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Article
and Video Courtesy of Channel 6 -- Orlando
GETTING RESULTS
By Mike Holfeld -- Investigative
Reporter
Published
February 25, 2016
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 Watch
VIDEO
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A News 6 investigation has found HOA and condo
association residents may be facing the same issues of alleged
mismanagement but only condo association members are getting state
assistance to hold board officers accountable.
Eric Glazer an expert in community
association law and radio host of Condo Craze and HOAs,
says allegations of mismanagement, sleeping security
guards and broken entrance gates are the stuff of HOA
and Condo complaints.
“We hear horror stories like that," Glazer says, “We
hear horror stories of boards stealing money and
unfortunately at least over the past year or so it’s
reached near epidemic proportions."
On Monday the veteran community association attorney
filed a
BLOG essentially blasting state lawmakers for
rejecting a plan that would have provided HOA residents
the same free assistance and investigative services from
the Department of Business and Professional Regulation
already offered to condominium residents. |
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“For whatever reason the Florida legislature thinks it’s a bad idea to
charge HOA owners a lousy two bucks per year for them (HOA residents) to
get the same help."
Glazer has already certified 11,000 community board members anxious to
learn state law and avoid the legal battles that go with HOA and Condo
Association mistakes.
Glazer says the DPBR does ”a tremendous amount of
work” for condominium association residents including arbitrators,
question and answer hotlines, free online forms and investigators to
review resident complaints.
The cost of that service is just $4 per unit every
year.
One of the most unsettling cases
involving alleged mismanagement happened last November when
Mary Haigh was carjacked at gunpoint just 200 feet from her
front door. The mother of two was sitting in her car talking
to a relative when according to Orlando police a teen held a
loaded handgun to her head.
Haigh says they had moved to that condo community because
they felt a gated community “would be safer.”
Ironically the gate had been broken for
weeks and was wide open when the teens walked in and drove
away with her car. |
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“All I could think about was my kids…was I going
to get shot, was I going die?…” she said.
The teens involved were arrested but Haigh and her family have decided
to leave the Orlando area.
Haigh says the condo association gave her an apology- nothing else.
Glazer reviewed the video Tuesday. In an email to News 6 he writes, “The
condo can absolutely be held liable. Potentially, even the directors can
be personally liable if the gate wasn’t fixed for weeks – and the
failure to fix the gates allowed the teens to enter.” |
