the same lies they have
been fed for many years. Many
owners have problems dealing with their associations – more than
anybody is ever willing to admit.
Owner-friendly reform bills are desperately needed,
especially with our economy in turmoil and many of our citizens
facing financial emergencies.
The numbers of foreclosures have increased rapidly – and
the financial problems in our associations surely don’t help.
We see many families finding solutions with mortgage
companies only to lose their home to foreclosure by associations
for small amounts of unpaid dues, with huge attorney bills being
the final nail in the coffin.
When these bills are enacted, the benefits of these bills
will save many owners more money than all the promised reductions
in property tax and property insurance put together.
Reforms
are not achieved by sitting on the couch, complaining about all
the misery and watching soap operas.
Apathy is what got us into this mess in the first place.
Simply sending e-mails to certain legislators and many
homeowners’ activists will not create these changes.
Active participation is needed to push for these necessary
reforms. Your
active participation is needed now!
Now
start to help yourself by being part of the solution, not part of
the problem!
Together
we can achieve our goals.
The
two largest United States
consumer organizations -- AARP and LULAC -- have realized that
serious changes are necessary to protect owners' rights. But
it’s our obligation to convince our local legislators that
enacting these bills is a priority to protect the financial
welfare of our families.
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