The Florida Condominium Act says that “any unit owner or other eligible person” may be a candidate for the board of directors. An individual is not eligible for board membership if the person has been suspended or removed from the board by the State, is delinquent in the payment of monetary obligations to the condo, or has been convicted of a felony, unless his civil rights have been restored for at least five years as of the date such person seeks election to the board.

Collections for condos and HOAs require you to consider this, The Fair Debt Collection industry has established an objective test based on “the least sophisticated consumer”.  The purpose of this is to protect consumers. Some are Harvard Graduates and others are less educated and there are always the very clever.

In my many travels in condo world I have seen some pretty poor practices by boards of directors and management companies but the prize for the most egregious acts I have ever seen has to go to a nice luxury building in Aventura, Florida of which I am very familiar with.

A condo that will remain anonymous has a unique problem that may not at first glance seem like a dilemma but let me assure it is. They have over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the bank. The bad news is that money is in an escrow account from renters in case their tenancy results in damages or fines. That’s a one thousand dollar deposit for each and every renter. It is interesting to note that the building only has three hundred units and let’s say it has 70% renters (210 apartments) as occupants. That means there is at least one hundred and forty thousand dollars that should have been refunded to the renters (minus damages) but never were, and are sitting in the association’s bank account.