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March 31, 2008
Legislative Idiocy - Continued
Julio Robaino, legislator and main advocate for changing Florida's community association laws, proposed some major legislation, that, if enacted, will probably make being a board member for a Florida condo, co-op or HOA, not worth the effort or risk. Let's take a look at what he's proposed:
- Creates civil and criminal sanctions against any officer, director or association manager that knowingly or intentionally defaces, destroys or fails to create or maintain accounting records
- Prohibits staggered terms for board members (lets not have any experience or historical memory, let's just start over every year.)
- Requires condos to allow storm shutters to be left up year round ( who cares what that they make the building look horrible, we don't want to incovenience those snowbirds who are paying all the property taxes)
- allows the Florida Condo Division to remove board members from office and prohibit some owners from even running for the board (can we get this so that they can remove other elected officials, say legislators)
- Requires the free expression of religion on the condominium premises (without defining what that is - so we can have that goat sacrifice out by the pool - this should lead to some great arguments)
And thats just the start - the language will change from day-to-day. And the advocates who say they're just trying to get some rights for owners, and not to destroy associations, continue on their destructive path.
Colorado and Connecticut are working to allow clotheslines without regard to where they're hung or what they look like - something sure to help with re-sale values in this wonderful market.
I'm sure there will be more.
Posted by joewest at 9:35 AM | TrackBack
March 20, 2008
Legislatures like to impose responsibility while ducking same
Florida, Arizona and Connecticut are all looking at some form of oversight of community associations involving state appointed commissions or something. In Florida, Rep. Julio Robaina, R- Miami, worked hard holding hearings all over the state to make sure everyone who ever got a violation letter or was behind in their assessments got to blast their boards.
As has been the case, they made sure that little mention was made of the fact that the people with issues represented less than a miniscule percentage of of owners, or that problems like embezzlement of association funds, while dastardly, happened in a dozen associations nationally, out of 270,000, or that many of the people testifying before them created their own problem by ignoring the rules that they had agreed to in the first place.
There's an easy way to solve this - first pay the board members $50,000-100,000 for their part-time efforts; then let's give each board member a staff of 4 or 5 people (paid for by the owners) to help them out and ignore it if a few of them happen to be realtives; exempt them from accepting bribes from vendors who get contracts from the association (call it "campaign contributions"); and while you're at it, exempt them from any potential liability that might result from their action or inaction. I mean, if its good enough for the people elected to state legislatures, it ought to be good enough for the people on community association boards, since both are freely elected.
In Arizona, a columnist for the East Valley Tribune has been on a jihad against associations for the past few weeks, looking up everyone claiming that "property rights" or "constitutional rights" are being violated by HOA's. Someone must have told this writer that he couldn't paint his house purple or sent him a violation notice for some weeds. With him, its all too obviously personal, so the subscribers of this paper can expect to read nothing positive about HOA's for the coming future. This is pretty typical in AZ. Make sure everything being built is part of an HOA, then ignore the way the developers build it, then when the owners move in, change all the laws.
It's crazy season, with legislators looking to make their marks before the November elections, so we can expect more of the same. In the end, it will cost all of the owners in community associations a little more to live there; there will be fewer people who want to serve on the board and deal with more bureaucracy, and the professionals, the managers and attorneys whom the ranters love to hate, will be a little bit richer helping deal with the new restrictions, laws and legislators.
Posted by joewest at 10:56 AM | TrackBack
March 5, 2008
Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Justice Release New Guidance on 'Reasonable Modifications' Under the Fair Housing Act
WASHINGTON, March 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New guidance released this week by the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Justice (DOJ) reinforced the right of persons with disabilities to make "reasonable modifications" to their dwellings if a structural change to their dwelling or to a common area of the building or complex in which they live is needed so that they can fully enjoy the premises.
The guidance is designed to help housing providers and homeowners' associations better understand their obligations and help persons with disabilities better understand their rights regarding the "reasonable modifications" provision of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA).
"The right to reasonable modifications is essential to ensuring that persons with disabilities can fully enjoy the homes in which they live," said Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "This guidance will help housing providers understand their obligations under this important component of the Fair Housing Act."
"Persons with disabilities have a right to have the place they call home altered in a way that will enable them to fully enjoy it," said Kim Kendrick, HUD's Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. "This guidance is a major step toward enforcing that right today, and for generations to come."
The FHA prohibits discrimination in housing based on disability, race, color, religion, national origin, sex and familial status. HUD and DOJ share responsibility for enforcing the FHA. HUD is the agency with the primary responsibility to investigate individual complaints of discrimination. The Secretary of HUD, on his own initiative, may file complaints alleging discrimination. In addition, the Attorney General may commence a civil action in federal court when he has reasonable cause to believe that person(s) are engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination or that a group of persons has been denied rights protected by the FHA.
One type of discrimination prohibited by the FHA is the refusal by housing providers or homeowner associations to permit a reasonable modification - i.e., a structural alteration - of existing premises, occupied or to be occupied by a person with a disability, when the modification may be necessary to afford the person full enjoyment of the premises. Although the housing provider or homeowner association must permit the modification, the tenant (or prospective tenant) is responsible for paying the cost of the modification. Examples of reasonable modifications include widening doorways to make rooms more accessible to persons who use wheelchairs or installing a ramp to provide access to a public or common use area, such as a clubhouse.
The new guidelines, issued in the form of questions and answers, cover such topics as:
-- What is a reasonable modification?
-- Who must comply with the reasonable modification requirement?
-- Who is responsible for expenses associated with the upkeep or maintenance of a reasonable modification?
-- When and how should an individual request permission to make a modification?
-- What types of documents and assurances may a housing provider require regarding the modification before granting the modification?
-- What procedures are available to a person wishing to challenge a denial of a requested modification?
The guidelines are available online at both http://www.usdoj.gov/fairhousing and http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/disabilities.
Since January 2001, HUD and its Fair Housing Assistance Program partners have investigated and either conciliated or charged nearly 10,000 cases that alleged discrimination based on disability. Since Jan.1, 2001, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has filed 244 cases to enforce the Fair Housing Act, 115 of which have alleged discrimination based on disability. More information about HUD and the civil rights laws it enforces is available at http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/aboutfheo/aboutfheo.cfm. More information about the DOJ Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt.
Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of housing discrimination should contact HUD at 1-800-669-9777. In addition, individuals may contact DOJ at 1-800-896-7743, or they may email DOJ at fairhousing@usdoj.gov.