If you live in Florida, there's a good chance you're one of the 9 million people who live in a community association. In the first episode of CAM Matters, Betsy Barbieux shares how these associations became so prevalent in the state and explains the difference between condominium, cooperative, and homeowner associations.

TRANSCRIPT

Announcer - Welcome to "CAM Matters." Condos, Co-Ops, HOAs, and Beyond. Betsy Barbieux is an information leader in Florida on community association living, rights, and obligations. She is an expert on the rights and obligations of owners, as well as the association. If you live or are planning to live in the state of Florida, there's a good chance you'll be part of a community association. And by the end of this show, you'll know a little bit more about community associations and why they matter.

Suzanne - Hi, I'm Suzanne Lynn. This is Betsy Barbieux, and we're so excited about the series that's coming up on "CAM Matters." And I got your name right. I'm so happy.

Betsy - You did. You did. We practiced a lot.

Suzanne - You've got an x in there, so it kinda made me nervous, 'cause I failed French. I'm like, "I can't do this," but it's Barbieux.

Suzanne - Barbieux. Right.

Betsy - You did, you did good, yay!

Suzanne - Well, Betsy, this is really important because, living in Florida, there's a lot of community associations, and we wanna start with the very basics today.

Betsy - That'll be fine.

Suzanne - Basically, how did we even get here, with all these association livings?

Betsy - Well, do you want me to go back to the 1960s?

Suzanne - Go back, the 60s were a good... that was a good decade.

Betsy - I'm gonna go way, way back to the 1960s and give you a little history lesson. In Central Florida, which is where I'm from, here in central Florida, we did not have a thing called a developer. In those days, we had builders. And our little neighborhoods, the one I lived in had a name, didn't have a sign, didn't have a gate, but it had a name. It had streets, sidewalks, and streetlights. I have no idea how they got there, but they did. When you drove down the street, you could tell that the houses were each built by a different builder. We had the Sam Powell Construction Company. We had the Clell Coleman Construction Company that had built houses on the street, and then further down the street, you could tell that the owner built their own house. There was no uniformity in construction. There were no roof-pitch uniformities, exteriors.

Suzanne - No rhyme or reason.

Betsy - No rhyme or reason.

Suzanne - Right.

Betsy - We had a swimming pool in our yard. It was not the community swimming pool, but it was the community swimming pool.

Suzanne - Right, right, yeah, I know how that works, yeah.

Betsy - Across the street, they had the jungle gym and the swing set. It wasn't the community one, but it was.

Suzanne - It was, yeah.

Betsy - At some point, the streets and sidewalks and streetlights needed to be fixed, so our parents are knocking on the doors of the city council and the county commissioners, sayin', "Somebody fix our streets and sidewalks." And the cities and the counties are kinda scratchin' their heads, and they're kinda sayin', "Well..."

Suzanne - Like who's responsible.

Betsy - If we do, who fixes it?

Suzanne - Everybody who pays...

Betsy - Who pays for it? That's the big thing. Does the city pay for it? County pay for it? Do we assess the owners? We have the dilemma starting to happen in the 60s in Central Florida. But we're gonna put a pause on that.

Suzanne - Okay.

Betsy - And we're gonna go to South Florida in the 1960s, and there was this thing born called the developer. And, by golly, he bought a city block, built an apartment building on it, filled it full of renters, and then said, "Ick. "I do not wanna be in the landlord business." And he says, "You know what I'm gonna do? "I'm gonna turn this thing into condos and sell 'em." Now, think about that , 'cause for about 6,000 years, everybody has always owned dirt. Now, he is selling stacked air. Think about all of the things that had to be changed and created and regulations and laws. Think about mortgage companies. They had to create new products because somebody's coming to them saying, "I need a mortgage on air." And the the banks are goin', "But we mortgage dirt."

Suzanne - Right, what a huge change

Betsy - You want a mortgage...

Suzanne - of thinking, yeah.

Betsy - "You want a mortgage on air?" Think about the insurance industry: "You want renter's insurance?" "Nope, I own the air."

Suzanne - Right .

Betsy - I own the air in my condo. The dilemmas then that happened from that must have been horrible because, when you look at the legislation then that has been pushed forward through literally the decades, there must have been a lot of things that went wrong. And those things that went wrong mostly had to do with money and mostly had to do with power and control. The folks in South Florida had money. We didn't have any money in Central Florida. We just had cattle and oranges and watermelons.

Suzanne - Right.

Betsy - But in South Florida, they had money.

Suzanne - They doesn't buy you a lot of air.

Betsy - But they hired attorneys who hired lobbyists who began then to promulgate the laws so that, through the decades, the legislation has come to this point where it says, "Okay, Mr. Developer, "you cannot do this anymore. "Build this building, fill it full of people, "or start one from scratch, "and, oh by the way, you homeowners in Central Florida, "we're gonna catch you in this legislation eventually. "We're gonna fold you into this eventually. "But you can't do this anymore until you first create "a Florida corporation and tell us "what kind of corporation is it going to be. "Is it gonna be a condominium corporation, "cooperative corporation, or "a homeowner association corporation?" In Florida, you cannot have a Florida corporation... and I'm gonna say nationwide and probably in the rest of the civilized world. You can't have a corporation without a board of directors. So this corporation has an initial board of directors, but think about it. There isn't anybody. We don't have anybody but the developer, but the developer has to name somebody to be the initial board of directors. So he likely is going to name someone on his staff, probably himself, his wife, his CEO, his CFO. He's gotta start somewhere.

Suzanne - Well, he's got a lot of interest in this.

Betsy - Yes, and he's gotta start somewhere. So that board... and when you move into one of the communities, you'll see the phrase developer-controlled board or developer-appointed board, and I think either of those phrases make sense. And that board then is responsible for three things. And, in these corporate papers, it'll state this. The board, the association is responsible for maintaining the property. Yeah, mm-hmm. For protecting the property and the value, maintaining the things that are used in common, and enforcing the restrictions in the governing documents. Those are the three things that community associations are for.

Suzanne - Okay, say them again. Maintaining...

Betsy - Protecting the property and its value, maintaining the things that are used in common, and enforcing the restrictions. And the restrictions are all on owners' use rights of what they can do with their property. That's the purpose of a community association. It's not to bow to the wishes of the people. It is to do those three things.

Suzanne - They're not king, queen...

Betsy - No.

- and court .

Betsy - And this board of directors is not really a representative form of government. They don't serve a constituency. They serve the documents. The serve...

Betsy - They work for the corporation, and the sole purpose of the corporation is protect the property, maintain the things that are used in common, and enforce the restrictions.

Suzanne - So when we say, "CAM Matters," what does CAM, C-A-M, what does that mean, and what's it stand for? CAM means community association manager.

Betsy - And because boards volunteer for their roles, 'cause, eventually, the developer people get off the board and you

Suzanne - Move into...

Betsy - be on the board. And, eventually, then those owners would prefer to enjoy their lifestyle. They wanna play golf. They wanna do their activities. Lotta communities are retirement communities. So they hire professional management. Because the board is handing off to managers their fiduciary responsibility for protecting the value, maintaining, and enforcing, then we have to have a state license. So CAM, community association manager, means that we have a CAM license. We are licensed by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. We have to have a set of standards that we follow. We have standards of professional conduct. We have rules of professional conduct, for which violations of, we can be penalized. We have to take continuing ed every two years and have lot of responsibility for managing the whole corporate structure of the community. So we're handlin' all of the legal obligations, the financial obligations, and the corporate obligations.

Suzanne - What does someone need to know about living in a community association?

Betsy - Ooo.

Suzanne - I know, just kind of, this is the first episode of all that we're gonna do.

Betsy - Okay.

Suzanne - But just kind of a 40,000 foot view.

Betsy - Let me just preface that by lookin' here at a couple of things. Approximately 9,000,600 people live in community associations in Florida.

Suzanne - Just in Florida?

Betsy - Right now. Right now.

Suzanne - Oh my gosh, okay.

Betsy - And there are approximately 3,600,000 homes in 47,000 community associations. So it is likely that, if you move to Florida, you are going to live in one of these community associations. What . Excuse me. What you need to know is sometimes, this kind of community living is not for you. But for a lot of people, it is because it's kind of a trade-off. You're going to...

Suzanne - What do you mean by that?

Betsy - You're gonna move into a community that you have chosen because it provides a lifestyle. You either like the style of the home. You like the fact that it's gated, which does not mean it's secure. It just means limited access.

Suzanne - Lawn maintenance.

Betsy - Lawn maintenance could be taken care of. Exterior maintenance could be taken care of. You might have a pool, tennis court, shuffleboard court, clubhouse that you can use anytime you want to. And you don't have to do anything to maintain it. You pay someone else to maintain it. But you have those privileges in exchange for giving up some of your home ownership rights.

Suzanne - I know of one because we live in a community association. For example, painting the house. You have to have that approved.

Betsy - Yes. We have, usually in homeowner associations, a committee called the architectural review committee. And if you wanna paint your house or put up a fence or install a pool, or remove...

Suzanne - We wanted to paint fuchsia, and they said no. No, I'm just kidding.

Betsy - Ah, yes, they would say no.

Suzanne - Yeah, but generally, it's like a very neutral...

Betsy - Yes.

Suzanne - And the rules, they can be what you might consider kinda strict.

Betsy - Well, they are strict. And you cannot just paint your house any color that you wish. And if you live in a condominium association, the exterior doesn't even belong to you, so it's gonna be painted whatever the board of directors decides that it's painted.

Suzanne - What are some other rules that associations...

Betsy - The rules will differ slightly between a condominium association and a homeowner association because, in a homeowner association, you do own the dirt that your home is on, which means you are responsible, in most cases, for the outside of your home. But you may not be able to plant any vegetation that you want. You may not be able to paint anything that you want. You may have a restriction on... the backing of the curtains that face the street. You may have a restriction of what that looks like. You may not be able to put any foil on your windows. Might not be able to stick an antenna in your roof if you don't want cable. So there could be restrictions on what is done to the exterior even though... In a homeowners association, it is yours. In a condo association, the exterior of the building is not yours. It belongs to all owners collectively, which is an interesting concept. It's a brain cramp to kind of figure that out. But in community associations that are condominiums, very often, you can't hang a wreath on your door. You might be restricted.

Suzanne - Really? Wow.

Betsy - You might be restricted as to the placement... you are allowed to fly a flag, but you could be restricted on where it's placed. And you can only fly one American flag 365 days of the year and on five days of the year, you can fly a second flag representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard.

Suzanne - Wow. So when you talk about, "It's a trade-off," as you're comin' over the Florida line, and you're coming from, well, in our case, South Dakota, where there were no restrictions.

Betsy - You're out on the back 40.

Suzanne - Right.

Betsy - And you're not now.

Suzanne - But, I mean, honestly for us, it's right to live in a community association, but you need to look at the rules before you buy.

- Yes.

Suzanne - Right?

Betsy - And the rules and regulations are public. So you can know all of those before you buy. In fact, you can know all of those before you go shopping on that piece of property. All of the restrictions are of public record. All you would have to do is go to the courthouse, look at the public records for that community. If you don't like the restrictions that you are reading, don't go shoppin' there.

Suzanne - Right, right. They're not gonna change for you.

Suzanne - They're not gonna change.

Betsy - And then, on a final note, know also if you live in a community association, that if you're walking the dog around the block, you may be asked to be on the board. So be prepared for that, too.

Betsy - And you have to take care of the waste of your pet.

Suzanne - Right, and they're serious about that.

Betsy - Yes, they're very serious about that, and there are some communities that require photos and DNA samples of your...

Suzanne - I've heard that.

Betsy - pet, so that they can correctly identify the leftovers.

Suzanne - But you know, this...

Betsy - I couldn't let that go.

Betsy - I don't know how to put that more delicately.

Suzanne - You know, the whole point, though, is to make it a nicer, more beautiful, safer place to live, right?

Betsy - It is absolutely right. It is not meant to antagonize you or make you mad on purpose. It's to maintain the uniformity. And the home values in community associations are said to be five to six percent higher than non-deed restricting communities. So the uniformity, the more pristine look because you don't drive down the street and see cars up on blocks with their oil bein' changed in the driveway or abandoned vehicles. We don't see a whole lot of trash cans left out for the whole week. We don't usually see the basketball hoops and the plastic swing sets and things in the yards.

Suzanne - Clotheslines.

Betsy - Clotheslines, don't usually see those. So those all make the community look much more attractive. So it is a trade-off. Consider wisely whether this kind of living is for you. It is for about 9,600,000 people. It is for them. But it may not be for you.

Suzanne - Yeah. Well, thank you. I'm lookin' forward to the rest of our series. We've got a lot to cover.

Betsy - Yes, we do.

Suzanne - On "CAM Matters."

Betsy - Yes, we do.

Suzanne - Thank you, Betsy.

Betsy - Thank you.

Announcer - Thank you for listening to "CAM Matters." Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. For more information, feel free to e-mail Betsy at [email protected] or visit the Florida CAM Schools website at www.floridacamschools.com. Information provided on this show is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Please contact a licensed attorney for your specific situation.