Community Associations Institute will have its monthly Pensacola area luncheon at the Oyster Bar on Perdido Key (June 20 at noon).  All community association managers and board members are encouraged to attend and get involved with the chapter. Please make your reservation by contacting Emily Jennings, North Gulf Coast Chapter of CAI, at northgulfcoastchapterofcai@gmail.com or 850-797-3472. Hope to see you there!

All Florida community associations need a disaster plan.  With hurricane season soon approaching, now is the time to develop or update your association’s disaster plan.  Consult the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes’ excellent publication entitled “Preparing For A Disaster“ for useful information in developing or updating your association’s disaster plan.

CAI’s Florida Legislative Alliance reached out to Florida legislators to declare opposition to SB 580 (HB 7119) which will be raised for consideration on Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 2:30 pm. This objection is based on proposed Sections 468.436(2)7 and 720.303(13) which, if adopted, will require HOAs to submit mandatory annual reports and will further unfairly impose unreasonable and burdensome penalties against Licensed Community Association Managers (“LCAMS”) if the reports are not filed, even if they have no way to control that obligation.

Unlike condominiums, HOAs are not statutorily grounded; therefore there is no valid legislative purpose in obligating HOAs to disclose the information which is required by these proposed amendments (e.g. FEIN number, the mailing and physical address, the number of parcels, and the total amount of revenues and expenses from the annual budget of the association). Ironically, while there is no state benefit, this reporting obligation opens all of the mandated data to anyone who wishes to review the same, not to just the impacted HOA members. This burdensome regulation will strangle community association operations and management.

Based on these findings within the proposed legislation, CAI’s Florida Legislative Alliance strongly opposes these bills and is working to prevent them from being passed out of committee as drafted.

Please support the opposition by contacting the members of the Senate Rules Committee asking them to oppose SB 580 as it is unreasonable and burdensome on community associations and their licensed community association managers.

Please cut and paste the email below and send it to the following Senators of the Rules Committee. Note: email addresses are written as (LastName.FirstName.web@flsenate.gov)

benacquisto.lizbeth.web@flsenate.gov

portilla.miguel.web@flsenate.gov

galvano.bill.web@flsenate.gov

gardiner.andy.web@flsenate.gov

hays.alan.web@flsenate.gov

latvala.jack.web@flsenate.gov

lee.tom.web@flsenate.gov

margolis.gwen.web@flsenate.gov

montford.bill.web@flsenate.gov

negron.joe.web@flsenate.gov

richter.garrett.web@flsenate.gov

ring.jeremy.web@flsenate.gov

simmons.david.web@flsenate.gov

smith.chris.web@flsenate.gov

sobel.eleanor.web@flsenate.gov

thrasher.john.web@flsenate.gov

Dear Senator:

I am writing to ask you to oppose SB 580. I object to this legislation primarily because of Sections 468.436(2)7 and 720.303(13) which, if adopted, will require homeowner associations ( HOAs) to submit mandatory annual reports and will further unfairly impose unreasonable and burdensome penalties against Licensed Community Association Managers (“LCAMS”) if the reports are not filed, even if they have no way to control that obligation.

Unlike condominiums, HOAs are not statutorily grounded; therefore there is no valid legislative purpose in obligating HOAs to disclose the information which is required by these proposed amendments (e.g. FEIN number, the mailing and physical address, the number of parcels, and the total amount of revenues and expenses from the annual budget of the association). Ironically, while there is no state benefit, this reporting obligation opens all of the mandated data to anyone who wishes to review the same, not to just the impacted HOA members.

This burdensome regulation will strangle community association operations and management. Please oppose SB 580.

Sincerely,

Community Associations Institute (CAI) | 6402 Arlington Blvd., Ste 500, Falls Church, VA 22042 | www.caionline.org | 888.224.4321

A Florida appeals court held that a condominium developer did not improperly transfer parking and storage spaces to itself prior to turning over control of the association to unit owners, thereby preventing those limited common elements from becoming the association’s property.  Read a complete summary of this and other important cases at CAI’s Community Association Law Reporter site.

A Florida appeals court reversed a ruling that had originally found that damage to a clubhouse owned and maintained by a homeowners association was not covered under its “all-risk” policy with the insurer.  Click here and then scroll down to review CAI’s summary of Kings Ridge Community Association, Inc. v. Sagamore Insurance Company, No. 5D11-1051, Fla. App. Ct., July 6, 2012 and other recent cases of importance to community associations.