{"id":2664,"date":"2021-07-02T13:34:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T17:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2021-07-02T14:15:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T18:15:21","slug":"the-reality-of-another-day-in-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/the-reality-of-another-day-in-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reality of another day in Paradise\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My opinion based on Florida condo ownership for over 50 years\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"entrance
entrance to My Condo PLAZA TOWER SOUTH<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many of us enjoy the lure of the beach; some of us live in the north and rush away fall and winter and can\u2019t wait for spring and summer. In the late 1960\u2019s many northerners addressed the lure of summer sun by investing in vacation homes in south Florida. It wasn\u2019t long till the south Florida\u2019s gold coast became a focus not only for sun worshiping middle aged, over 55 relatively comfortable northerners but profit seeking developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a magic act; land deals evolved, easy ways of all types became available to those who sought it out and a new phenomena the condominium became the expressway for developers, \u00a0grandma\u2019s and grandpa\u2019s to get their very different piece of \u201cParadise\u201d. It wasn\u2019t long before Paradise turned into \u201cThe wild West\u201d and the state of Florida in the 1980\u201ds established \u201cstatute 718\u201d the condominium act. This along with the Florida Department of Business development; have been at the forefront of condominiums and their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lets step back a little and focus on Condominium Basics\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the developer side they:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1-fund it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2-build it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3-fill it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4-create estimates of operation and rules and regulations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4-create owner board<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5-turn it over to unit owners board management<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Owner side they:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1-buy units(individually or multiples)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2-agree to share all expenses for common areas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3-accept maintenance fees <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4-accept rules and regulations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5-on full occupancy owners vote to approve their board<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6-Units as well as Common Areas become owner\u2019s responsibility under newly established BOD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a very basic description, however the reality in my experience is most owners look at the benefits and ignore the truly important responsibility of co-ownership. With all the development left to builders, developers and management left to unit owner boards; a huge void has grown in Florida privately owned condominiums. This void can become a problem especially when the buildings have accepted the responsibility of self management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask yourself these questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1-should I give an inexperienced person the right to overlook the care and maintenance of my co-owned low rise, mid rise, or high rise building?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2-should I allow those same people to manage a multi-million dollar budget?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3-should I allow those same people to make decisions on what safety measures need to be taken?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4- should I allow those same people to make decisions who moves in or out of the building?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5- should I allow those same people to make decisions on current or existing structural needs ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6-are the board members interested in the owners or their own agendas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7-are the board members knowledgeable enough to recognize their need for professional help?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8- can board members be honest in their evaluations ignoring friends needs or financial situations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9-can board members project realistic financial planning based on required structural needs not their own popularity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you own a Florida condominium and have negative feelings about any of these questions; you should be very careful of who you elect to your board of directors, and probably should question the quality of your buildings self management or lack there of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"PTS\/PTN
This seawall collapsed and is still being restored<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In closing, I as well as many of our south Florida Condominium owners was shaken by the event that happened at \u201cChamplain Towers South\u201d in Surfside. The loss of life and impact on loved ones will never be completely known. We as a unique group of owners who enjoy singular ownership of our units for our, as well as our family\u2019s enjoyment should be more pro active in our elections, the care and maintenance of our co-owned properties. If we haven’t already asked questions, attended meetings, verified and scrutinized board\u2019s ability to protect our property and the loved ones who enjoy it…it is time now and we should!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are my thoughts and opinions and I welcome any further discussion.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

alan b. meschkow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

past president of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaza Towers South 2009-2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hallandale Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My opinion based on Florida condo ownership for over 50 years\u2026 Many of us enjoy the lure of the beach; some of us live in the north and rush away fall and winter and can\u2019t wait for spring and summer. In the late 1960\u2019s many northerners addressed the lure of summer sun by investing in … Continue reading The Reality of another day in Paradise\u2026<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-2664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-observations-opinions","tag-plaza-towers-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2673,"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions\/2673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abmadcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}