The Florida Condominium Alliance has a wish list, only instead of a paper full of holiday gifts, this list is an agenda of four major changes the group hopes to make during the 2009 legislative session.

At its first town hall meeting last week, members of the Condominium Alliance spoke to a crowd of nearly 900 at the Wynmoor Community in Coconut Creek about the issues it wants to focus on for the upcoming session.

Fed up with what they see as unfair legislation for condo unit owners and associations, association board members and others formed the Florida Condominium Alliance, a lobbying group focused on making changes to the Florida Condominium Act. The group is made up of officers and boards members from associations in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The Alliance wants a law to force banks to foreclose on properties within six months so remaining unit owners aren't stuck paying dues for empty units. Currently, banks have the choice to pay the lesser of 1 percent of the original mortgage or the past six months of maintenance and assessment fees. However, if a third party buys the unit, that buyer must pay the overdue fees.

"This is a problem for all of Florida," Aventura Commissioner Bob Diamond said. The city of Aventura recently passed a resolution asking the state for relief. Diamond said buildings in his area have been forced to cut back on services.

Another change would allow nonessential services, such as cable, to be terminated in a foreclosed unit. However, amenities are not allowed to be denied, according to the Condominium Act.

"In Florida, you are forced to help your neighbor," said Mark Bogen, a lawyer who writes a condo law column for the Sun Sentinel and the Hi-Riser and also helped form the Florida Condominium Alliance. Additionally, the Alliance wants a law to define home health aide and require licensing for those individuals because of problems with theft, abuse and indifference, with substantial fees for those who operate without a license. Presently, anyone can be a home health aide, regardless of training or experience.

Wynmoor resident Cliff Weiss said he is concerned about health aides who do not have their own transportation and need others to bring them to and from the communities in which they work.

The last law the Alliance is proposing would force unit owners to pay their dues and fines. The Condominium Act states the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes can enforce fines against the association, but the association is powerless to fine unit owners.

"You each pay $4 [a year] for enforcement that [must be] going toward something else," said Harold Goldberg, Wynmoor Community Council president. Sen. Jeremy Ring helped develop the issues that the Alliance supports, and he hopes Rep. Julio Robaina will back the proposals as well. Robaina could not be reached for comment.

"The single biggest issue is, why should you have to pay more money because someone else doesn't pay?" Ring said.