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We pride ourselves on providing invaluable services to HOAs/COAs and their property managers throughout S. Florida that facilitate the improvement of safety and appearance of their communities while preserving the integrity of property values. Our first division, Garing Parking Enforcement, was started in 2007 to help communities regain and maintain compliance with their vehicle restrictions and parking regulations.
Our second division, Garing Property Services, was just launched with a similar intent of bringing the residences, recreational and common areas in a community into compliance with the community’s governing documents pertaining to the appearance and upkeep of their dwellings.
Dear Paul and the Garing Staff
Just so you know, we were more than satisfied with the patrols. I know what your guy went through at times; the threats […] abusive residents, etc. l also know it would be hard to duplicate this service for little or no cost if we choose to do so because you are extremely reasonable with the costs. You have been a tremendous help to our violation enforcement […] I just personally wanted you to know that we appreciate everything you have done for our community.
Chuck Forcucci
and the Genesis Board of Directors
I’ve read carefully the report of Garing’s parking ranger. I have no comment other than l do appreciate very much everything that he did on Saturday night, June 21, 2008 between 12:30 am and 1:50 am.
He conducted his duty strictly in accordance with the professional regulations of your company and the agreement with Sawgrass Preserve HOA. The owners of vehicles that were subject of towing in this incident were very well known as frequent violators, not only in illegal parking, but also in other cases (broken gate arm, tailgating…)
On behalf of the Association l praise the professional stand of your ranger and use this opportunity to thank him for everything he did that night to protect the Association rules. Could you please pass to him our great satisfaction for his approach in conducting of his duties.
Thanks.
CoverSeal Pen50 is a penetrating sealer that protects porous surfaces – like concrete and stone – from water-related damage. Made from a blend of silanes and siloxanes, it reacts to form a silicone resin that’s highly water-resistant and repellent. In keeping water out of the surface, it protects against mold growing and salts getting into the surface from freeze-thaw attack. Use it on the interior or exterior to protect your surfaces.
Mold and Mildew:
If you’re seeing signs of mold and mildew on your concrete, natural stone, limestone – any kind of porous surface – that’s a good indication that you need a water-repellent, penetrating sealer. Something like CoverSeal Pen50.
Crumbling or Dusting:
If you’ve got concrete and you’re noticing signs of crumbling or dusting, that’s probably because moisture has gotten into the surface. With ongoing freeze-thaw action (as the water freezes and expands), it crumbles and cracks the surface. Signs like this on concrete or pavers, indicates that you should be using something like the Pen50.
Any porous surface can benefit from a penetrating sealer like Pen50, and it will not change the look of your surface.
Is CoverSeal Pen50 A Commercial Or Consumer Product?
Pen50 is available to both commercial customers and DIY consumers. It was developed initially for commercial applications. Situations like working on historic buildings, public walkways, outdoor restaurants, hotel entrances, etc. But it is very user-friendly. It’s a water-based product that is easy to use, and easy to apply.
Situations Where You Would Use CoverSeal Pen50
Much of the time, customers using Pen50 are dealing with exterior situations. They come to us describing situations where moisture got into surfaces, resulting in mold and mildew. Other examples of where a penetrating sealer would be useful include natural stone (like limestone or sandstone) that is:
Anywhere it can get damp, and you need to prevent moisture getting into the surface, consider using CoverSeal Pen50.
Stop The Damage From “Freeze-Thaw” Attack
Freeze-Thaw can be defined as the repeated process of:
If you see signs of this on concrete or pavers, consider using something like Pen50 to protect against “freeze-thaw” attack. It easily repels moisture from getting into the surface.
Pen50 Preserves The Surface’s Natural Look
Customers love that they can use CoverSeal Pen50, without it changing the appearance of their surfaces. It does not darken the surface. It won’t give it a sheen. It’ll just keep that natural look.
Why Is CoverSeal Pen50 Better Than Store-Bought Sealers?
CoverSeal Pen 50 is a very versatile penetrating sealer, and it’s unique formulation gives it 2 distinct advantages over the competition.
1 – It contains a higher “active solids” content than competing brands.
This means that it provides much higher repellancy to moisture or other contaminants. It also means that surfaces treated with it will be protected for a much longer period of time, compared to those sealed with and “off-the-shelf” brand.
2 – It works on multiple surface types.
The silane-siloxane blend that CoverTec formulated for Pen50 works very well on:
Most competing products are formulated to work on a single surface type. Basically, if you use a product from a hardware store, you will lose repellancy faster, and you’ll have to re-apply that product more often.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to condo communication, there are some basic principles and strategies that can help you maximize communication. For instance, we can all agree that using digital communication tools is faster and more efficient than outdated paper and mail.
Read on to find out how technology and sound communication strategies can facilitate smooth operations and cohesion with homeowners.
One of the best ways to capture and maintain unit owners’ attention is to communicate with them frequently. Property management software such as Condo Control Central simplifies the process for you. It offers a discussion forum where unit owners can voice their opinions in a safe and confidential manner.
Residents can use this feature to report property damage in the common areas, and you’ll be able to moderate the forum by adding pre-defined topics.
The event planner tool also makes it easy to inform and update residents about upcoming community events such as get-togethers and AGM meetings.
Tired of printing documents and posters every time you update community bylaws? Say goodbye to printing costs and upload updated documents straight to your community’s file library. It has quick search functionality and allows you to seamlessly notify residents when you upload a new document. Now you’ll have no excuse but to keep unit owners updated on every move.
Make sure your state allows for the electronic transfer of large documents because it’s not legal in every state.
People generally don’t like to actively seek out information so you need to make it easy for them. Otherwise, no-one is going to go out of their way to read the rules unless they’re made visible. Going digital will not only help you to cut costs while captivating people’s attention, but it also simplifies the communication process. Using property management software forums means that you don’t have to rely on residents to open an email, or log in to a website.
But, it’s important to modulate the information you make available to residents online. Intelligently designed communication strategies speak volumes and will help you manage and reduce conflict.
Like most condo associations, your condo declaration stipulates how often your board should meet. It’s important to include residents in HOA meetings to promote transparency and honesty. The minimum requirement in most state regulations is for the HOA board to meet annually to plan the yearly budget. But, it helps to hold regular meetings in-between to keep residents in the loop about important issues.
If you want to find out how often your condo board should meet, check the association’s bylaws for detailed information. Most bylaws have a minimum meeting frequency of five to six times a year. It’s important to note that this is merely a suggestion, and the board can choose to meet more or fewer times than that, based on the needs of the community.
Granted, things like weather conditions can contribute to the frequency of board meetings. Associations that in areas with extreme winters may hold regular meetings to deal with issues like snow removal or lawn maintenance. Some associations need to hold frequent meetings to deal with tenant disputes and other kinds of drama. Larger condo associations with 30, 50 or more units may also meet frequently due to unique circumstances.
The important thing is to address problems as they arise and do so publicly. Don’t allow things to fester as this may lead to detached involvement from homeowners. For instance, if an HOA board holds six meetings in a year, then homeowners should be present for at least half of those meetings.
Every association should have a website and social media presence. This makes it easier to raise awareness about the latest association news, meeting minutes, etc.
Plus, you can control the amount of information included on the website and who has access to it.
Most associations use social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn as well as association blogs as a way to keep community members in the loop about important news and happenings. Through private groups within these platforms, you can safely and effectively share meeting minutes, community alerts, invitations, and announcements.
The only downside to using public social networks is that you don’t have control over the platform itself. Facebook or LinkedIn’s community and privacy rules can change at any moment. This can affect the way you communicate with association members and compromise privacy. After all, social media doesn’t offer the level of confidentiality required when sharing certain information.
Since these platforms aren’t designed with condo associations in mind, they may not have certain functions you’d find in dedicated property management software.
Social media also comes with issues like out of control comments that cause misunderstandings and communication barriers. For instance, it’s easy for comments posted by board members to be misconstrued as a representation of the board itself, when it’s only the perspective of a single board member. Situations like this can create a hostile environment and lead to unnecessary strife.
This is just one example of how Facebook can instigate controversy trough miscommunication. It’s difficult to moderate comments and conversations that happen on the platform, hence the fighting that often happens on Facebook and other social media websites.
It’s better to communicate with homeowners using an internal platform. That way, you can moderate the conversation and address questions in an orderly fashion. An open forum is a great way to do th
is, along with Control Central’s dedicated announcement feature.
The website builder feature from Condo Control Central is ideal because it allows you to create a customized platform for your community. Here, you can safely share important and mundane information alike. This includes things like your pest control schedule to your recreational event calendar, board meeting schedule, planned improvements and parking requirements to name but a few.
It’s the best way to ensure confidentiality and privacy when communicating with unit owners electronically. It also encourages ongoing interaction between unit owners and can foster a strong sense of community.
Are you having trouble with disinterested unit owners? Then you should point out a few reasons why they should take an interest in association affairs. Most absentee unit owners are that way because they don’t live in their units and simply rent them out as an investment property.
In such cases, it helps to incentivize meeting attendance with something like a free gift card or a percentage off from their assessments. At the end of the day, these types of owners are interested in the financial value of the property. So, they will take part in association meetings and affairs if it means maximizing their bottom line or investment.
We can’t stress this enough. Transparency is paramount in a condo association because you don’t want unit owners to ever feel alienated or unheard. Transparency is the easiest way to avoid disgruntled unit owners while making sure that you’re sharing all the right information with them.
For the best results, we recommend you consult with state regulations to see what the requirements are. Most states call for regular association board meetings that involve unit owners in every major decision.
The last thing unit owners want is to find out about an important decision via email or text notification. Especially if it affects the value of the property or their quality of life, which it probably will. Everything should be discussed in an open board meeting, and the board should give unit owners due notice before each meeting.
Unfortunately, association boards have been coming up with new ways to exclude board members, much to their detriment. One popular approach is to hold “working sessions” which are board meetings meant to exclude homeowners. The argument commonly used by board members is that they don’t want any interruptions from unit owners.
Even if the board is not planning to make motions during the meeting, community members must be informed of the meeting so they can attend if they want to.
This is the basis of transparency and the first step to building trust and open communication with your community.
Lack of communication is one of the biggest challenges HOAs and condo associations face today. This usually happens because the board fails to share decisions made on the backend. But, it’s important to share as much as possible with homeowners, keeping in mind that that the more transparent you are the more they will trust you.
It might be helpful to distribute regular newsletters either on a monthly or quarterly basis to keep community members in the loop about important issues. Even when an HOA board is experiencing problems with unauthorized renters, it’s important to share these issues so community members know what the board is dealing with.
Don’t forget to distribute the meeting minutes as soon as possible. This could be anything from a few days to a few weeks from the meeting depending on how fast the board approves them. Meeting minutes are a form of communication too and can help to shift perceptions about board transparency.
HOA boards should go beyond legal requirements when it comes to transparency and make financial records available to unit owners. That’s because financial transactions are often a leading cause of suspicion in condo associations and HOAs.
We recommend a yearly audit to improve transparency and the budget mail-out feature from Control Central is a lifesaver. It offers customized mail-out templates that you can use to digitally and automatically mail-out condo fees to residents.
Accounting and tax services are about more than just numbers on a page. Unlike other accounting firms, when you call us you will get a live human being not voicemail and unlike other accounting firms we will work with you on your business helping you to grow profits and cut taxes. Unlike other accounting firms we will tell you before we begin work exactly what it will cost for our help.
Our tax accounting professionals will be happy to assist you with; tax planning, tax preparation and tax representation.
Our tax accountants are EA’s (Enrolled to practice before the IRS). They know the tax laws and will make sure you don’t pay one penny more than you have to. Visit us for a free consultation with a tax accountant, who will review your tax situation, with you to determine the best course of action. The tax accountant will provide you with a free fee quotation.
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At a time when it would make sense for the condo and HOA laws to become easier to learn, they are becoming harder. Much has to do with why in the world are there such differences between the condo and HOA statutes? It’s actually ridiculous. For example:
There are more, but you get the point. There are no reasons of which I’m aware as to why these statutes are different for condos and HOAs, yet they continue to exist. At a time when it’s confusing enough to learn the laws, The Florida Legislature should amend the statutes so that the laws are the same and fair across the Board, regardless of whether you live in a condo or HOA.
Tags: Condo and HOA
The Risks of Not Purchasing Insurance For Your Condominium Unit
Do you think you do not need condominium insurance because your condominium association has it? You would be so very wrong if you do! It has happened more times than I can count—the supply line that feeds the toilet ruptures in the upstairs unit while the owner of the unit is out of town, the upstairs unit owner forgot that he or she started to fill the tub and it overflows, or the upstairs unit owner ignores a broken toilet, all of which result in water flowing down into the unit below. Next thing you know, the remediation workers arrive and start ripping out the soaked, damaged drywall in the units below and after cutting holes in the drywall use their industrial-sized blowers to dry things out to prevent mold.
Meanwhile, the downstairs unit owners want to have a “word” with the upstairs unit owner to discuss who is going to pay for the repairs. They demand a copy of the upstairs unit owner’s insurance policy. The owner of the upstairs unit where the leak occurred smiles and explains, “The condominium association has insurance. They’ll take care of it.” Right? Wrong! Even if the condominium association has the duty of repair to portions of the damaged property, typically the damaged common elements, the upstairs unit owner is not off the hook because both the condominium association and its insurance company can often “subrogate” their financial damages against the upstairs unit owner and so, too, can the downstairs unit owners and their insurance companies. At the end of the day, the upstairs owner who caused the damages could have significant financial liability. (In plain English, to “subrogate” a claim means that one party goes after the other for their financial damages for having caused the damage in the first place.)
So, now that I have your attention, most especially if you are a unit owner who does not have insurance for your unit—in the example described above, not only can the upstairs unit owner bear significant financial liability, but even their condominium unit is at risk of being foreclosed to satisfy a judgment against them—and there is no homestead protection! Because the upstairs unit owner decided not to purchase insurance, he could actually lose his unit in a foreclosure. The following explanation is why:
By way of oversimplification, the Condominium Act, more specifically, §718.111(11)(f), Florida Statutes, requires the condominium association to insure everything that the unit owner is not responsible to insure. The unit owner is responsible to insure
all personal property within the unit or limited common elements, and floor, wall, and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, water filters, built-in cabinets and countertops, and window treatments, including curtains, drapes, blinds, hardware, and similar window treatment components, or replacements of any of the foregoing which are located within the boundaries of the unit and serve only such unit… the association is not obligated to pay for any reconstruction or repair expenses due to property loss to any improvements installed by a current or former owner of the unit or by the developer if the improvement benefits only the unit for which it was installed and is not part of the standard improvements installed by the developer on all units as part of original construction, whether or not such improvement is located within the unit.
But, however, the unit owner’s insurance policy, typically referred to as an “HO-6 policy,” not only includes coverage for the items set forth above plus other personal items, but also includes liability coverage for having caused damages to the condominium property.
§718.111(11)(j)1–2, Florida Statutes, makes patently clear that
A unit owner is responsible for the costs of repair or replacement of any portion of the condominium property not paid by insurance proceeds if such damage is caused by intentional conduct, negligence, or failure to comply with the terms of the declaration or the rules of the association by a unit owner, the members of his or her family, unit occupants, tenants, guests, or invitees, without compromise of the subrogation rights of the insurer.
The provisions… regarding the financial responsibility of a unit owner for the costs of repairing or replacing other portions of the condominium property also apply to the costs of repair or replacement of personal property of other unit owners or the association, as well as other property, whether real or personal, which the unit owners are required to insure. (emphasis added.)
Furthermore, also pursuant to §718.111(11)(g)2, Florida Statutes
unit owners are responsible for the cost of reconstruction of any portions of the condominium property for which the unit owner is required to carry property insurance [set out above], or for which the unit owner is responsible, and the cost of any such reconstruction work undertaken by the association is chargeable to the unit owner and enforceable as an assessment and may be collected in the manner provided for the collection of assessments pursuant to § 718.116, Fla. Stat. (emphasis added.)
§718.116, Florida Statutes, is the unit fore-closure section of the Condominium Act which explains the steps necessary to foreclose against an owner’s unit for failing to pay assessments.
In condominium living, the general rule is that the party who has the duty of purchasing insurance for a particular portion of the condominium property also has the primary duty to repair the damages to such portion regardless of fault (unless the condominium association has opted out of that regime by a vote of the unit owners, which is a rarity). But, simply because the condominium association has insurance and may have that primary duty of repair after the insurable casualty event, that does not mean that the negligent unit owner that caused the damage will not be the primary target for reimbursement for expenses incurred by the condominium association’s insurance company or by the condominium association for its deductible and related expenses. The same concept applies for the downstairs unit owners, who could seek reimbursement from the upstairs unit owner for any necessary expense incurred because the upstairs unit owner was negligent.
There are typically two parts to the HO-6 insurance policy, the primary coverage for personal losses and the other for liability coverage. Condominium associations should consider amending their declaration to require every unit owner to have both personal and liability coverage, and at a minimum, liability coverage. Your condominium association should discuss this requirement with the condominium association’s insurance agent as well as review the possibility of amending the declaration of condominium with legal counsel.
Anytime a condominium association experiences a casualty event, in addition to reporting the claim to the insurance carrier, usually through the condominium association’s insurance agent, the condominium association should be in touch with its legal counsel to explore all the different aspects necessary to both repair and reimburse the condominium association for its financial losses. At the end of the day, owning a condominium unit and not having purchased insurance is similar to taking a rowboat out on a rough sea day without life preservers.
Kaye Bender Rembaum, Attorneys at Law |
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The law firm of Kaye Bender Rembaum, with its 20 lawyers and offices in Broward, Palm Beach and Hillsborough Counties, is a full service law firm devoted to the representation of more than 1,200 community and commercial associations, developers, and their members throughout the State of Florida. Under the direction of attorneys Robert L. Kaye, Michael S. Bender and Jeffrey A. Rembaum, the law firm of Kaye Bender Rembaum strives to provide its clients with an unparalleled level of personalized and professional service that takes into account their clients’ individual needs and financial concerns. |
SFPMA works throughout the State of Florida, we are a multi-member organization for the Condo, HOA and Property Management industry. Through knowledge based Articles, Events and our Members Directory, Clients find the right information to make an informed decisions for their Florida properties.
