NEW LAWS – WILL THEY AGAIN BE IGNORED BY MANY BOARDS?

NEW LAWS – WILL THEY AGAIN BE IGNORED BY MANY BOARDS?

By Jan Bergemann

Year for year we see new community association bills passed, claiming to close more loopholes in laws that have more holes than Swiss cheese. In reality most of these laws are being ignored – or circumvented – because the folks violating these laws are even told by certain attorneys that nothing will happen if they ignore existing laws.

Just take a look at what happened with their ordinances requiring older buildings to have 40-year inspections? Not much, because it seems that nobody ever followed up trying to really enforce these ordinances. After the collapse of the Champlain Towers South people looked into these ordinances – and guess what? In Miami for example, two hi-rise condos were due for the 50-year inspection, but hadn’t even done the 40-year inspection. There were lots of similar examples that many associations plainly ignored these requirements in a timely fashion. That definitely raises the question: Will the enforcement be better now that it is state law?

Many condo-owners plainly refused to vote in favor of fully funded reserves. Did the legislators even ask why before passing a bill that will require fully funded reserves? Definitely not, because otherwise they would have found out that owners didn’t want to fund the reserves for one simple reason: Boards used these reserve funds for all kinds of projects other than intended, and when time came to — for example – have a new roof installed, the roof reserves were empty and a special assessment had to be levied. But what’s the big deal? Instead of a new roof they had nice palm trees when entering the community property.

A bill was offered in the last legislative session that would have taken care of the problem: HB 811 – Condominium Association Complaints and Investigations – filed by Representative Tom Fabricio (R-Miami). But like most of the other bills in the past years that would have created enforcement of all these laws the legislature is enacting on a yearly basis it was clearly ignored.

When will all our elected officials — from county to federal – finally get the message that creating laws without enforcement is just a waste of paper that makes attorneys rich!