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Status of Community Association Bill HB 653

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As of this writing, we are still waiting for the two main community association bills, HB 653 and HB 1237, to be sent to Governor Rick Scott. Once a bill is sent to him, he will have fifteen (15) days to act. He can either sign the bill into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.

The “Estoppel Certificate” bill, SB 398, was sent to Governor Scott on May 31, 2017, and he has until June 15, 2017 to act.

The “Condominium Termination” bill, SB 1520, was sent to Governor Scott on June 5, 2017, and he has until June 20, 2017 to act.

The “Marketable Record Title Bill”, HB 735/SB 1046, did not end up passing.

As soon as HB 653 or HB 1237 is sent to the Governor, I will let you know via Twitter. Please follow me on Twitter to stay up to date on the status of the bills.

For a full summary of HB 653, please see my recent Blog post. I also previously posted a summary of HB 1237 on the Blog. If approved by Governor Scott, the bills will be effective on July 1, 2017, except the website provisions will be effective on July 1, 2018.

CALL supports HB 653 and we have written a letter in support of the bill. There is now a small central Florida group that has called for the Governor to veto HB 653. However, we feel that the marginal impact of the provisions they find objectionable, like the website requirement, is far outweighed by the benefit of the amendment that allows an opt out vote for an engineered life safety system. Therefore, we are asking our CALL members to contact the Governor’s office and ask him to approve HB 653. You can contact the Governor at http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/ or you can email his Office of Policy and Budget at: lee.moore@laspbs.state.fl.us. If you wish to call Ms. Moore, her phone number is: 850-717-9510.

Here is a form letter/email that you can use in your communications with the Governor:

Dear Governor Scott:

House Bill 653 by Representative Moraitis and Senator Passidomo is critically important to the residents of condominium and cooperative associations. If this legislation is vetoed, as some special interest groups have advised, it will cost associations and unit owners millions of dollars in costs that no one has been able to prove will make our residents safer. Are we thrilled with every provision of this legislation? No. But the marginal impact of the provisions they find objectionable, like the website requirement, is far outweighed by the benefit of the amendment that allows an opt out vote for engineered life safety systems. We strongly encourage you to support HB 653. The hundreds of thousands of residents who would be negatively impacted by a veto will be forever grateful.

We will update you again after we know the final status of HB 653 and HB 1237.

Very truly yours,

Yeline Goin, Executive Director
Community Association Leadership Lobby (CALL)

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