DANIEL PEREZ: THE ENEMY OF FLORIDA’S COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MEMBERS

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published May 13, 2023

  

Meet the enemy of Florida’s community association members: State Representative Daniel Perez – the incoming Speaker of the House. By doing favors to special interests -- CAI, specialized community association attorneys and a few hundred dictatorial board members – he killed all the owner-friendly provisions once contained in the bills filed as the “Community Association Bill of Rights” at the beginning of the session

HB 919 – filed by State Representative Juan Carlos Porras (R-Miami) – and SB 1114 – filed by Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez (R-Miami) contained lots of great provisions aimed at ending the massive fraud, embezzlement and election fraud we are seeing in many of Florida’s community associations. And these originally filed bills had teeth. Perez pulled every tooth contained in these bills.

Condo owners – especially the ones living in hi-rise buildings hit by recent bills with huge financial burdens – had hoped that the mandatory reserve funds they are now forced to pay into, would be better protected.

But that was not on the mind of Daniel Perez. He had all provisions removed from these bills that referred to FS 718 (The Condo Act).

Don’t get me wrong: He didn’t show up at committee hearings of these bills opposing these provisions, asking the bill sponsors to remove these unwanted provisions. No, he did it behind closed doors, wielding the power he has in Tallahassee as the incoming Speaker of the House.

But just removing all protection for condo owners wasn’t enough for Perez. He had as well every kind of enforcement removed from the provisions remaining in these bills. The remaining provisions may sound great on first view, but in reality the Enrolled 2 Version of HB 919 is just a BILL FOR THE RICH. Homeowners can only enforce their rights through litigation, having to fight the deep pockets of the board – a board accused of all kinds of malfeasance. And remember: FS 720 requires homeowners to go through the costly process of presuit mediation -- mostly totally useless – before they can even litigate trying to enforce all these new provisions.

What’s left of the initially great bill is just another “BILL FOR THE RICH” – since owners need a lot of money to enforce these new “protections” of their rights.

And if all this wasn’t enough for Daniel Perez, in the end he even had removed the only good protection for homeowners left in the remains of the bill: Filing liens for fines! Even the E1 VERSION of HB 919 of the bill removed the ability of boards to file liens for fines [HB99E1]: (276) A fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien against a (277) parcel -- until Perez worked his "magic".

REPRESENTATIVE

DANIEL PEREZ
District: 116 -- Republican

Legislative Aide:
Andres Torres
District Aide:
Maria Lombard
 

Legislative Office:

FIU MARC Building Suite 322
1550 Southwest 109th Avenue
Miami, FL 33199-0001
(305) 348-1414

 

You can contact him as well through his

WEBSITE


   

Filing liens for unpaid fines was always a great way for dictatorial boards to force owners to finally pay a fine, even if the fine was levied for bogus reasons – or to keep owners with opposing opinions being candidates for the next board election. Perez even had to kill this great provision.

I guess Florida’s owners of community association properties – most all of them registered voters – have a new champion fighting for their rights: Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. She pleaded in press conferences and TV interviews to create laws to protect community association members from scams, kickbacks, embezzlement, fraud and fraudulent voting activities. She created Grand Jury reports showing that there is no justice in Florida’s community associations. She investigated the more than $4 million fraud in the HAMMOCKS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED and is prosecuting the guilty parties. The problem for Republicans: She is most likely running for higher office: AS A DEMOCRAT!

Daniel Perez didn’t listen to her voice or the pleading of millions of Floridians living in community associations. He obviously doesn’t care what happens to his constituents. He rather caters to the wishes of a few hundred specialized attorneys getting rich at the expense of Florida’s homeowners. Hopefully they repay him well with lots of campaign funds.

GREAT JOB DANIEL PEREZ! You made sure that injustice continues to rein in Florida’s community associations!


NEWS PAGE HOME

LEGISLATIVE SESSION