YOUR LEGISLATIVE WISH LIST

The Florida Legislature will convene in March, so the next two months will be chaotic. Lobbyists will be walking the floors of The Capital wanting to meet privately with Legislators to explain why their proposed bill is so important and that the legislators must have a chance to vote on it. Some proposed bills will get voted upon. Others may be filed, never get a hearing before any committee and just die out.

As you know, while I contributed to legislative drafting in the past, I still have not been able to have passed what I hope will be my legacy: mandatory education for both condominium and HOA board of directors.

This year was perhaps the most important year ever in terms of new condominium laws, in light of the tragedy in Surfside. Mandatory reserves were passed, mandatory inspections were passed, directors could now be personally liable for failing to follow these new laws, and the one portion of the bill that was removed was the requirement for board members to take an educational course in order to get certified.

How are the directors going to learn these new laws? Instead, we have the same stupid situation where you can get certified simply swearing that you read your own governing documents. The new laws are not contained in your governing documents! So………….you can be personally liable for breaching laws that you are not required to learn! The easy fix is to require mandatory education for all Board members.

I drafted the proposed legislation and I have my fingers crossed. Let’s see what happens and if the proposed legislation doesn’t make it, I hope the Legislator or Legislators who wanted it to die, admit it and take credit for doing so.

So………………. What new changes to the law would you like to see this year?