Community Association Matters

Ana Sanchez Rivero: Hello and welcome to community association matters. The podcast that focuses on condominium and homeowner association, education throughout the state of Florida. So, my name is Ana Rivero, and I'll be your host for today. And of course, the PA this podcast is sponsored today by Allied Property Group, as it always is, we are a full-service property management company. That's been servicing. Condominium and homeowner's association, through Southeast Florida, since 2003, as I announced in our podcast from earlier this year, we're now also, serving Southwest Florida as well. So, if you're in the Fort Myers or Naples corridor, I think all the way up to Sanibel, give us a call. We're going to be able to help out your community as well. Today's episode. We have another sponsor with us today, which is Hotwire communications, and I'm super excited to have David join us today. David Ramos is the Executive Vice President for Hotwire’s Southeast Florida region. David is a graduate of Trinity international university and holds an MBA from Nova Southeastern University and has even taught as an adjunct professor at Miami-Dade College. My husband went there. So, at Hotwire, he's had the roles and responsibilities all the way from VP of Consumer Sales to Regional Vice President. So, I think he's done it all, which is always the best. The way to learn in an organization. he has extensive experience in building and leading high-performance teams, and he started his career in education, which I think is always a great way to learn, to get, to start your career because you learn how to engage people and how to really, get them motivated. It's perfect for what we're doing today because. The whole purpose of this podcast is to educate board members and even community residents on some of the services and, companies that service condominiums and homeowners' associations and what they do. as your career evolved, you moved away from the education and moved into the private sector. Can you give us a little bit more information about yourself that perhaps I haven't included? David Ramos: Sure. Thank you so much for. for having me and allowing us the opportunity, just to chat a little bit about what we do. we have a lot of synergies and we also serve some of those markets that you guys are in, in Southwest Florida. So, we probably have some good war stories to, to share down the road. But, but yeah, I'm a local Miami native. I grew up here in South Florida, born and raised in Miami and, went to school here and, grew up here, Nolan. I've seen, the market just evolved incredibly over the last 30, 40 years and, started a family here and calling this home. This is a beautiful place to live. So, I am a Miami through and through, and now I live in Broward, in the West Broward area. But nonetheless South Florida is still in the veins. And great to see what's going on right. In our worlds, in the worlds that we operate in, with these properties and communities that we serve. Ana Sanchez Rivero: just excited to see what's going on. Plus, what's coming our way in the future. Yeah. The, you said something that was so true, which is how much things have changed. And in the world of technology, it's like you blink and things have changed and moved along. I was looking today at the today show and they even had like auto driving planes, or they're flying planes using it to deliver cargo and that's crazy. It's amazing what they're doing. It's a little scary now. It's a little scary, but it's also a good thing. I think it's good for our future and I think it's gonna help us, but I'm digressing, right? I'm rambling on. I'm going to go ahead and share screen because you’ve forwarded to us, some information about your company and today's topic is really going to be about fiber optics. How did it, how does it work? What makes it better or different? And we're going to also talk a little bit about the comparison between the fiber optics and 5g, yeah. Just some of the myths that have been going on between the two platforms. And I know you also sent us a video that kind of talks a little bit about, some of the issues that we're facing now, because a lot of us are working from home, because of the whole coronavirus. So, I know that there's a video that's embedded that I think is, is very informative that we'll be sharing. So, let me go ahead and share this screen. And I appreciate everybody's patience as we, get used to our new technology. David, I'm going to go ahead and let you take the floor, tell us a little bit about the, Hotwire communications. How did you get it? David Ramos: Sure. So, thank you. So, we started in 2000, where we're going on our 20th year in business or where we've grown up as a company. Now we're officially an adult company. And, and we've learned a lot along the way we were. Initially started in Philadelphia and grew into South Florida. Florida became our largest market, to date, and is where we currently house our headquarters. But we started focusing on providing internet and video services to apartments, condominiums, student housing, et cetera, and evolved to now be able to provide services to commercial entities like stadiums. We provide service for the Florida Panthers, the Miami Beach Convention Center, large-scale venues, as well as hotels like the Ritz Carlton, et cetera, and condominiums and homeowners' associations throughout the markets that we serve. Today, we operate in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Philadelphia, and then we have small presence in, other States like New York and California, but we were the first of many companies to build a fiber into the home technology and Florida specifically, which is a tremendous investment. We were, early on, one of the first to pioneer it where other competitors are traditional cable companies. I said, you guys are crazy. That you're spending way too much money. It's not necessary. No one knew that today we would be talking about self-flying airplanes and self-driving cars and everything else that we have today, right? Computers in our hands or cell phones and watches that we can talk to, like all that stuff was stuff of the movies. And so today, now everyone calls us, pioneers and geniuses and all that for what we did. But many years ago, everyone said, you guys are crazy. What are you doing? So, we are the largest privately held communications provider in Florida. we are privately held by Kristin and Michael Karp. What you see there on screen, they've been long time telecom experts and owned several companies prior to Hotwire in the telecom space and real estate and there’s a large real estate portfolio holding as well. So, they have a large real estate company as well on the management and asset ownership side. So, it was a good combination of mixing both worlds. We have a captive audience where we know people in, specifically in condominiums and high rises and single-family communities, were suffering with poor service, bad customer service and very antiquated technology. Ana Sanchez Rivero: And then we had this technology on the other side that we said, Hey, this is a good combination for us, so that we can go to the next slide. Yeah. And it's funny that you talk about, the movies and technology, and I don't mean to interrupt you, but it's funny. I always thought that Hollywood had an edge or some sort of secret embedded person in the government who would tell them about what's coming in the future, because it's amazing how things that we've only seen in the movies truly are now part of our everyday lives. I know that you're going to go into your facility and that's something I've heard a lot about. I know you guys have invited us and our staff to go to take a tour of your facility. I've heard it's amazing. I think you also invite board members because I believe our board, we have a client that we transitioned from the old platform that you were just talking about with bad customer service and bad reception. And you guys came in, you installed the fiber optics, and they haven't had a single complaint. Not one call about any issues. Nope. You invited the board to go to the facility. So, talk to us a little bit about your facility. David Ramos: And I think it's a good segue, from that comment, is look, the reality is there are so many technologies out there that exist, the stuff that we read about and technology that we see in the movies. But the challenge is that at the ground level, when we talk about the end user. The infrastructure that we have in many of these properties, like the one you're mentioning that we know we converted over. the technology. That the infrastructure can't support that technologies. Self-driving cars, for example, they've been out for many years. It's just that our infrastructure out in the streets, the network, the connectivity that essentially gets those cars to communicate to each other and to other cars is not ready. And so, we went ahead, and we built the infrastructure that allows for all these crazy ideas, crazy technologies to be used, in the residential space. Now we have smart homes. We have refrigerators that use wifi. You can set your laundry from your phone. You can name it, there's Bluetooth technologies. There's so much inside our homes, but if you don't have a strong infrastructure, a strong internet connection, fiber fed technology, none of those technologies work well. It just creates frustration. So that's where we build our business model. Now, where does it all come from? And that's what you're referencing, our wire technology center. So, the kids all the time, we do a lot of work with schools and nonprofits are empowering communities foundation, which is, a foundation that helps to bridge the digital divide. Kids don't have internet, they can't study, they can't do work. They're left behind. So, we do a lot of work with, and the kids always ask me, how do you guys make the internet? Where does it come from? And it's a funny thought, but the reality is it does come from somewhere. And in our case, it's from the Hotwire technology center. And this is a building a facility. It's a data center, essentially within a facility. So, it's a bunker within a data center within an office building that we bought from a bank that had recently merged with another bank. So, we've been here now just over four years. We moved our headquarters from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale. This is off Cypress Creek Rd., and basically it houses all our core team. So, marketing engineering, construction sales, our executive team or legal team, etc. Everything is housed here. But more importantly, our data, our master data center is fed out of this facility. This is what we feed over fiber to every property that we serve. Every customer that we serve, commercial hotel, et cetera, everything comes from here. It's a category five building. So, in the event of a hurricane, your network, the network that's feeding, all our properties is always redundant and stays up. It's a tier four center. From a data perspective, we house it with our own engineers, 24/7. During hurricanes our team is inside there making sure that services stay up because we provide lifelines as well for elevators and police and fire, et cetera. We can't afford for our services to ever go down. So, there's many carriers that come in there as well. We have a carrier hotel in there, and the whole goal is, look, if we have a center that’s redundant, it provides connection to other, data centers throughout the U S for us or in many other data centers that we operate or we lease space out of, or that are our own, and basically if something happens here in South Florida, everything just shifts elsewhere and keeps connected. Meaning you, as a resident or as a property or as a board member, never experienced the pain of being down. There has to be a very unique scenario for your service to go down. Ana Sanchez Rivero: And I'm sorry to interrupt, but how bad in a hurricane, does that mean that your clients will still have service even during a hurricane? David Ramos: Sure. So, there is no 100% guarantee for any provider, right? No, anyone that says they have a hundred percent uptime, run away from them quickly, but we work really hard to get close to 100%. So, in our case, we have a rating that the industry uses, which is called a five nines, meaning that 99.999% of the time, your service is going to be up in the event of a hurricane. And actually, the last three hurricanes that we've gone through, we've been one of the only providers that have stayed up, right? So where our competitors in different neighborhoods that are hit the hardest are down or stay up as long as you have power, right in your facility, as long as FPL is working, or you have generator power, you'll have our service. And so that 99.999% of the time we're up, there are challenges, right? Property specific. If your property is wiped off the map, then no service. If you get a huge fiber cut in or power cut in front of your property, you're down, et cetera. So, there are exceptions, but we set it up where we can create as many redundancies as possible, and our main network, and then going into your property. So that if something happens, you're covered. We even go as far as if you're backup generators or backup power fails, we bring generators to your facility to power that technology. So we do that often, especially in the Southwest Florida market, where normally they get hit the hardest, but, we do everything possible to minimize any interruption in service. Ana Sanchez Rivero: I'm going to go to the next slide, which talks a little bit about, or begins really our conversation, right? Because this is about educating board members on what fiber optics is. So, I'm going to let you roll with this because, I know you guys told me and you did this education us, but I don't remember anymore. You care is that it works right? That's the important part. David Ramos: Quite frankly. Yes. That's all I care about. Ana Sanchez Rivero: As managers, when we go do a board meeting, and we have to present a proposal, or we have to talk about services, we're expected to have a certain amount of knowledge about the product. And so, it's important that we as managers are educated on what you guys offer, because it's our ability to explain it to the board members and the homeowners, because they're ultimately the ones that are going to be paying for this service. So, it's important for them to know. So, fiber. Why is it different? What makes a different, how does it work? David Ramos: Sure, the root of fiber, the fundamental component of it, is the actual wire, right? It's glass and that transmits light and unlike the other methods of delivery that exists, we have ethernet, we have co-ax, we have wireless, there's other methods that people can send you data, or in the case of our services, internet, TV, service, et cetera, fiber is the best method period so that you have wireless, you have co-ax, you have ethernet fiber is the best it's limitless. We can send you tons of information, whether you're a homeowner or whether you're the entire Brickell city center, for example, the fiber can carry as much as we want to put through it. So, from a capacity standpoint, property management hat on for a second and board member hat on, when everyone's home at the same time, especially during a pandemic or non-pandemic at six o'clock every day, or Saturdays at 9:00 AM, there isn't that bottleneck of traffic, right? Think of a highway. If you're on I-95 at five o'clock, forget about it. You're not going anywhere, but if you're on I-75, the Turnpike or highways that have much capacity you can fly through. So, fiber is that open highway that just allows traffic to go in and out without congestion. Our competitors and people that are not using fiber, pure fiber all the way through, have lots of congestion, meaning it's a poor experience when you go to use the internet support experience. When you want to watch TV, and you're paying top dollar, it doesn't matter who you're paying. You're paying top dollar for service. If you're not on fiber, there's many limitations to your service and the technologies you have in your home. The way I like to explain it to all the boards that I deal with and all the property management companies across the market is you're paying for service. But in many cases, you're paying for a technology that's antiquated and hasn't been upgraded in many years. While our solution, fiber is essentially future proof. There's nothing better than it. So, as technologies improve, you literally only change what's on the end of the fiber, right? TV now is outdated, and you need 4k. All you do is change the TV, right? You don't have to rewire the building. You don't have to rewire the property. If you have fiber, if 4k is no longer the thing and it's 8K, we're ready. All you have to do is buy a new 8K TV, right? You don't have to rewire. I can't say the same for people that are building infrastructure differently. Other cable companies that are using old wiring. So, at the base of it all is what can we provide infrastructure-wise throughout your properties that allows you to have unlimited connectivity, unlimited, speed. We were ranked by Netflix right now. Everyone's killing Netflix, right, on usage. We were ranked to have been ranked the fastest provider for Netflix for the last two years. Plus, that's nationally and globally. So, Hotwire's infrastructure can send you a movie faster than anybody in the entire world over the Hotwire network, if you're a Hotwire customer. So, something as basic as that, when I order a movie, how quickly do I get it versus watching the little wheel spin and we're getting to it. So, our goal is like, we want to remove friction from your experience. We want to make sure you get what you want as quickly as you can. And that if you're working from home, if you're doing homework, et cetera, you don't feel the pain of everyone else working from home and being home at the same time. Ana Sanchez Rivero: I'm going to go to the next slide. So, I know you touched upon it, but let's talk about, what are some of the differences between what fiber optic offers versus what the old school people, ethernet I think is what we mostly use, right? David Ramos: Yeah. When you, yeah, you'll have a combination of, depending on which company, if you're with a phone company you're typically going to have copper or ethernet-based services. If you're with an old cable company you're already typically going to be on co-ax or a hybrid fiber/co-ax. But nonetheless it's all antiquated and has bottlenecks. So, looking at the list we, we look at not to, over technify it, here, but the basics we over fiber can provide speeds up to a gigabit per second and actually we've gone beyond that. We're actually in the process of, of deploying a 10-gigabit connection to a home, right? Two homes, residential homes, 10 gigabits is essentially what we provide at the stadiums at the Fontainebleau hotel at the convention center. So, for whomever needs, something like that, not that everyone does, but if you need it, we can provide it to you. There's people that run businesses out of their home, people that are hedge fund traders from their home, gamers. And we can provide those speeds from day one with fiber. We were actually ranked ironically, we were ranked by PC mag, which is obviously one of the gaming publications. And they do a ranking every year of all the providers and they say who's the best for gaming. Who's the best from a network standpoint. And we were actually ranked the top in the Southeast United States for them recently. All the gamers out there, if you don't live in a Hotwire property, come and see us and, make sure you do your homework first and then come and see us. There's zero loss when we talk about signal and packet loss. And that's where we're watching a show and you're using something like zoom and freezing and pixelation and things like that attributed to the signal and the wire that's coming into your home, fiber, it's almost virtually zero. is what you're losing. As that signal gets to you, it's immune on now from a property management perspective, right? In a board perspective, we look at property values and how does this improve the value of our community? The infrastructure that we're building, especially if you're on the East coast or on the West coast, if you're on the water, the water, the sea water, salt, water, corrosion, and everything that goes into living on in those elements destroys, the infrastructure. In our case, it's immune to that. Fiber is immune to that. So, it's buried on the ground. and none of the environmental factors affect that. Meaning you don't have to rewire every few years, once you do it, you're good. You don't have to do it again. It uses less power, and maintenance is minimal and because obviously it's the way we deploy the network. We don't need power at each generator site in order to provide signal, which is why we can stay up there in hurricanes where others, if they lose power, that's feeding the neighborhood, they go down. Ours is a different deployment method, and as you grow, one thing we like to build into our relationships and our contracts over time, we know that what's important today, may not be important three years from now, right? So, technology grows, demand grows. And so as you, and as an association or a property manager may say, look, a hundred megabits was great, when we signed the contract three years later, we need to improve. Once we negotiate that or talk through what that means for the association, if they say, okay, we want to be at 300 megabits, it's just a matter of turning up the juice. We don't really, in most cases have to overhaul anything. So, you can grow, you can scale without having to disrupt your operations of the property. Ana Sanchez Rivero: I think what, to that point, for example, here in our company, what do you work from home? Or like you said, some people run a business or if you're just in, you use it directly into your business. It's important because when you have multiple people sharing that internet connection and it bogs down from a business perspective, it's very frustrating. We experienced that now. So, we're, I wish we could get this in our condo here because we need it. We need to have a gigabit per second, not the 150 that we have now, cause it just isn't enough. So that's right. To your point, yeah. David Ramos:  I think that those numbers tend to be misleading and I, a lot of our competitors do a great job of, of throwing the word fiber around and gigabit and the speed, the numbers blow you out of the water, but what they're, what they fail to tell you is, it's stressful enough when you're in an office or when you're in a home and you're sharing it with the people in your home. Yeah, what they fail to tell you in many cases is you're sharing that connection with the entire neighborhood. So, at any given time, you're sharing that with about 300 homes or businesses all at the same time. So, imagine if you have kids at home and everyone's on an iPad and the husband and everywhere everyone's doing something online. It's straining the connection. Now multiply that by 300 homes, all doing it at the same time. In our case with fiber, we give every home their own dedicated connection. So, what you do has no bearing on what your neighbor is doing and vice versa. So, we removed that shared aspects, giving you a dedicated connection. And then within your home, there's enough bandwidth coming in that everyone can have their own bandwidth and not feel the pain of fighting for connection. Ana Sanchez Rivero: That's true. Even when I was working from home during the pandemic or even recently, when the kids were still not back in school here in Miami-Dade County, and we, I had to stay home with them. It was frustrating even between the three of us, because they would be doing their thing and they would be kicked out or I wouldn't be doing my thing and I be kicked out. So, it's definitely, a plus to have a fiber off. The next line, where we talk a little bit about the differences between five G and fiber optics. So, talk a little bit about 5g exempt. It's really, Tiffany knew something that some of us know that it's out there because so the commercials right at and T or whatever, but what is it and how is it different? David Ramos: Sure, so 5g is a fancy term for a fifth generation, right? Basically, it's the fifth generation of wireless signal, which we use on our phones essentially. That's the primary use, is for you to be able to use your cell phone in a better way. When 3g, 4g were deployed, some of the LTA technology, Facebook live and streaming, and some of those things weren't really, what they are today. So 5g, the goal was to be able to allow users on their phones the opportunity to watch videos in a better way. To have streaming sessions in a better way, Facebook live in a better way. And so 5G is essentially bringing the current networks that exist today up a level. So, if you see a lot of the towers, as you're driving down the highway, you see a lot of the cell phone towers, et cetera. And the challenge is those signals can only go so far, and especially in areas where we have a lot of density, like downtown Miami Brickell, the beach, derails that signal. Once you get into an area like that, it's hard to reach the person on the phone that's walking down the street or sitting there having coffee. 5g, essentially the ultimate goal is to make sure that signal gets closer to the person that's using their phones so that when I'm on my phone doing Instagram or Facebook live or whatever, that I have a seamless experience. Because I'm using more data, I'm using more bandwidth to watch the video or to do business or whatever. So, what 5G essentially is in our markets, right? The markets that we cover, it's not a replacement of fiber. We actually have to power the 5g devices with fiber. So without fiber, those devices don't work. And in many cases, they're small cells and they're literally small. They're like small antennas that you'll see. You may, you'll pass by them all the time. You won't even notice, but you're seeing them on the sides of buildings. You'll see them on the rooftops of two- or three-story buildings. Basically, we're connecting that small antenna, with fiber back to the big antenna, right? Or the hub site power. So obviously in downtown, they're not going to allow us to build another tower in Miami Beach. You're not putting up another tower. So, what we do is we connect the small antenna to the big site that powers the signal and by doing that, we're bringing that connection closer to the ground, closer to where people are sitting, walking at restaurants, et cetera, to provide a better experience. It's intended for outdoor use. Obviously, it's not something that in most homes it's going to replace a traditional cable company or internet company it's intended so that when you're out and about when you're in a restaurant you can still use all of your devices the same as if you were sitting at home. Or in your office. Ana Sanchez Rivero: And I guess that's why, look just speaking from the commercials I've seen, cause I am not into the techie thing. I'm pretty good with technology, but I'm not into it, but that's why you only see it available in certain areas because they have been able to basically put this fiber connection in this smaller antenna to hook up to the bigger antenna. David Ramos: Correct. So, we and, the carriers we work with, the cell phone carriers, essentially, to build them out these 5g networks. Build them out for them. So they'll hire a company like us, and they say, look in downtown Miami, I want to deploy a hundred of these small cells because I need to activate, I need to turn on the 5g network in downtown, right? Miami, for example. So, what we do is we build, we negotiate with the owners of those buildings or those roofs, for roof rights, right? To be able to Mount the small cells. On the outside or above their building, we then do construction of the fiber line from that building. And that antenna over to their closest signal site, which could be a tower. It could be an office building, et cetera. Basically, what they're doing is amplifying the signal for that section. And that's typically where you're going to find the most people. Urban areas. And when there's a lot of traffic, ironically, where people are driving, you'll see a lot of that because their cars have technologies. That GPS and everything else that you use while you're driving.  So even along, congested traffic routes, you'll see a lot of 5g deployment, small cell, so we work with them. They're not replacing us and we're not replacing them. we're helping get this off the ground for them and, and make sure that everyone that buys a 5g cellular device, that it would work in these dense areas. Ana Sanchez Rivero: So let me ask you, communities that already have your service with fiber optics. Can they add a tower on their condo to augment service or does it need to be attached? And again, I'm not techie, so please forgive my ignorance.   David Ramos: Great question. Great question. Ana Sanchez Rivero: Just wondering, does that mean that the homeowners in the building that have your service, are they able to then get 5g? David Ramos: Great question. So yes, there's two scenarios. The first scenario is if you're bringing in the enhanced signal, whether it's 5g or not, but it's an enhanced signal. For example, we have a lot of condominiums that say, look inside my tower. The reception is horrible inside my unit, the receptionist is horrible, help us within my building to get better signal. That's not necessarily a 5g, but it's amplifying the cellular signal for the carriers. So, if you're suffering as a property within your building, as individual residents, board members, et cetera, and you need to amplify the signal. Yes, you can install a what we call a DAS system, distributed antenna system, where basically the same concept as the 5g. But in this case, we bring the signal from the carrier into your building inside, and then they install it throughout and amplify the signal. Not every property is a candidate for it. The carriers have to say, yes, it meets these criteria. And then we do the work on behalf of the carrier or with the carrier, eh, because we already have fiber inside the building. So half the battle was already in there. So that's, if you want to. Yeah. So that's, if you want to improve the signal for your residents inside your property, right? The other aspect, if you happen to have a property that meets the criteria, as far as height, where you're located, et cetera. Some of the carriers do pay you as the property. They would pay the association or the, the developer, the owner for the right to mount their device on the roof. But that is to feed the neighborhood that's to provide a better signal for everyone outside of the building. So that you'd become an extension of their network. But if you meet the qualifications, they do pay, they do pay a fee for that. Sometimes they pay a monthly fee, sometimes a one firm fee, a one-time fee, but, but if you do fit the profile and you're a good candidate, there definitely is some revenue opportunity for the association in that scenario. Ana Sanchez Rivero: Yeah. We have several communities that the antennas on their roofs. Yep. Yep. Okay. Do you want the video before we get it going? David Ramos: Sure. So this is one, we've to see a lot of questions come up from properties and association property management companies and associations, as far as, hey, what are you? What's really different about you versus everything else that's new in the market. And so, this particular technology, you're going to hear a lot about it, especially in the downtown urban areas and it explains the differences between why and how we deliver and how it works versus what our competitors are doing in this space. But you'll hear a lot of this, especially if you're in a high-rise building, these folks would probably approach you at some point to say, Hey, we'll give you this kind of service, but we want to make sure everyone understands the difference between that and then having a dedicated fiber connection. Video Shown Ana Sanchez Rivero:  Wow. That was a really informative video. Thank you for sharing that. I think I learned a lot from it. I have a quick question. Let's say that we have a client and they are interested in learning more about your services and how to bring the services into their community. And I was writing down questions earlier, waiting for this segment, or this part in our segment to come about, because I wanted to know, is this something that you can only do at construction? And I know the answer is no, because you just did it for us in another community, but what is the process like for those who are thinking, this might be something we want to explore. David Ramos: Sure. So, we do a lot of new construction. We probably do about 70% of the new construction, the markets we serve, but the primary source of growth for us as a business is going in and what we call overbuilding. A community where they may not be satisfied with their current provider, so their contract ends, they negotiate a new contract with us, and then we bring our infrastructure into the community. The first thing is, obviously, we want to make sure that all the, board members, property management, personnel understand everything outside of the service offered to the product, the internet, the TV, the voice, and the security, those are obviously at the core. We want to make sure you understand everything else that we bring to the table. As a community, tours of our facility is important. So, you see our network operations team, our customer service, what's going to essentially operate your community. Second. We love to connect you with other properties that have gone through it already and hear directly from them. What was your experience? Good, bad, or ugly? Your feedback? What should I look out for? We do tours of those communities. We have many communities that say, look, bring any of your clients here and we'd gladly show them how it went. We can show them a demo and they love telling the story because, for them, they were able to take their community and take an outdated, legacy system and now take their community to the next level from a technology perspective. So, it's a great, bragging, right? For them to say, look at how much more advanced our community is today because of what we did. So, we have a lot of referrals and references that can serve and that's on the board level and at the property management level. So, once you've gone through all that, kicking the tires and seeing how it works and all that, then obviously, we go through the negotiations of the business term contract, and once that's out of the way and we have everything is in-house, so we move pretty quickly. Our attorneys literally sit right next to me. We get negotiations done quickly. We understand time is money, especially if you have outside counsel. So, we want to make sure it's quick and affect that we work with all the attorneys that are in property management and association law. we already know what each side is willing to give on. So, it cuts through a lot of the, a lot of the clutter. Once we finish that piece, then we go live on construction and we've done over 600 conversions from other providers to us, meaning we are the company that has done the most conversions in our space. Though most are co-ax to fiber or something else to fiber in our space, we're the experts. We have property management or excuse me, project management teams, assigned throughout the entire project. They basically live on site. They deal with the resident communications. They set up the accounts directly with the residents. They provide weekly updates. They manage the engineers, the construction folks. And then we do the in-home installations. Once we do the installs, we have a team of educators that do virtual or in-person training on how to use it and make sure everyone's comfortable with everything we've done. The minute we leave the home everyone is a gigabit community. Everyone is a gig, a gigabit customer, gigabit home. Everyone is literally, within hours of us being there, now upgraded to the best-in-class service available. A smooth process depending on the size of the community, can range anywhere from four months to a year, depending on the size, how many units are in the community. But it's a very smooth process. And, and we have many teams that are involved to make sure that it goes well for, especially for the property management side. Cause you're the ones that are taking the heat on the project side of it. So, we work hand in hand with you guys as well. Ana Sanchez Rivero: I have to say that we did, have that, and one of our communities and I was very impressed. not because you're here because. Where's your podcast that I think that, maybe we are doing the podcast because of the good service that was provided. I can say that for, from a property management perspective, from a board perspective and from a homeowner perspective, that it was a very easy transition. We had very few problems, if any, at all. And we had no complaints from the residents whatsoever and we've had no complaints from the. Residents since then. And prior to you taking over, it was a nightmare. We would get complaints all the time. So, I see that you guys have one too. We just choice award from the Florida Community Association Journal as we have. And I know it's hard to get this because it's people that vote for. So, tell us a little bit about that. David Ramos: Yeah, so this is, this was a very special one for us. Again, we've been working in the community management and association world for over 15 years. And, and we understand that dynamics, it's a very tough, world to work in this well, right? It's non-stop, fast pace and demands constantly grow. They don't go down. So, for us to have won this award by, I think, in the space where the demands are so high, it just, it was extra special for us. So, we're very proud of this and all the other awards. We were recognized as the independent operator of the year, by Cable Fax, which is, in our industry, it's the equivalent to the Community Association Journal, and, and for us, it just brings home that everything that we were doing over the years, where everyone was calling was crazy, and you guys are, you don't know what you're doing, you're spending too much money, you're doing this, you're doing that. It paid off. We've built a model that everyone else now is trying to follow. Which is why you hear, fiber and you hear a gigabit, you hear it now everywhere and it's because of the work that we did. And we've been, we're not the biggest, we're not the smallest we're like that annoying little fly that just won't go away until we get it right. and we're proud of our team. Our team is incredible. Everyone from pre-sales all the way to operations, engineering, HR. You name it. Everyone understands what it takes to provide quality service, white glove service to our properties. And, and we don't take it for granted. it's embedded in what we do. Ana Sanchez Rivero: So you're just like us. We've won the award seven years in a row, and for us, that is definitely the most rewarding of all the recognitions that we've received over the years.  So you're, we're going to, I know we're wrapping this up, let's go over the next couple of slides, but you're the fastest growing, company in the Southeast. David Ramos: Yeah. Have we, so this is one that, another very, very important accomplishment for us. this is they're basically ranking. The fastest internet companies, right? How fast your connection is to the end user, across the us. And for us to see that ours was ranked the fastest in the Southeast United States, Maine, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, et cetera. In comparison, look at the names on the bottom, the multi-billion-dollar companies that we compete against that are a thousand times our size. This was a huge accomplishment for us that we literally left them in the dust and our teams were so proud of the work they did to help us win this. So, a huge accomplishment, if you're a business and you're a commercial client and you see this is something that's important to you as someone that says, okay, I'm paying Comcast and then, and look at where they're at. I want to be with Hotwire. Yeah, we'll sign you up. Don't worry. Take care of you. Ana Sanchez Rivero: I was looking at it and I'm like, what? Oh my God, because that's me. David Ramos: Don't worry. Ana Sanchez Rivero: So, I think we've covered that anything that maybe, I'll this is maybe something else you want to talk about. Maybe you were alluding to this earlier. David Ramos:  Yeah, again, this industry publication cable facts, they come up with awards every year and they say, who are the best cable operators in our case where cable, internet, and phone company, and they rank us. And this year we won the independent operator of the year. in our industry, there are hundreds of operators across the US, so to be selected and, just be ranked at the top of almost every category was incredible. Kudos to our team. Again, I can't stress it enough, our secret sauce, while we have great products and great technology are the people that are getting it done day in and day out. Ana Sanchez Rivero: Just like us. So, I thank you so much for joining us today. Hopefully we can do another one in the future on another topic. I truly appreciate the time you've spent with us and educating us a little bit about fiber optics and what makes it different and how your company is the leader in that. So, I think that's extremely helpful. Anything you want to say before we close out? David Ramos: Yeah. I, first of all, thank you. This was fun. You guys are awesome and again, I can't stress enough, you're one of the best management groups we deal with. You guys are just professionals all around and know how to run your shop, which is makes our life easier day in and day out. Second, I would say to all your listeners, the technology we bring to the table, it may seem like it's way out there and may seem and sound like, oh my God, it's so expensive, we can't afford it. It's not, this is extremely attainable, extremely, we understand we still need to compete. You have a budget that you have to beat every year. So we understand we need to be a reasonable price, but it's the upgrade that every community needs and it looks for, it's only going to get worse, right? From a technology standpoint. Cars are driving themselves, 5g, 6g, you name it everything. Think cars will be flying? Yeah, you don't want to be left behind because you chose to stay with a sub-par offering or product or company. Give us a call, give us an opportunity to at least give you a technology assessment, just tell you what your options are. No obligations. Just, hey, you're part of the family. We love to educate people on what's out there. Would love to give you a technology review and just tell you what your options are, and, if when the time comes that you're looking for alternatives, please keep us in mind. You'd be surprised how easy it is for us to get this done for you. Ana Sanchez Rivero: So where can they reach you? David Ramos: So, you can call me directly. My number is (786) 431-7652. You can also email me at dramos@hotwire.com or you can check out our website, www.hotwirecommunications.com. There’s tons of content videos, testimonials, you name it, anything you need in there to find out what the story is behind the scenes. And obviously Anna, please share my info if anyone reaches out. We're a local company with ambitious and huge goals. And we just want to make sure we get this message across to everyone. So happy to visit, happy to do a virtually, grab a coffee, and conference either, whatever it takes. Ana Sanchez Rivero: Sounds good. I thank you again. And I'll definitely, we always do an accompanying blog, with the podcast and the video, and of course we're going to stream it on our website and on social media pages. Hope you can do the same. We will. Listeners. I want to thank you guys again for joining us. I hope, like in all of our podcasts and videos, that you learned something. That I liked, the fact that we incorporated, some slides into this, and hopefully you got to learn a little bit about fiber optics and you might. Considering doing it for your community. I did. I agree with you David, a hundred percent. I am surprised that it is actually in line with what other communities are paying for internet and cable. Our thing it's definitely attainable, and guys stay safe and be well. Excellent. Thank you so much.  

Ana: Hello, and welcome to Community Association Matters, the podcast that serves homeowner and condominium associations in Florida. And I say Florida now, because we are serving not just Southeast Florida, but also Southwest Florida with offices in both Miami and Fort Myers. So we're very excited about that opportunity. And as always, our goal here is to educate board members and owners of multifamily and even commercial units about the laws that pertain to being a board member and condominium and homeowner associations. As well as what to do to maintain your building, your common areas and, and make sure that you prevent liability and mitigate any problems that may come up. So being from Florida, being in Florida, we all live with hurricanes. That is a part of life. It's something that we've grown, adapted to if you will. And part of living in a hurricane area is being prepared. Knowing what to do, having a plan in place that will get you through that difficult challenge, and then the aftermath. What do we do afterward? Because everybody talks about hurricane preparation, but not a lot of conversations go on about what actually happens after.  So today I've asked my friends, Francis and Rob to join us there from SunFlo Roofing. They have a lot of different expertise, obviously, roofing is one of them, but they also work with one of the leading public adjusting firms in the State of Florida. And they're going to talk to us a little bit about what happens afterward. So I want to welcome Francis and Rob to the show. How are you guys doing? Francis:  Good.  Rob: Good.  Francis: Good morning. Thanks for having us. Ana: My pleasure. Thank you for being here. So as we start the podcast, I always ask my guests to tell us a little bit about themselves. Tell us a little bit about your company. And I know Francis, you said that nowadays we're all working from home with COVID. Of course, we have on top of that hurricane season starting here. And I know you said Robert is going to be on mute for part of the show because he's got his little one. So he doesn't want to be that newscaster that had his kids walking in. So I'll, I'll give the floor over to you, Francis, and share a little bit about SunFlo. Francis: I locked my door, but you know, we have a dog in the house this week, so at some point, you might hear that, but yes, let’s talk SunFlo. That's short for Sunshine, Florida. Florida is known for its sunshine, but it's also known for its hurricanes. It's really bad weather here in South Florida we don't get as much hail, but it's very common in Central and North Florida. Obviously we also get the summer thundershowers which create a lot of rain. We get a lot of tropical weather. SunFlo itself is a roofing division of a group of, construction and companies specializing in residential, commercial, new construction, rebuilds, remodels, and we have a very robust practice in insurance claims, repairs, and rebuilds. Our company is comprised of four owners. Rob and I are two partners in the ownership group. We have partners in the Panhandle, Central Florida, and South Florida. So we're kind of spread around the state. So each of us has an individual experience. You know, we have a broad knowledge base, licensing, and certifications throughout the State of Florida in an array of construction, remediation, and repair disciplines. We jointly possess licenses. We're state-certified building contractors, state-certified roofers, licensed, we're certified mold assessors, and certified mold remediation. We’re certified in home inspections and building inspections.  So, Sunflo incorporated to bring the roofing portion of all these disciplines, that we were doing in a number of these different companies, together. We've been in roofing, between all of us in the partners since 1997. We've put on probably 4,000 roofs during that time. So roofing repair and replacement is one thing that we have a lot of experience in. And so we're going to focus on today.  A lot of what we do when there is an insurance claim actually brings a lot of these disciplines together because the roof is the first part of the building that comes off. But once it's done, it's the most essential portion or ‘the envelope’ as they call it, then you know you've got damage to the inside. You've got structural damage. You've got a lot of moisture, you've got damage to some contents. So we have experienced in dealing with all that and, and we've done, as I said, over 4,000 roofs, new construction builds, including small unit, you know, 30 unit developments, multimillion-dollar family residences, commercial properties over 20,000 square feet, and multifamily housing. We've done emergency catastrophe response, single-family homes to very large structures. For example, during Hurricane Michael, we remediated about 250 homes, put on about 80 or 90 roofs on those homes in the panhandle. Water, hurricane, fire, mold, trauma scene, viral, bacterial in structures, from single-family homes ranging up to 450,000 square feet.  After Hurricane Irma, we remediated the airport Sheraton, which is next to the golf course there by the airport. You can see it from the 836. So we actually had to go in. We had to completely tear out all it, I think it was 400 plus rooms. It's a 350,000 square foot facility. We did the mold remediation, clean, prepare everything for rebuilding, and so forth.  Between our various companies and disciplines, we have a lot of experience, dealing with insurance, not just for the single-family home, but for large commercial structures, formal type, multi-unit, residential. Insurance claims management for repairs is a portion of the business that we're involved in. That really is probably it's kind of esoteric because it's not so much just the construction side of it and the repair and the understanding all that, it’s dealing with the bureaucracy of insurance companies a little bit. So, one of the things that we offer as part of what we do for our particular clients and it's something we're going to recommend that all your property managers and all your audiences in the business, or if you're a, you know, a property owner of a commercial structure is to get into a basic maintenance plan with a roofing company.  Ana: Let's talk about that and about the public adjusting. We're going to segue into that because we have a public adjusting division in our company. So it's perfect that this is something you guys have experience in. That's something that's important after. Let's talk about the maintenance plan. What do you think is a good plan that HOA’s, multifamily, commercial, or anybody really with a roofing structure can undertake now in preparation for a hurricane.  Francis: OK, so the first thing is obviously, there are some things you'll do in advance and we don't want to wait ‘til the last minute. Then there are some things that obviously are going to be done at the last minute. The more you can get done in advance before a hurricane approaches, the less your management team has to deal with in those few precious hours right before a storm approaches.  So an annual inspection, so regular inspection will identify minor damage that can expand in the larger damage when you have strong winds. Leaking that may not seem like a big deal now, but if you have a major rain event and a major winds all of a sudden you're gonna have major leaking into a structure that can cause a lot more damage and much greater loss in terms of payments to the internal structure and the contents. So basic maintenance, these are some things that you should be doing at all times and, you know, any missing shingles, broken tiles, loose or leaking flashing, any other anomaly in the roofing system should be identified and addressed properly. So, as I mentioned for our customers, and it's something you're going to want to look into, and any property managers in the audience are going to want to discuss with their particular contractors, roofing companies. We have a basic annual plan, a maintenance plan, where we come in and we do an initial inspection and then we renew the inspection every year. But the basic initial primary inspection when we come in is identifying the existing damage that requires needed attention to repair. Establish the structural and accessory details for future reference, so we know that we're dealing with a number of squares and that's the overall size of the roof. What accessories, how many penetrations, the type of penetrations, the slope, what kind of roof is it, what's the surface made out of tile, shingle, metal, whatever.  So we already know what we're dealing with. We can give the property manager a better idea of exactly what his roof is all about. Where is it in service life? And then we also advise them about any elements that require their attention if a storm is approaching. Cause sometimes, for storm prep, you need to know what are the closable vents on these particular buildings? What particular removable, dangerous attachments. Is there any removable things that you guys can do to maybe make sure? Cause that's one thing that we often deal with. Folks will put a satellite dish up on the eve, or some kind of flag pole or something else. So that in a wind event, if that tears off it’ll rip off your eve too, all of a sudden it's rough. So those are the kinds of things that we point out to them. Then obviously we provide general basic repair to reduce costs and, and priority response after the loss. And this is particularly important because we've been to a lot of hurricanes and I'm going to tell you when we roll into the city the first thing everybody wants, but it's the hardest thing to come by is a tarp for your roof. So when we priority mitigate damage and we'll talk a little bit about mitigation, later, but we mitigate the damage immediately. We prioritize our plan. We handle the whole entire process and more importantly, we take all the documentation and we'll talk about that as well, but we go ahead and document all the damage for the insurance claim purposes, in a little bit  Ana: about that. So now, you know, let's say an association or an owner of a multi-family has done everything that they can to get their roof system ready. Hurricane comes in and there's significant damage cause we know that even a category one hurricane can cause significant damage, especially to an older roof system. What is our first step? What should we do right after hurricane? There's damage and we're getting calls about a roof leak. Francis: Okay. So, after a storm or any loss of event really, you know, the fire, a leak. We dealt with a large condominium complex, in Lake Buena Vista last year. It was six towers, all 12 stories each and a heater burst on one of the towers and soak the whole entire tower. And while we were there remediating it a heater burst in the tower next door. So, you know, all these sorts of things happen. It isn't always a hurricane that you prepare for and plan for. When a loss occurs, you should always have the same process in place, no matter what kind of loss it is. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to document, document, document. We help with that. We'll rush right in and we take all the photography, be it interior, be it exterior. We take all the measurements. We take all the materials samples that we need to do all that. If it's an interior, for example, and there are bacteriological issues, so maybe a toilet burst on a fourth-floor or overflows and it, and it is going down the elevator shaft. I mean, we run into things like this. And so, you know, those kinds of things, it's important to be able to sample all the materials, sample everything that you have in the structure, so you know what needs to be remediated.  So documentation is the first and most important thing because that documentation is what's going to support your claim. It's going to make sure, number one, you get coverage and number two, that they pay for everything that they're supposed to pay. Cause remember you’ve been paying all these premiums. Now it's time for you to get what you paid for. The next most important thing is to mitigate any further damage. Pretty much every policy from a small homeowner policy all the way to the largest commercial policies have a mitigation clause and it is the responsibility of the insured that when a loss does happen to mitigate, to stop, any further damage, to take all steps they reasonably can to stop any further damage from happening. This is obviously to maintain the integrity of the structure, but really, more importantly, to protect the insurance company from having a hundred thousand dollars loss turning into a $500,000 loss. When it comes to roofing, that means you have to tarp immediately. And typically after a hurricane that's one of the hardest things to come by. Your insurance policy, most insurance policies, include an emergency response section and an emergency mitigation section. Because they require you to do this, they're also going to pay for it. But the problem isn't always paying for it, the problem is getting somebody to do it. So that's one of the things we guarantee for our clients. It's something you're going to want to discuss with whoever you've got a relationship with as a property manager, business owner, or property owner, in advance. Say, Hey, you know, when a hurricane strikes in South Florida, I want to know I can make a phone call if my roof is blown off, and that you guys are going to be there to take care of it.   Ana: A tarp doesn't always work in all roofing systems. Does it?  Francis: No. Unfortunately, we have run into scenarios where there's other things that you can do. They've got the wraps now. Shrinkwrapping is another thing that is extremely expensive. The insurance company sometimes balk at paying for that under their emergency services clause.  Ana:  Talk a little bit about that. What exactly it is that for those who don't know what it is? Francis: So with the shrinkwrapping, they'll actually come in and they'll put a membrane on your roof that they can then use heat to shrink right onto the surface. It works especially well for tile, and for roofs that are really cut up, for certain situations. It's also exceedingly expensive. A lot of times putting one of those on is especially for a smaller structure. It's going to be half or two-thirds of the cost of a new roof. The advantage of it is, it's a lot more durable. Well, when we've done it, it'll last a couple even several months. Hurricane Michael is an example. Every time we will put on a tarp, a week later we get a cold front blow through. It was in October, I think that the hurricane hit and that was in the panhandle and now you're into November. And so you have cold fronts blowing and it gets really cold in the panhandle of Florida. It's not at all like South Florida, you know, and you've got all this hot. Ana:  We’re different countries. Francis: Yeah. they say the further south you go, the further North you get, they say. Or the further North you go, the further South, you get, if you’re going in that direction, . Every time we get a cold front blow through we get 20, 30, roofs, we have to go to re-tarp. What happens in a catastrophe situation, is most reasonable adjusters understand that. If you've made a reasonable effort to put a tarp on, if your roofers come out and done what they can, that is not going to be a reason that's going to hold up, especially if you get to the third-party arbitration or God forbid court, they're not going to be able to deny you over that. Now, if it's a dereliction. If you've had a leak in your roof for two months and you haven't bothered to tarp, that you've never cared, you let it go to seed, the inside is all wet and everything else, or much worse, which we see sometimes, if you've had a claim, they paid you to repair it and you didn't spend the money to repair it and then you had a subsequent claim, they're going to deny you. And, this is one of those situations where you want to make a good-faith effort. And a lot of times intent is a very important thing in the law. It's the same thing with insurance intent is something that you're always going to want to be shown to have good faith in your dealings with your insurance company. Even though, and we'll discuss that as well, once you get into the claims process, it's a bit of an adversarial process, but, you still want to show a good faith effort to tarp the roof, and so forth. We don't use shrink wrapping very often because most insurance companies want to balk at it, especially for very large structures. So in most cases, you know, we are able to talk with traditional tarping techniques. It's really about how you hold down the tarp. And in most cases as well, unless the roof is completely blown off, which you'll see in our more catastrophic wind events, such as we did Michael, there's no amount of tarping is going to help you get the decking is exposed. If trusses are exposed.  Most leaks are usually confined to specific areas and they can be covered by a 20 by 20, 20 by 30 tarp, with the right tie-downs. So after mitigating damage, which is exceedingly important, the next thing you're going to do is you're going to, hopefully, have your licensed contractor come out and look at it and start putting together a file. You're going to file a claim. The adjuster is going to come out and you're going to want to make sure that your contractor is there to meet with them and is prepared to show them if they're experienced in the claims process, where the specific areas are. What they're looking for. Why there's damage there. You don't want to leave an adjuster to their own devices. And this is something we do for all our clients is every adjuster onsite inspection, we're there. If they send out an engineer after the fact, we're there. So again, this is protecting yourself. These are the things you're doing after the claim happens to protect yourself and make sure that, at every step of the way, you have a hand in the process and are guiding the process towards a favorable outcome of the claim.  And then at this point, also you should start thinking about who's going to be your public adjuster/attorney if it goes in that direction. This always needs to be in the back of your mind, especially if you're dealing with larger claims. If you're dealing with a large, complex, multi-unit complex, you could be looking at a million-dollar roof plus. So the adjuster is going to dot their I's, cross their T's to make sure there isn't something there that they can deny or less than coverage you.  So those are some of the things you can do right after the storm passes, just to make sure that you're protected. Document, make sure that you have a lot of documentation, that the evidence is there, that you can prove it. And that if you have to go in front of an arbitrator or somebody else, that you could present the evidence and they're going to look at it and they're going to say, yeah, there was a loss here, why did you deny this Mr. Insurance company? Second of all, you're going to want to mitigate any further damage. Third of all, you're going to want to have somebody who knows how to look at that damage and preferably have them do the documenting for you, prepare a file, meet with the adjuster, help guide the process. Because again, adjusters are not licensed, construction professionals. They're licensed and trained in how to handle a claim and how to read policy language, and how to interpret policy language. They're not licensed and trained in the construction trades. So you're there to be that professional. Even though it's a little bit of an adversarial process, as your representative, your contractor is able to say, ‘Hey, Nope. This is why this is here. This is why we have to do this way. This is the code for has been this. If we're going to pay for this roof, we have to pay to have all these other things done.’ So, and then, as I said, the last thing is to begin thinking about your public adjuster and attorney options shouldn't get denied, or even if you're not denied at the negotiation stage.  Ana: So one of the things we talked a little bit about this before the recording started, during Wilma and Irma, we were both very active in getting our clients to get an adjuster because we feel that getting an adjuster is the best way to have somebody fight for your rights. A lot of times we, as cams, are not familiar with the intricacies of an insurance policy and that's something that a public adjuster can help in. So we found that associations that hired an adjuster usually received twice as much, if not three times as much, as associations that did not hire an adjuster. And it's something we recommend and that's why we started our own division because, after Irma, some of the issues were that the adjusters were so busy and so overwhelmed because everybody was filing claims, that we kind of lost track of some of the, in other words, they didn't proceed against certain cases because they were so busy and so overwhelmed that they wanted to go after the one that was a for sure claim versus the one that, you know, had minor roof damage. So, let's talk a little bit about that. So now we've done what we can to mitigate. We've hired an adjuster. And we're into that process of working with them and, and trying to get the most that we can for a client. So what are some of the things that associations can keep in mind when they hire an adjuster in which they expect in that process? Francis: So the, so let me make it clear, I don't think any association, any homeowner, anybody should go alone in the claims process. And I tell this even to my personal friends. I don't want this to be an insurance bashing session because I think insurance companies are a very important part of the process, and most insurance adjusters that I've met are conscientious people doing their job. However, let's make something clear. The minute you file a claim, the nature of your relationship with the insurance company has changed. You've gone from being a customer to becoming a liability on their books. So the adjuster is not a customer service person. They're not there to make nicey nice with you and make the whole customer service experience. They're there to make sure that if the insurance company has to pay this, that they're only going to pay for exactly what they have to pay for by the letter of the contract. Okay. So the first thing you're going to do, even before any loss, and this goes back to the whole, what do you do before hurricane season, is, and this is very important, review your policy. Okay. It's very important that when your agent sends your new annual renewal over to you, don't just take it, you don't just file it, and wait till the hurricane strikes to find out what's in it. There's a few things you're going to want to look at and look at the declarations page, these are things that when you hire an adjuster, you talk to an attorney, you talk to anybody, even the insurance companies’ adjust after the fact, you already have knowledge and knowledge, as we always know is power. Know your deductible. The deductible is a very important thing, especially when it comes to catastrophes.  In the State of Florida and most states now, the insurance industry uses what's called a hurricane deductible. So you may think you have as a homeowner, let's say for example, normally you have a thousand dollar deductible, right? But if a hurricane strikes in the state of Florida, if any loss happens during a named catastrophe, during a named storm, you know, declared by, even if you're in Orlando and the named storm happens in Miami, you have wind storm damage during that time, believe it or not, you may be subject to hurricane deductible, which is multiples of your normal deductible. It can be 2%, 5%, even 10% of the overall value of the policy. So your homeowners’ association has a $5 million policy. You could be looking at a $500,000 deductible. Know what that's going to mean in terms of having them to do a special assessment. Good luck going back to your HOA if you're a property manager and saying, ‘Whoops, you guys got a half-million-dollar deductible here. We didn't really think about this and now there's going to be a special assessment.’ How does the board explain that to all the homeowners? You know, these are simple things that you can do right now to protect yourself and your property clients. So that's one thing, definitely know your deductible.  The second thing and this is very important, identify key exclusions. There are exclusions and they're listed in your dec page and those exclusions, believe it or not, sometimes contain a windstorm exclusion, crazy because live in the state of Florida, and as we all know, we deal with windstorms here. We actually had a case recently where a potential client called us out. Hey, we've got a bunch of missing tabs or shingles on a roof. Can you guys come have a look at it? We get out there. It's an adult assisted living facility, nursing home, with, you know, six or seven buildings and several outbuilding and they all had damaged. Shingles blown off everywhere. And for us, we’re looking for very specific things over key areas. It's a certain amount of the roof damage and some other things that I may go into that with some pictures in a little bit, but it's all there. This is a very supportable claim under a standard policy. I look at their dec page, they have a windstorm exclusion. They basically, one of the primary causes of roof damage in the state of Florida, and they excluded it out of their policy. Why? To save a few bucks on the premium. That's why. And a lot of times agents, you know, so it's very important in speaking to your agent. Hey, if you have any questions about your dec page, if you have any questions about your deductible, if you have any questions about your policy, call your agent. That's what they get paid for. They don't just get paid to renew your policy, get you to sign some paperwork, and collect permission. Agents like adjusters are licensed to read policy language and interpret it and explain it to customers. So he is there. She is there. Have her come out, explain to you, explain to your board, what is this policy about? What are these exclusions? Why don't we have this kind of coverage or that coverage? And what's it going to cost us if a wind storm hits, the deductible, questions like that. So, identifying key exclusions is important in the state of Florida. You definitely don't want a windstorm exclusion. You don't want a hail exclusion. You don't want any of those kinds of exclusions that are the bigger perils that we all experience here in Florida.  And then another thing you have to be aware of or beware of, is the right to repair. So insurance companies are starting to do this sometimes and basically what this gives them is the right to choose the contractor. And the reason they want to choose their own contractor versus you choosing yours is for a couple of things. Well, really the main is the same money. I mean, let's just get the bottom of it. So the contractors that work for insurance companies are on a program. They do the roofs at a very reduced cost. Anybody who's in a business, or works for a business, or owns a business, runs a business, knows that nothing in life is free. If they're going to do a job for half of what it normally goes for in the marketplace, where are they going to recapture the money? They're going to recapture the money from the homeowner or from the property? Because at the end of the day, they can't do the job for that much less than still make money. So with these program vendors, what they often do is they'll go out and they'll agree to the company's scope. Scope is what exactly the job entails to get done. And so a lot of times where insurance companies cut corners is not on a cost of the shingle or on the cost of the underlayment or on the cost of, you know, this kind of board or that board. It's on whether they're going to put in the, the same quality of underlayment that you have there before. It's whether they're going to approve to put in all this other stuff that you had there before, or that has to be done in order to do the job correctly. We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute But then the last thing we definitely want to be looking for is note any changes to your policy. This is another one that a lot of folks don't really think about. The state of Florida requires insurance carriers to notify their customer if there are any changes to their policy. So at renewal time, you may get a letter in the mail, and really it's all that the state of Florida statutes requires to send them a letter, but you get letters in the mail all the time. Right? You've got a busy office and I'm talking to a general property manager, probably got a couple of assistants, a couple of people working out on the property, things like that, and a piece of mail comes in, if it's from the carrier, you need to look at it. Even if it looks like it's marketing, you know, either assign or have a responsible person, either in the property management team or on the board, have a look at anything that has to do with policy because they will change the policy and all of a sudden, now you've got this change. They're excluding this. They're changing the terms of that. And the state of Florida requires them to send you a letter, but it doesn't do you any good if you just kind of take that letter and you file it away and then you get your policy renewed and then disaster strikes and all of a sudden you're not covered or you have reduced coverage for it. Ana: That's a very important point. Francis: Hmm. Yeah. Oh, and the reason I make it as, cause we've seen these things before. These are all things from experience. We do a lot of insurance and you'd be surprised how often, you've been paying these premiums all these years, then you have a loss and as I said, the adjuster is not there to say, well, you know, you have a windstorm exclusion now, but we're going to go ahead and take care of you because you know, you're a good customer. You know this is not American Express’ customer service department talking. They're not like, okay, you know what? We'll give you some points. We'll give you some miles. It's going to be good. No, they're going to ‘aha We don't have to pay these million dollars.’ That's what their job is. So that just covers some of the things with regards to that. Ana: Now that we have our policy in place and we know what's covered, talk a little bit about the claims process. Maybe beginning to end, so we have an idea of what to expect.  Francis: So, and Rob's going to be able to jump in here because he has as much or more experience in getting on roofs the last 30 years with these adjusters, 25 years, with these guys. Storm blows through, it's safe for your team to go outside or to go to the property and start documenting, taking photography, have your roofer come out and mitigate, things of that nature? You're going to file a claim and the insurance company's going to provide you with a claim number and they're going to schedule an adjuster to come out. This can sometimes take a couple, several weeks, just even get an adjuster on a regular claim. After a catastrophe environment, it’s a little different because what they'll do is they have teams of field adjusters and these mostly are third-party adjusters, people that work for separate adjusting companies that represent the insurance industry. They may not be internal employees, but this is how they scale up after a storm. When, and I remember after Irma, and Katrina, Harvey out in Houston, all these storms that we've seen over the last 10, 12, 15 years is, there's armies of adjusters that are going out there and just signing paperwork, writing checks, signing paperwork, writing checks. So there’s a little bit of a different environment right after a catastrophe, but the process is basically the same. The adjuster is going to come out. They're going to inspect the damage. They're going to collect information in evidence. They're going to take their own pictures. They're going to do their own thing. This is why it is essential at this stage of the process to make sure that you're prepared for this. If your contractor can be out there, if your professional can be out there, you have a PA and this is when they should be out there as well, in conjunction with your contact and making sure that you have all the information that you need. You're going to go through and you're going to provide all the documentation you need to have. You're help guide the process. Some insurance adjusters are leery. The more experienced ones are going to be like, ‘Hey, no, wait a minute. I know what I'm doing.’ Well, you know what, at the end of the day, yeah, they do know what they're doing, but they're not licensed, construction professionals. So that's why it's important for our customers and our clients, why we're there.  I'm going to show you a perfect example of what we do if that's okay? This is an example of a roof of that we go out there, we meet with the adjuster, everything gets marked up, shows exactly where we've got damage. This has hail damage on this roof. So I want to go ahead and talk a little bit about this particular structure. You're going to see the missing shingles here, on the ridge cap. You're going to see, and Rob, you can jump in here, you know, this as well as anybody, you're going to see some of the hail hits, and you can see where it's been circled. This evidence is all there to prove, you know, ‘Hey, this roof needs coverage.’ This is a 44 building apartment complex that we're doing right now next to Universal Studios. We've gotten it approved for full coverage by the insurance company. Basically, and Rob was the one that managed this process, he was out there with the engineer. I'll let you talk a little bit more about it. Rob. Robb: Sure. So like Francis says, it’s very important that you have a contractor there at all aspects during the claims process, whether it's with the adjuster, engineer. The reason being is because a lot of these insurance adjusters are fresh out of college. They’ve taken a certification and went through an estimating software class, but as a licensed contractor, we're there to actually point out, all the details of a roof, such as flashing and counter flashing. In this particular case, this was the adjuster out here on this complex, and those are his markings. So what I do also as a contractor, just in case this decides to go to litigation or gets denied, I take the pictures and photos of the adjuster's markings so that we have this in the file as well for the simple fact that the field adjuster obviously finds damage on these roofs. And we went on about 15 roofs and what they do is they do a test square, a 10 by 10 test square, and they circle so many hail strikes within that test square. So it's important that I'm there when this happens because I, I can give my knowledge, my expertise, my findings to the adjuster, build a rapport with him, and in this case, I took pictures of his markings, just to have in our file again. So that way, if it was denied we at least showed that the adjuster showed that this claim or this apartment complex had damaged as well. So, it's very important that we are there, not only as a representative of the HOA or, property managers, but to make sure we're documenting everything possible and treating every roof as if it’s a crime scene. Trying to find collateral damage on all the soft metals is crucial to support finding hail damage throughout the roof. And again, taking pictures of the adjusters. we also have an engineer that came out.  They sent an engineer after the adjuster, obviously because it's a large claim, so it's a high dollar claim. And when the engineer came out, we get we go up again to 15 buildings in hundred-degree heat and at that point, I've marked, I took pictures of all his photo, his documentation and helped to identify damage throughout, because it was actually, in this insurance policy, they had a wind exclusion. So when we were able to find that out initially, we went on the roof looking for him because we knew that there was a hailstorm in that area. So what we did was we helped the association file a claim under hail. Now had we made a mistake and try to put it under wind, it would've been denied. So we have to do our research and due diligence upfront to make sure that, you know, we are identifying the damage and making sure it's consistent with the policy. So there's a very important, like Francis said, as far as understanding your policy and making sure you're reviewing it annually. Especially when changes are happening.  Francis: So we, we went back through the weather reports, and we have applications that we use for this, and we identified a specific hail storm. Found hail damage, in order to get around that windstorm exclusion, and went back and just were able to support that before we even filed a claim. We did all our due diligence and prepared a whole entire report by the time that we talked to the adjuster and have it clean filed, we had all our ducks in a row. And that's, that's why we're always encouraging folks not to go it alone. Hire a professional. It's very important if your a property manager, even if you're just a regular homeowner, don't, don't go it alone. Hire somebody who knows what they're doing, whether it be an adjuster, or an attorney, or a contractor like us that has the experience, that has connections with a lot of good adjusters and attorneys. This is not a process that you want to go through by yourself, because it's going to be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases after catastrophe, even if you're just a single-family homeowner. So that's the first thing they come out, they're going to do their inspection. They're going to gather their documentation as you saw. They're going to go back to their office. They're going to put all this together. They're going to look very closely, very closely at your policy and the evidence that they have. And, by the way, their investigation will very likely, especially the more money it's worth, include an interview with yourself, or your team, or anybody who was on the property when the thing occurred. Anybody who has knowledge about, they may see some things depending on the type of claim it is that there may have been a preexisting thing here that this wasn't caused so much by a peril, as by a dereliction of maintenance and things of that nature. That's another reason why it is important to maintain your roof because that's something that they're always going to use if they can, poorly maintained structure, to deny your claim. So they're going to go back to their office, they’re going to make a determination of coverage. And this is a very important step in the whole claims process. Are they going to pay for it? I mean, that's the first thing that you and, and your side is trying to get them to give you a positive determination of coverage. If the positive determination of coverage is made. Then the next question is, what is the scope? The scope is what is it going to take to fix this job and leave this structure the way that it was before the loss occurred. And this is really where all the questions come in, at that point. This is, if there's going to be, I don't want to see an argument, but there's going to be a big difference between yourself and your contractor, your adjuster, and the insurance company, it's going to be right here because the insurance company's going to come back, we run into this all the time. They don’t want to approve replacing flash. Well, why aren't you approving replacing flashing? We need to tear out all the old flashing in order to do the job correctly, right? We're going to, we're not going to take you all flashing with a bunch of nails and nail every single in the exact nail hole. So a lot of times what the adjusters do is they start with, this is a negotiation, as I said before, and what is it that any good negotiator does? The first offer they make is always the lowest offer. So they're going to come out with a very stripped down estimate. and then, you know, that's what we have to come in, and that's where people who know what they're doing representing you come in and say, No. You guys aren't putting enough here to get this done the way it should be. Get us the best roof, the very best material, or the very best structure. This is what we have here before, and this is really what it takes to do this job right.  We had a case recently, where older tile roofs don't have decking underneath. They have first strips and basically, when you tear off the top, you have to come back and do re-decking because the codes have changed. Now, you actually need to put plywood down on all the trusses and have a deck underneath. Well, the insurance carrier didn't want to pay for that. They have to because there's a section of most policies called ordinance of code, and that means in order to repair a loss they have to make sure it's something code, which means if there's extra monies required to get the job up to code because it's, it's an older structure, which,  Robb: which that's also another, important, part of the policy. There's a lot of people that we've come across that do not have ordinance of law coverage in their policy. And what that means is if something needs to be brought up to code, it will be at the expense of the, of the insured to have to pay for that. So that's another important thing to make sure that you have ordinance and law coverage in your policy. Francis: And that's a very good point because in this case, it ended up almost doubling the cost of the roof in order to do it up to ordinance of law. Now, this homeowner did have ordinance of law. The adjuster declined it. Declined to pay for it, even though they had approved for the decking on a same exact roof, just a few doors over. So obviously they felt  Ana: What was their reasoning?  Francis: They don't always need one.  Robb: The same company and the same adjuster! Francis: It's the same adjuster, not just the same. So these are the things we run into. They had ordinance of law. And then that's one of those where, they basically hired an attorney and so once they get a law firm, the lawyer, all of a sudden you get it approved. Ana: Right. Francis: You know that's where you need somebody like an adjustment attorney. You need somebody who knows what they're saying. Do you know what an average homeowner on their own wouldn't have even known that their policy actually paid for this? They would have never known that the adjuster had approved the same exact house eight doors down with the exact same kind of roof that had approved it. Yeah, for the same insurance company, the same adjuster. So these are the things where definitely having a professional on your side is going to make all the difference in the world. In this case, tens of thousands of dollars of difference. So, at that point, once they make a determination of coverage, really what it comes down to is what's that coverage going to be worth.  And that's where, again, it is critical to have somebody who is representing you that can help you in that process, make sure that, ‘Hey, this estimate from the insurance, good, it looks good to me.’ And they're going to give me all this money. Right. I'm going to go put this new roof on, or I'm going to rebuild this interior or whatever the case is, but it's not. Ana: So talk to me a little bit about the role of an adjuster. Francis: Okay. So, and again, you know, I like insurance company adjusters. We have good relationships with a lot of them. This is not even about saying that they're out there to get you, but they have a very specific role. The adjuster's role is to determine what, whether coverage is available, and if so, established the insurance companies’ scope to do that job and complete the repairs within the limits of that coverage. Okay. That's their job. Their job is to interpret the policy, look and see what happened at your property, and then make sure that they're only doing as much as the policy allows them to do. Okay. The adjuster represents the insurance company. They don't represent you. They do not represent the insured. They're not there to do the insured’s bidding or to help the insured in any way. Their job is, now it seems like they might be there to help you because they end up signing the check because they have to.  A field adjuster may come out at first. So there's a couple of different kinds of adjusters and this is important to understand. When you have a claim, they're going to send an adjuster out. Especially after a catastrophe, the chances are it's gonna be a field adjuster. This is the person that's going to come out and gather the evidence and walk the property and take photography and prepare the file. But the field adjuster rarely has any authority to make a determination of coverage. They have very little authority to make decisions on the claim. It's a desk adjuster. That's somebody inside of the insurance company. So this desk adjuster may have a bunch of field adjusters for gathering evidence. The desk adjuster is the one that's actually reading the policy. They're an employee of the insurance company while the field adjuster, maybe a third party, outside contractor. The field adjuster, we see this all the time, it comes out and looks around and says, wow, there's a lot of damage here. Wow. This is going to get covered. You're good to go. You know, let me take all this information down and then they go back and two weeks later you get a call from the adjuster says we're denying your plane. So that's also very important to understand. So the adjusters are going to come out and they're going to review the evidence, they're going to make a determination of coverage. That is their job. The adjuster is trained and licensed to interpret policy language. That's the only thing that their license allows them to do. They're not licensed, construction professionals. They don't, they haven't any training in construction trades. As Rob said, we run into a lot of kids, wet behind the ears have been out of college two, three years. You know, they took some insurance courses in college. They come into an insurance company. They start out as a rookie, they get their sit for their license. The insurance company, especially after catastrophe, when they need bodies, throws them out on a, on a roof and all of a sudden, these guys were supposed to know everything about how to build a roof. That's why also a public adjuster who has a lot of experience with somebody who can help you a lot because this person's probably seen and been around. And if they've got more experience than the insurance company's adjuster then your at an advantage, and that's, that's very important, experience and knowledge is power. So they're not trained to build anything. They're not trained on the code. They don't understand the state. They haven't taken a license. They haven't sat for all the tests to for the state of Florida building code. So that is an important thing to understand. Just because they deny your claim, if the damages there, if your licensed contractor says, ‘Hey, look, we do insurance roofs. We know that there's this many hail strikes. We know that there's this many missing tiles of broken tiles. We're lifting the tiles up. There's this many square feet, there's this many to go up two inches. You've got this many loose. It meets the criteria, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ Now, no, you've got that claim. Even if they deny you, pursue your next step, which is going to be, you know, having representation on your side, possibly even getting a lawyer. So, but the adjuster's role and this is very important is to represent the insurance company, to decide if and whether you've got coverage for this claim, they're not there to represent you or to do you any favors. So that's none of their role. And a lot of times people forget that. You want to see the insurance adjuster come out right after a hurricane, cause he's hopefully gonna sign you a check, but you have to be understanding that this is an adversarial process when it gets to the claims, to the level of the thing. Ana: Is there anything that the association, the manager, or a multi-family real estate investor can do, throughout this process to help in this process to make it successful, make it a successful claim.  Francis: Absolutely. First of all, be nice to your adjuster. You know, Rob mentioned before getting all of these roots and building a relationship. We actually deal with a lot of the same adjusters in some of the markets over and over and over, because usually, it's a handful of guys that work for a particular large insurer. You're going to run into them. You want to be nice to those guys. You want them to understand you're there to just do your job. You're just there to protect, just as they're there to do their job. Don't ever lie, if you’re being investigated. You know, they're doing an interrogation, I call it interrogation and that’s what it feels like, they're interviewing you about the loss. Be honest. Those kinds of things, but, the most important thing you can do is to have your documentation for your claim. And I've mentioned this before. Rob used a term of crime scene and that's actually a funny term that we use internally. We don't really always talk about that with clients, but we treat it like a crime scene, for us, it's like CSI. When Rob gets on a roof and, you saw the pictures earlier, and kind of presents the adjuster, ‘Hey man, I just want to take it.’ He's already been up there a bunch of times. So that's why he's there for the meeting. He knows exactly where to lead this guy. Okay. ‘See what we have over here. I know you're going to do this many squares, that you're going to look at this whole area right here. At least this roof needs,’ they end up walking 15 buildings of a 41, 44 building complex. They’re prepared to approve the whole thing. So documentation is everything. And that's why we, for our clients who I always recommended, to let us do the documentation. We're going to come out and we're going to fix that roof anyway. So let us take the pictures. Let's prepare the file. Let us deal with the adjuster and managing that process, but it is important certainly that you have a good relationship with the adjuster and that you provide everything that they request from you, as quickly as possible. The second thing is, if you can, if you're working with an experienced contractor or public adjuster, they're going to be able to help you prepare an estimate using Xactimate. And the reason you want to do that is, so I mentioned scope before, the insurance companies are going to put together an estimate that's going to be based upon what they think they need to do all the materials and labor and equipment that is going to be needed to put your roof together. They’re going to prepare that in software called Xactimate. So let's clarify something here, and this is something that's a misconception for a lot of people. We never negotiate the price of a roof. Nobody negotiates the price of the roof.  Adjusters don't negotiate the price of a roof with anybody. What they negotiate is the scope. The pricing of every single line item is preset. The insurance industry uses a pricing schedule that has all the pricing for every single element of a structure in it, all the labor items, all the equipment, and tool items. That's all preset, depending upon which market you're in, what the market conditions are, even down to the zip code. So when we sit there and we negotiate with an adjuster, we're not talking with them about, it's a matter of fact unless you're licensed that adjuster, you're not really allowed, in the state of Florida to negotiate pricing, but we don't negotiate. And we don't tell the adjuster, well, instead of this and this first shingle paint this much, you're going to pay this much. No, we accept all their prices. So the problem is they say, well, we're only gonna, put in this many shingles. No, all this area has damage, you need to put in this many more shingles to do the job. So that ends up changing the bottom-line cost to the job. But the pricing is always set. The insurance companies have it in a program called Xactimate. We use Xactimate as well. If you're going to hire a public adjuster make sure that they either have access to a contractor like us that can do it for them and working for you and that they understand Xactimate and that they understand the process. Right. So that's important, that you have an understanding of what the scope should be. Don't accept the insurance company’s scope or estimate. For example, if your car, if you had a car accident, you got a really nice BMW and you know, or it caught on fire, God forbid, and you're gonna want those leather seats back. And if the insurance company is going to come back to you with fabric seats or plastic seats or what, you know that's unacceptable,  Robb: Or even, even aftermarket. That's what they will tend to do. And the construction side of things to come with an off-brand or something like that, or poor quality. Francis: They'll cut corners on quality of the materials or cut corners on the quantity of the materials. They'll cut corners on materials in general. I mentioned flashing before. Rob, I know you've run into a few of those here in the last few weeks. Why don’t you speak a little bit about some of those items that you fought for and gotten on some of the clients here in Orlando? Robb: Sure. So just to give you an example after you’ve stripped down a roof to the decking, the most important part of that roof is the underlayment and the flashing. So what insurance companies tend to do is pay for a lot of those, light items, but they always don't want to put flashing in there or counter flashing, which that's the first area that's gonna leak after installing a new roof. Cause when you're tearing off a roof, you have L flashing, that may be damaged from tearing off a roof. A little pinhole can cause a leak in the L flashing. So what we typically do is we will, on our estimates, point out all the areas where there's L flashing, counter flashing to make sure that they cover that part of the roofing system that is crucial. I can't tell you how many times, and again, not to knock on these adjusters, they just don't understand the construction of a roofing system. So sometimes it's just that they don't know. On average, most insurance estimates are short paid up to 35%. And, on the scope of work or when they actually write a letter on what the estimate says that you reserve the right to supplement. And that's where we come in as the experts to make sure that they're making the insurance hold and that they're getting paid for like-kind material of the material that's currently on there. Francis: So having your own scope that is your professional coming in and determining what is there, and what's really going to need to be done to put that roof back together, make sure it never leaks again, make sure that it's as good as, or better than it was before. Really is good,  cause that's what the insurance company's on the hook for. That's critical. That's very critical. You know, Rob just talked about some examples where they may leave off a few things that may seem minor That somebody who's not versed in construction practices may not realize, and that critical little area of L flashing, that's where all of a sudden you've got a leak that can lead to something a lot bigger later. The next thing you definitely want to do is communicate, communicate, communicate with your public adjuster, and your contractor. You're going to be getting a lot of stuff, especially the bigger the claim, in terms of, communication, mail, phone calls from your adjuster, from your insurance carrier. Make sure that they're in the loop on all of that. Especially when it comes to any meetings with engineers or adjusters. These people are representing you, they're there for you. If you've got an important court case ahead of you and you get a summons in the mail, you think you should mention it to your attorney? Yeah, probably. So same thing here. You know, because they're there to protect you and to make sure that at the end of the day, you get a positive outcome for your claim and that you get all the money and all the scope that you need to do that job right.  And then the final thing, and I hate to say this, but be prepared to fight for what you paid for. The moment you file a claim, I mentioned it before, you go from being a customer to being a liability. Be prepared to fight for all those premiums you paid for all those years. Okay. Your adjuster, your contractor they're on your side, help them help you. Be prepared if it takes litigation. If it takes going the extra mile to provide documentation to your adjuster, whatever they asked me for, make it happen. Cause at the end of the day, even though we're going to make nicey nice with these adjusters and we're going to do everything we can, you. It's an adversarial process. They're looking for every loophole. If they can deny the claim, they will.  Ana: And I agree with your assessment. I think that my experience has always been that they are very nice, but they do try to find a way to get out of paying what they have to pay. And they're always going to come in with a lower estimate, or maybe try to work on reducing the scope somehow,  whatever the case may be. But having an adjuster and having professionals, such as yourself, certainly is going to help maximize the most that they can receive out of that claim.  Francis:  And understand, we work very well with public adjusters. We were there to support them when they're on a case. We're there to help them put the estimate together, to help them get as much money for their customers. What they're trying to do at the end of you mentioned before you get two to three times, because that initial estimate for the insurance company leaves of a lot out. And that's why you want folks that know what you're really supposed to get it and to help you fight for it. Robb: And to touch a little bit on that, when the apartment complex in 43 buildings, just so you know, they approved this right off the bat. Didn't have to go to attorneys. I built a great rapport with them. In fact, they are currently putting the estimate together and they're going to send it to me to review it before they send it for payment. So that's the type of relationship that we look to have with the engineers, the adjuster, certainly the insurance adjusters that we meet on-site. And establish that really good rapport. It means having the knowledge, and being able to identify damage and, talk, kind of say, like their language. And so they understand, goes a long way. So that's a great client for us now. And now they know we're looking out and we’ll inspect some other of their apartment complexes and facilities.   Ana: And the fact that you work in the panhandle means that you basically go anywhere in Florida, right? Robb: Yes. So Orlando, Tampa, Panhandle, Miami.   Ana: Okay. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today. I can tell you that I've learned a lot and I'm sure that my clients and the listeners have as well. If they wanted to get ahold of you or talk to you a little bit about your services or maybe even hire you guys, how do they get more information? Francis: Our 800 number for the entire state of Florida is  866-6SunFlo  that's 866 6SunFlo. They can also go to sunfloroofing.com and again, SunFlo is not with a w on the end. It's short for sunshine Florida. We all love the sunshine here, but we get busiest when it's gone. Ana: Absolutely. Well, to our listeners, thank you guys for joining us today. And, of course, you can get more information about us at alliedpropertygroup.net. And our phone number is (305) 232-1579. So thank you again, have a great day, you guys. Robb: Thank you Francis: Thank you so much.

Ana Rivero: Hi, and welcome to community association matters. The podcast for condominium and homeowners associations. In South Florida. As you know, Ana Sanchez Rivero your host for the podcast. And I want to thank you for joining us today. As you know, we cover a lot of topics that affect condominiums and homeowners and most recently, the Covid 19 phenomena has occurred. And obviously it's a gray situation that's affecting everyone in the world and it's having its impact on associations. So many of our clients have a lot of questions as to what to do and and what does it mean when we're going through this pandemic. We found through hurricanes, and I think most of us pretty much have a hurricane plan in place. We know what to do, but this is very new to all of us, and I think we're just learning our way around. A feeling way around and how to deal with these situations. So I asked David Iglesias, yes. from Iglesia Las Group to join me today so that we can cover some of So David, welcome to the show. How are you today? David Iglesias: Good, how are you? Thank you, Anna. Same thing. I'm working from home. I'm glad to be here, but not under these circumstances with this pandemic and everything else is going on. Ana Rivero: Yeah, this is a truly is crazy, I think. I think all of us can say that none of us have lived through this and it's definitely an extraordinary time. David Iglesias: definitely is. It's, it is for community associations. I think it is for the law. I mean, it's changing every single day and we're trying to just work our way through it. Ana Rivero: So, thank you for being here and I really appreciate that. And I want to start a little bit about, first of all, tell us about you. You've practiced condo law. David Iglesias: I do practice condo law. I've been doing this almost 14 years. I represent over a hundred associations, whether a condo or HOA, and I think one co-op, but I'm, for the most part, it's condo and HOA work. And I used to work for a large law firms, so I'm familiar with. associations on the grand scale as well as on my own here for the last five years or so, doing this type of work. Ana Rivero: Right. And I know that we worked together on a handful of communities, so, definitely look forward to continued growth for both of us. David Iglesias: Yes. Ana Rivero: So let's talk a little bit about coven. obviously we know that it's a, a virus. we know that, it spreads through contact. And, you know, it's, the projections are not looking very well and it looks like we're going to be in this for quite some time. So we, you know, today is March 30th. this is probably going to continue, at least according to president Trump, a lockdown as far as businesses and non essential businesses working from home for at least another 30 days. Right. David Iglesias: That's correct. I mean, from everything I've seen, and you know, our audience who's watching this today, they saw from the president, even the governor this morning who stated that it looks like it's going to be all the way through May 15th as to this so-called stay at home order. I think he said this morning that it's going to be for Miami Dade, for Broward, for Palm beach County, and for Monroe County. So I mean, that's at least another 45 days from now. So yeah. It is, it is considered an emergency. I think that for the last couple of weeks, lawyers been kind of going back and forth as to whether this is an emergency as it relates to associations. but, but yes, it's an emergency. It is an emergency. Ana Rivero: What does that mean exactly for associations? Do they, do they have additional powers? David Iglesias: actually, yes, associations have additional powers. and I guess when we say additional powers. I mean, it really means that some of these things like holding a board meeting, they can hold it, you know, within a shorter period of time than the 48 hours that's normally required. these emergency powers. again, there was a question Mark about them for the last two weeks because the emergency powers you'll find in the condo statute. And the HOA statute really related to hurricanes and things like that. This is really, I don't think it was written specifically for pandemics, like lists, but, it's one of those things that, you know, it now applies. And actually on Friday, the DBPR, the division of business and professional regulations issued an order specifically. I'm relating it to the Corona virus, these emergency powers and to this pandemic. Ana Rivero: And what are those powers say exactly? What did they say in that order that they issued? David Iglesias: So the issue as it relates to the order, basically the, the statute for both the condos and hos had a requirement, related to damage after a disaster. So what the order did was it said, that section doesn't really have to apply now. and, and it further gave it authority as it relates to human health services and their role in all this. So these emergency powers will give the associations the right to again, hold a board meeting maybe first. I'm in a shorter period of time, the 48 hours, let's say they want to close the pool or having too many people there and they just want to close it. Now they can post a notice and, and hold a quick board meeting in order to close the pool in an effort to, you know, keep the, as you stated, you know, the social distancing and other things like that. Ana Rivero: So now that you bring that up, there was a, I think city of Miami mayor. Also, either he issued a decree or sent out an email or an order, two condominium associations. Obviously I directed at the Brickell, but communities that are along the Brickle side of Miami and basically stated that they should shut down their common areas. Now, we had asked our associations. To shut down about two weeks ago when I think the County, I shouldn't order. Since we represent a lot of communities throughout Miami Dade County, some in Broward, different municipalities came in at different times, but as soon as Miami Dade issued one for the County. We told our clients, you should shut down your gyms. You should shut down. the ballrooms or the meeting rooms. That's hold meetings during conferences. But we did have a few clients that gave us a bit of a pushback. They didn't want to close the pool down, for example, because they felt that, you know, kids are on a school and it spring break just passed for us here in Miami day. And what impacts. Was that going to have in the community? For us it was a safety matter. So what do you tell those condominium associations? What? What is their rights under these orders to act well, David Iglesias: the associations. Generally you want to be in these kinds of situations. You want to be as conservative as possible. So if the city of Miami is issuing it to the Brickell, you know, condominiums and Miami Dade County has these orders out, I think you want to follow those. Even the communities that don't want to, they say, no, you know it's is, you know, we'll be careful. We'll have less than 10 people there. You still want to. I would say close the pools because there's always a question about liability. I'm sure in the next couple of months, unfortunately there may be, you know, people who pass away from this and some of our communities, and if they can somehow link that to the pool or claim that somehow the association was involved, there's a potential for exposure liability, whether it's true or not, whether that even applies. I think it's best for the community itself to go ahead and and close the pools. I mean for liability reasons, for safety reasons to avoid as many issues as possible. You're just, you're asking for trouble. I think if you leave these pool areas, open these gymnasiums open at this time. Now, if the association feels. Now this is the best thing for the association. Leave it open then, you know, that may be their choice. There's something called the business judgment rule that allows the associations to make these decisions in the best interests of their community. But from everything I ski right now, I think it's best to close the polls. Ana Rivero: Speaking of liability, how, how much exposure do associations have or individuals even can an individual then has Covid be held? Responsible is they don't, well, 19 for example. That's another question that board members are asking us. David Iglesias: Yeah, that's, that's, that's something I think to some extent that is a new idea in the sense that, you know what, if like you said, somebody has Covid 19 they decided not to quarantine and they would, if they maliciously or purposely try to touch somebody else or you know, get close to somebody else and that person gets infected. Is there a liability there? There may be liability and for the associations for that very reason, you want to make sure you close down these pool areas and that sort of thing. Now as to quarantining or somebody self quarantining, that's something that, the association doesn't really have the power to keep somebody in their house or their condominium. That doesn't mean that the association shouldn't, you know, call the authorities if somebody's violating, you know, a quarantine order. Maybe they should. You know, call the CDC or call their local authorities as it relates to that. But the association itself doesn't necessarily have the power to, you know, keep somebody in their house. Ana Rivero: Makes sense. Now, what if I have a resident that is sick in one of our communities and we just found out about it this morning, and what we did was we drew up a notice where we're advising the residents that someone is sick in the community that. To stay calm and we've, we had been already ramping up with our janitorial staff and the different janitorial companies that we work with, our cleaning of the common areas, obviously elevators and you know, stairwells, but the hand rails and so forth. But obviously he can't prevent it. we can't use a, magical radar that tells us where we missed the spawn and where the Corona virus is. And so it's very challenging to say that this has been sanitized and there is no danger. So for this particular unit, what we did was we told the community there is somebody that is sick, so please take the additional precautions to protect yourself or doing what we can. But you have to do it as well if we do the right thing. David Iglesias: I think so. I think it's the best thing you can do. My understanding all as it relates to this. I think, if an individual tells you that they're sick and they want the community to know, you can put out their name. Otherwise, maybe you shouldn't put out their name for communities out there. if you know someone's sick, you can just say, Hey, we know somebody is sick in the community. Like you said, Anna, please make sure that you know, you take care of yourselves and do what you're supposed to do. I mean, there's all kinds of HIPAA privacy laws as relates to illnesses and medical conditions. So the association should be careful and they should contact their attorneys in regards to that. But it sounds like you guys did the right thing and, and just notifying the community general that somebody is sick, and taking the necessary precautions on your end. Ana Rivero: Now, as far as I'm sticking with that question, at that point of liability, is this something that they could claim on their insurance if they, not just the liability aspect, but let's say that they have a loss. maintenance fees may not be coming in because of the financial impact that this is having on people under likelihood. David Iglesias: There's, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of exceptions. There's a lot of, and these insurance policies and there, you know, there's exceptions for war for other things. This may be one of the things that there's an exception for, but that doesn't mean the association shouldn't attempt to, if, if, if it comes down to it and, and they feel that they need a fall insurance claim, that may be the way to go. But generally, as it relates to assessments. I think the associations, I mean, if we're going to go down that road a little bit, if you don't mind, and I think the association should be, you know, careful and making sure they collect their assessments, being compassionate maybe as to late fees and other things, but they need to continue to collect the assessments. That's critical. That's the lifeblood of the association. Ana Rivero: Yeah, absolutely. We've already received emails from homeowners wanting to know if we're going to waive them. And you know, we have to explain that unfortunately, and I think for the most part, most of the services that provide service to associations are considered essential businesses. And so, I think the County has provided provisions for those candidates, for those companies to continue providing services like the plumbers. The electricians, repair men, poor men and so forth, even us are considered essential. So what we've expected to them is, unfortunately, we can't waive it because we're still paying for those services. What we've, advised our clients is to, maybe this isn't a good time to take on new projects, so maybe we want to slow down any, you know, or not enter into any new projects for right now. And. If people have payment plan, if they need to, or maybe defer a maintenance fee if they're financially able to do so. It's, it's a tough scenario and it's hard to, you know, give a response to homeowners that earn such tough times. What, what is your law firm doing to help maybe those that you have in collections for your communities? David Iglesias: I mean the, the same, same sorts of things. I think, we're working with the associations to waive the late fees potentially if the client or not, if the homeowner asks for that or interest, things like that. we're trying to give out payment plans maybe a little bit longer than we normally would for the pain plans. I think it's important that the associations communicate with their communities and just basically tell them that, you know, unfortunately as you stated on, you know, there's, there's bills to be paid on our end as well. And important is where the security or just general maintenance to the association and management company. All those things are critical to the functioning of the association. So the association should continue to collect this assessments. And you know, I think communication is key in collections in general, whether it's the pandemic or otherwise, it's one the homeowners ignore us. It's when the homeowners don't call the management company that they get into trouble. So the best thing is if you are in trouble as a homeowner in those kinds of situations, I would think is to go ahead and contact the management company and tell them what's going on. And gives the management company, you know, they can put a note on the file and then, you know, whatever, if they're going to waive late fees or if they're just going to put them on a pamphlet and they'll know to do that. It's when they don't communicate that we have the biggest problems. Ana Rivero: I, and I agree with you in that regard, it is definitely a difficult situation that we all find ourselves in and we have to be compassionate, but the association does have to pay for those services and it's hard. So let me jump, So another topic altogether, which is another, a lot of the common questions that we get. as far as, what should associations do to protect their personnel? Do we, do we have to, buy protective gear for them? do we have to, just is there anything else that we need to do for our employees and do we need to continue paying them.  during this time if they become sick. I know that there's, some language or some legislation that was passed recently, providing employees with protection. and, I'm not sure whether that applies to condos and HOAs. David Iglesias: Right. I think that's really something specific that you have to take on a case by case basis. Because some communities may have one employee, some may have none, some may have 10 15 I, I, you know, it all depends. But that is something that is evolving right now, I think as to how to handle that with employees. But in the end, if the association cannot afford to keep those people on staff, they may have to lay them off. And they may have to seek an employment and then come back when they're ready to hire them again as to protective gear. you know, again, I don't think there's a specific requirement, but if somebody is going to be, I'm thinking, you know, maybe security guard or somebody is going to be in contact and grabbing driver's licenses. Maybe you don't give the driver's license. You can just. You know, tell what unit you are. You make modifications as to getting too close to somebody to avoid having that physical contact or maybe give them gloves, but, but in general, there's no requirement that they have protective gear. Ana Rivero: And we talked a little bit about, you know, making those modifications for homeowners that are, you know, into some financial. A problem because of this. How about the easing up of rules? How do you feel about that? What would be your recommendation? As, as an example, we had somebody, a board that, they have a rule that nothing can be in the hallways, no rugs, no personal items. And it's understandable that they cause tripping hazards. They can be a problem. but we had a resident that left. For shoes in the hallway because there is, some, conversation out there in the media that you should leave your shoes outside because it can carry the virus into the property. So where do we set the line of sending that person a violation letter or talking to them and asking them to bring in their shoes versus what they perceive to be a real threat against their health? At what point do we have to stop or do we not stop? Do we continue to enforce the rules as abnormal. David Iglesias: Right? I mean, I, I think we do not stop. I think, you know, black and white. If the law says, you know, I mean, there's always a gray area with everything, but if the rules say you cannot leave anything outside, I don't think an exception should be made at this time under these circumstances. There's nothing, I don't think proven that that's carrying in Corona virus or anything like that. But. Nonetheless, it's just as much a tripping hazard as you stated, as somebody could get infected. So it's almost like two wrongs don't make a right. If you put us, you know, leave those shoes out there and somebody gets hurt, then there's maybe as much liability for the association as if they bring their shoes in. So maybe again, communication to the association, letting them know, you know, that this is a serious thing and maybe have some kind of a pad, you know, on the floor, inside the house. And. Cleaning off the shoes with alcohol or Lysol or some other in some other manner, but I don't think leaving the shoes out is going to help. It's just going to create another liability. Ana Rivero: And as far as parking rules and the interaction between, for example, security guards and residents, I mean, for example, us in our office. we close to the public. so people can only come to see us through an appointment. we're also working remotely from home because we're completely cloud based and we're able to do that. So if somebody needs to come to our office, then we do have them make an appointment and come and see us. But. What about the guards that are out there in the community and the janitorial staff that are cleaning for the guards that interact on a one-on-one, and the enforcement of the rules in general, should we, maybe stop enforcing some parking, you know, guidelines, for example, the request for visitor parking or temporary parking, if they have one in, they need the. the, the guard to hand out a pass that we stop or continue with that and maybe add in some provisions, like having them wear gloves and so forth. David Iglesias: Right. I mean, I think that is, that may be a different circumstance where you're saying as to how the security protocol is as it relates to somebody coming into the property as to the guest passes, visitor passes, you know, if it can be passed along, you know, with a piece of paper that's put on the dashboard. I guess we're not 100% sure about that. it, you know, it's, you're going to have to, I think associations are going to have to waste some of those things, but it may create, you know, it's not like leaving a shoe outside where somebody can trip over. We've already logged this car in as being in the community, so maybe it doesn't need to have that piece of paper on the dashboard, or maybe you don't have to have the security guard, you know, take the driver's license. But, otherwise, yeah, they, I mean, implement whatever I think the association can in order to protect. It's membership and not crossing the line that that's the hard part. Ana Rivero: Right. And again, jumping around because there's a lot of questions that pop into my head cause it's such a, you know, it's so different. This is such a unique situation. We just never gone through that. so now let's skip a little bit more on the formalities that, that we encounter and going back to those emergency rules that you establish, or that you said have been into place. even association has an annual meeting. Should they cancel or postpone the annual meeting or, can we proceed and try to do it via teleconference? what do you think? David Iglesias: I think we have to take it on a case by case basis. But you're right, this is something. I dunno, it has not been seen in what, a hundred years, maybe since the Spanish flu they said in 1917 1918. So really nobody or most that are not alive today I've ever seen or gone through anything like this. as it relates to annual meetings, a lot of my clients are postponing their new meetings. it's just, if it's not necessary, I mean, I think you should. Look at each one. Okay. Is it not necessary? Did not enough? Let's say it's a condo. Did 900 people put their names in? So actually have an election then for sure. You know, I would think a situation where you just postpone it cause it's really not going to change anything right now. if there's a way to do it by teleconference in the sense that maybe it's a small community, 20 units or something, and the association. Can have one person downstairs and everybody on zoom. That may be a way to do it. The board members, as you know, and I don't have to be there in person, they can be on the phone or by video conference. That doesn't apply to the members necessarily. But if the members have the right to speak and, and to participate by video conference, that may be an option. So the association should consider that. Ana Rivero:Yeah, we have an annual meeting tomorrow. There weren't, unfortunately, it's not an election. Not enough candidates signed up. So we decided to postpone the annual meeting, but we're going to proceed with the organizational meeting via teleconference. And so we put the access number and access code on the agenda that was posted. So that way anybody who wishes to participate, is able to do so from their telephone number. I think it's just, you know, a sign of the times. Right. I think that that about covers it. Is there anything else that you wish to add that maybe we haven't discussed or covered to this topic. David Iglesias: I think one of the things that came up for me is for some of my clients last week was in regards to, you know, this issue with people coming in from New York and New Jersey and Connecticut and all these areas where the governor had issued this 14 day self quarantine. I think it relates to your earlier question. The associations may want to post something out there so everybody's aware of it. But, unfortunately, associations can't really control what somebody does. They may just want to, you know, reach out to the CDC or their local authorities if somebody is not abiding by that. But that's something that came up last week. And I think just monitor the news and see what's going on on a daily basis. We all have to, for our families, for our communities. And just be mindful of what's going on around you. Ana Rivero: You just raised a very important point that I did forget to ask, so I'm glad you made that comment. With regards to visitors, I've had re, for example, we got a call from a friend who knows that we do property management and they know of somebody who lives in, I think it was Boca. At any rate, the, the lady was going to help her elderly parents. and so they went through the visitor lane of the security guard area of the condo. And the guard told them that they were sorry, but they couldn't go in to the community because she was a guest. She was a visitor. and I was dumbfounded because up to now, I have not heard of any restrictions with. Visitors at all. I mean, and I thought, Oh my gosh, my mom is elderly. I go and I literally, for the first time in my life, go see my mom and I'll give her a kiss when I say hello, like, you know, I almost did the fist pump, you know, not that type of person, but I had to leave. No, I bought supplies for her and I left it on her door. I was like literally knocked and walked and walked out and you know, just called her and said, I just want to make sure you got what I left you. And you know, she was so thankful. So, you know, we're all, I think that getting to this, but if I couldn't go visit her, how would she even. You know, stay alive because she doesn't drive. So the one who does groceries for her is me. So I just thought of myself in that situation. And so can we prevent visitors from coming into associations. David Iglesias: I think the answer that is easy. Yes and no. I mean, if we're talking about delivery person coming up to your door, maybe there's a way, especially for condo high rise, where they can leave it downstairs as it relates to someone like you who would be essential to your mother's survival and just, you know, being, you know, doing whatever she needs to do. No, there's no way they can keep you from coming in and either can they keep other visitors that are there to help family members and things like that. Now when it comes again, maybe a personal trainer that's coming in, maybe that's not essential, or somebody that needs to remodel their kitchen or bathroom. Maybe this is not the time and you can put some restrictions on that sort of thing, but can you restrict the refrigerator? Your refrigerator goes bad and need to have somebody come repair it. No, you can't restrict that. I think there's a line, and that's important. I'm glad you brought that up to the, I think it's important that the associations have some kind of. Plan in place where they can talk to security, they can talk to the people at the gate or the door. So they understand. Cause maybe if you are going to have a personal trainer come, maybe they do wear a mask or something like that until they get to the person's, you know, room or, or unit. the same thing. I mean there's certain exceptions. Process servers have the right to come, but then you can also try limit them as well. You know, with gloves and other things, but it generally, no, I know you cannot keep the essentials from entering, even if they're considered guests. Ana Rivero: I, I thank you for your time. I think we've covered a lot of topics. I hope this helps. a lot of the board and members and even residents, that get to see this through our Facebook page or through our website. we're just trying to get out as much information as we possibly can to our clients. And I appreciate your time and doing this. I'll definitely be putting a link with your contact info and we create a blog about this. And so, we'll definitely put it on there. So then if anybody needs to reach you, they can. Do you want to give a quick mention of what your website is in your phone number in case anybody wants to call you right away? David Iglesias: Thank you again, Anna, for having me here.  for this, webinar, my website is https://dilegalgroup.com/. So it's D as in David, Isen, India legal group.com. And my phone number is 9543625222 nine five four three six two five two, two two. Thank you, Anna. Ana Rivero: And of course, allied property group has been serving communities since 2003 in South Florida. We're now also, open in the Fort Myers, Naples, and Southwest Florida area. please give us a call at 305.232.1579 . If your management company is not giving you this basic information. we're here to help you and we're here to help you get through this process. which is so challenging for all of us. So thanks for tuning in and hopefully the next time we do one of these, this is all over and it was just a bad nightmare. Have a good day. Everybody.  

Ana Rivero: Welcome, welcome to "Community Association Matters". You get to see a name with a face. Finally, and I'm so glad to have you back in the 2020s and new year. So hopefully we'll do a few more of these, podcast vlogs, if you will. And I'm so glad that you guys are back with us and joining us. We have some great new ideas and topics that we're going to be discussing over the upcoming months. And I hope you continue to join us in the future.  So, as you know, our podcasts are sponsored by Allied Property Group. So Allied Property Group is a full service, condominium and homeowner association management firm. We have been serving South Florida since 2003 so a little bit over 17 years, and we can do onsite and portfolio management. So I hope you reach out to us. our web information and contact information will be available at the end of the, of the vblog.  Today is interesting because we have Sal from Jurado and Associates. Jurado law. Perfect. Sal and I have been working together for many, many years. And we were just talking about some exciting news. We've opened up an office in the Fort Myers, Naples area, so now we can service condo through the Southwest Florida corridors. So we're very excited about that. We hope that you guys will, that hopefully this will reach you and you'll be able to contact us and, and learn a little bit about our company. So, Sal has been working with us for, I don't know how long Sal Jurado: 10  12 years, Ana Rivero: Something like that.  Sal Jurado: Yeah.  Ana Rivero: We look very young, so I know it's hard to believe, but we really have been working together that long. So Sal, tell us a little bit about yourself.  Sal Jurado: Yes. My name is Salvador Jurado, of Jurado Law Group. I've been practicing in the area of condominium and homeowners association law since 2006. This is what we do on a day to day basis. We represent both condos. And HOAs.  I teach a class at the FIU College of Law on community association law. So we are very familiar with, you know, all the trending topics, you know, that are, that are coming up. and looking forward to talking about emotional support animals. Ana Rivero: And Sal has three boys.  Sal Jurado: Yes. And they keep me very busy. Ana Rivero: Well, the reason why we asked you here today is because recently, HUD came out with some new guidelines for emotional support animals and service animals. And that is a very hot topic in not only condominium in HOAs, but also in multifamily and residential properties with landlords. And, it's been, kind of like the wild west for the last few years. There's been a lot of new areas that have developed and that I think giving people more freedom to have these emotional support animals that I'm sure are very important and do serve a role. But the fear is always, where's that balance? Right? There's the balance between someone's rights and somebody else's rights. So, to start off what do you want to tell us about the differences between what a service animal is and what as, an emotional support animal.  Sal Jurado: Yes. And that's an important distinction. Before I get into the service animal and the emotional support animal, I do want to read through, what the intent of the HUD laws are. So you have what's called the Fair Housing Act, right. And I'm going to read it verbatim: The Fair Housing Act states that it is unlawful for a housing provider to refuse to make a reasonable accommodation that a person with a disability may need in order to have equal opportunity to enjoy and use a dwelling. So in a nutshell, what that means is if you need an animal to allow you to enjoy your residence, just like any other person kind of thing. Then you should have the right to be able to bring that animal with you into your, into your dwelling. So the rule has been made, it's a good rule. It has, you know, good intentions. But like Ana said, you need a balance, because you do have homeowners that they push and they push and they try to take advantage of this rule.  So the first question, you know, that needs to be answered is, you know what Ana was saying? Is there a service involved? Or is it an emotional support animal? And the reason why you want to ask that question first is because you know they are different, and there's different standards that apply to each one. So to get into service animals, a service animal can only be a dog. Okay? It cannot be a cat. It cannot be an alligator. I saw it on the news the other day, which was crazy, but it could only be a dog and it has to be a dog, that is trained to assist, you know, with a disability and it requires training. It's harder. I don't see service animal requests as often as I see, the support animal requests. And you'll see why. So a service animal can only be a dog. And number two, it has to be specifically trained to assist the individual with his disability. Ana Rivero: Right. Okay. So like a blind person, perfect example, a guide dog helping him with, you know, accessibility to correct different areas.  Sal Jurado: For example, you know, a dog assisting an individual who's blind. So support animals, that's where, you know, it gets a little gray. A support animal. It doesn't have to be a dog. It can be a cat. It can be a rabbit. It can be a  miniature horse. The other day I saw on the news, an individual who was claiming a beehive, a storm of bees, was her emotional support animals, which is crazy. Yeah, I've seen it. I've seen alligators, individuals requesting that alligators be emotional support animals. So it gets a little trickier with emotional support animals. The purpose of these guidelines is to assist housing providers in, you know, what steps should they take? What questions should they be asking? What questions should they be asking themselves?  And you make a good point. You know, these rules don't only apply to community associations, they apply to any housing provider. So specifically landlords. I represent several landlords and these issues come up just as often as they come up in the condos and the HOAs. So that's the main difference between service and emotional support animals. as we get into this, you'll see that the questions you ask are different depending on whether it's one or the other. Now, one thing that's important is just because an individual requests that you make an accommodation under the service animal side of the rules. That doesn't mean that he then cannot, if that doesn't work out, he can then ask for permission as an emotional support animal. So it doesn't end like, let's say you determine it's not a service animal. It doesn't end there because it may still qualify as a support animal, allowing him to be able to, you know, have the animal with him.  Now regarding condos and HOAs, right. The first thing an HOA needs to ask themselves is, do we even have the right to prevent an animal? So before you get into the whole emotional support, animal or service animal, the first thing a board needs to determine is, do my documents even give me the right to say no, because if it's a set of documents that are silent, they don't say anything, then you're not even in the position to even say no because board's powers are limited to Florida law or whatever's in the declaration  Ana Rivero: So quick question along those lines. a lot of documents may be silent as to pets. Some have guidelines as to what and not, implies that a pet is allowed, but it's also usually under a rule section of the governing documents. So when a board decides they want to change the rule. How does that impact this?  Sal Jurado: Okay, so good question, so if you have a set of rules that are recorded and they're part of the declaration. If you're gonna change what the rule says, if it's a material change, you're going to need a vote by the owners, and it's usually a two-thirds vote for passing. If the board is simply passing a rule to help clarify what the intent of the declaration is, so for example, let's say, the declaration, you know, a good example is, you know, if the declaration says, you know, no dogs allowed, right, but we're going to pass a rule that if the declaration says no dogs allowed unless you get our approval. But we're going to pass a rule that clarifies the steps in order to get our approval right. You're not really changing what the declaration is saying. So in that situation, the board itself can simply just pass a rule at a board meeting. You don't need a membership vote, but if, if you're going from no pets restrictions to 100% pet restrictions there, you're changing, you know, the intent of the declaration. So there you wouldn't need a membership vote.  Ana Rivero: So this is the clarification or where we're seeing the biggest problems is in condos then have the no-pet rule. Correct. Cause the ones that have a pet rule, you can maybe ask that they show vaccines or that they provide proof that the animal is not going to be a danger or that they're going to be in a leash. You can modify some of the rules governing the actual animal, but in a no-pet rule or in a condo that has it in their documents, that there can be no pets. How does this affect them?  Sal Jurado: Meaning a condominium or their documents say no pets allowed? Yes. So the whole, the whole purpose of these, of the Fair Housing Act is to tell homeowners, I mean, housing providers, condos, hos or landlords, the purpose of the FHA is to tell them if you have a no pet policy. Right? You need to make a reasonable accommodation and allow the individual to have a pet if he meets certain criteria and it goes back to every individual has the right to use and enjoy their dwelling. And if the individual can establish that the only way he can use or enjoy their dwelling is with my dog or with my cat, then you have to make an accommodation. So this definitely applies to any association that has a no pet policy. It doesn't matter what your declaration says. Your declaration can be black and white and say, no pets allowed. It doesn't matter. It's a federal law. And  Ana Rivero: It supersedes, I guess, condo documents, correct?  Sal Jurado: Yes. So if the condo documents say no pets allowed, but the individual requests a reasonable accommodation, meaning they're asking, please make an exception for me based on this disability that I have, as long as they follow certain steps, they have to grant that request.  Ana Rivero: So let's talk about that. What are the certain steps that they have to follow, or what are some of the things that we can now do that we maybe weren't allowed to do before? Sal Jurado: Correct. A couple pointers, just practical pointers. You cannot, many, many documents allow you to charge what's called the pet fee, right? Many landlords, you know, require a pet fee, right? You cannot charge a pet fee to either a service animal or an emotional support animal. So let's say the individual, you know, those, what they have to do to get, you know, their, their animal qualified at that point. You know, they're not even considered an animal, but by law. Got it. Okay. I'm sorry. They're not considered a pet. Right. But they are a right.  Ana Rivero: So along those lines, can they do a security deposit or is that no?  Sal Jurado: No Feeing. Yes. It's considered a pet fee. So a mistake that landlords and boards make often is, you know, they charge a pet fee after you get approved. Okay? You got to prove. But we need a pet fee to protect the common, you know, the common elements or common areas that's not allowed for the, for the emotional support or, or service animals. and then like I said earlier, you know, these assistance, animal assistant assistance animals are not considered pets. So. The no pet policy does not apply. That's the way the law is written. Now, if, if for some reason the animal they're requesting, they can't provide, you know, a letter from a doctor, they can provide documentation justifying the need for it, then it is considered a pet and the no-pet policy applies. Okay. Well, that's a simple way. Okay.  Ana Rivero: Looking along the lines of the letter from a doctor. What we see a lot are certifications on the internet or a doctor. We're in Florida and you get a certification from a doctor, from another country or from Wyoming. Does that still count?  Sal Jurado: You know, that is the area that I have the most issues with and in these HUD guides, first of all, these HUD guidelines, the set that came out is dated January 28th, 2020. It's about 15 pages long and it walks you through the analysis and it does touch upon that subject, regarding what's called documentation from the internet and they don't really answer the question., but they do give you some recommendations. So what the guidelines say is if, if they show up with, with a random letter from, like you said, Wyoming, right? And it's a doctor that is not really treating them. they simply just pay the fee and they got the letter online. That's not good enough, but that's what they say. That's not good enough. But then, but then they go on to say, you know, there are many legitimate healthcare services that do online evaluations. So if it's a, if it's legitimate and if the doctor is treating them and they are a patient of the doctor than it is okay. So we get into the whole, you know, is he really a patient or not? Now, one thing I've done in the past. And I don't see an issue with this is I've actually called the doctor's office and I've asked them, is this individual a patient? And that's it. I don't, I'm not allowed to ask anything regarding, you know, what the disability is, you know, the underlying conditions, cause that's all protected. But the way I see it is if I get a letter from a doctor telling me he's my patient, right? There's nothing wrong with me calling the doctor's office. Hey, I just want to confirm that this is your patient. I've done that several times. And believe it or not, most of the time, I actually, pretty much all the time, they have confirmed that the individual is a patient at that doctor's office. So that's one way to weed out, you know, the random letter from Wyoming.  Ana Rivero: Okay.  Sal Jurado: So that's, that's what they said about the doctors.  Ana Rivero: There's, there's some, there's some things. So hopefully that will strike a little bit of fear in anybody who wants to do something fraudulently.  Sal Jurado: Yes,  yes. And you bring up a good point. The purpose of these guidelines is not only to assist, you know, the condos or the landlord, but also the individuals who really do need an emotional support animal because. There's been so much fraud in this area that many of the housing providers, you know, are jaded. They really don't believe you. So, you know, they jumped to conclusions. But now at least the individuals who really do need, you know, a support animal, they know what they need to provide, and they know that landlords know what they need to provide. So it should make it easier for those individuals.  Ana Rivero: What are some of the things that they ...  Sal Jurado: so these guidelines are, they're broken down into, into service animals and then into, you know, support animals. So. Let me walk through the questions. We have several questions. Okay. So these are questions that we can ask.  Yeah. These are questions that you can ask and then more important. These are questions that you should be asking yourself when doing your analysis. Okay. So for, for service animals, first of all, it defines a service animal as any dog that is individually trained to assist the individual, what we discussed earlier. Okay? So if you get a request. for a service animal, the first question you need to ask is, is the animal the dog? Okay? If it is a dog, then you move on to the next question. Okay. If it's not a dog, let's say you're out of service, but he can still try to get that animal in as an emotional support animal. Okay, so the first question you want to ask yourself is, is it a dog? No. If it is a dog, the next question is, and I'm going to read it. Cause if they wrote it verbatim, is the dog readily okay? Is it readily apparent that the dog is trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability? So first you ask, is it a dog? And then he's a trained okay. And is trained to do work to assist that specific disability? The blind individual is a perfect, is a perfect example. Okay. So  Ana Rivero: in other words, if something is obvious per se?  Sal Jurado: Yes. Okay. Yeah. So if the answer to that one is yes, then it's service time, then you have to give them, the term is a reasonable accommodation, but all that means is you got to let him have the dog. Ana Rivero: And I think for, at least from the board side, I don't think any board member has had an issue with service animals. The issue has come in with the, Sal Jurado:  Correct. I agree 100%. now you, you made a good point because there an issue as to what is a readily apparent, disability of an individual who's blind is easy, you know, but, you know, I've dealt often with PTs, I mean PTSD, right? Which you don't know. they can tell you they have that, but as a, as a manager, as a board, you don't really know. Yeah. So then, they defined, readily apparent, you know, as individuals blind, a dog pulling a wheelchair, you know, so on and so forth. now if, if the answer is no, like, I don't know, like we go back, is it a dog? Yes or no? Is it trained to assist with that disability? Yes or no? If it's a disability that's not readily apparent, you don't know. Then you go into the next couple questions and they are, is the animal required because of a disability? And then what work or task has the animal been trained to perform? Okay? You are not allowed to, you're not allowed to get into the specifics. Like if, if a doctor writes a letter. The, because of the HIPAA laws, they can get into like the diagnosis. But what I often see is, you know, the individual has a disability, you know, the individual needs this specific dog to assist them with the disability. In my opinion, that's enough. As long as you know, you're able to verify that the doctor did treat that patient. Okay. Which is what, which is what is, which is what I said earlier. Okay. So then service animals are, are, are, are easier.  Ana Rivero: But before you go into service animals real quick, before, I believe that miniature horses were allowed to be a service animal. Is that, no longer.  Sal Jurado: It's funny, the new guidelines do not talk about the miniature horses. So, you know, I've talked to other attorneys about the miniature horses and everyone's split, you know, some say. If the new guidelines don't mention it doesn't apply anymore, right? Some individuals say, yes, it still applies this. This is just like an amendment to what was there before. So I know it. I would say yes, it's, it's still, it's still in play Ana Rivero: Interesting. Sal Jurado: But I still haven't had the miniature horses come up yet. They're all gonna come up many times, but not,  Ana Rivero: but I thought it was interesting that they did not mention it vs before it was specified. Sal Jurado: So. Correct. Correct.  Ana Rivero: Moving onto emotional support  Sal Jurado: Regarding emotional support animals. it gets into the questions. For the emotional support animals.  Ana Rivero: And again, these are questions that we as either board members, managers, or landlords are asking ourselves regarding the applicant. Sal Jurado: Correct. And then it gets into, you know, what the doctors, when you can ask the documents and all that. So the first question is. Has the individual requested a reasonable accommodation, which basically means kind of, kind of have the animal, that is asked to get or keep an animal in connection with a physical or mental impairment or disability? So the first, the first question is, you know, have they even asked, you know, now one thing that's important is the request does not have to be in writing. It could be verbal. I've had many managers know they didn't ask for it in writing. It doesn't matter if it could. It could be verbal. Now, if I were to represent, you know, a homeowner seeking a reasonable accommodation, I would recommend that they do put it in writing. Just because it's all, it's clear to everyone knows specifically what you're requesting. Okay. There's, there's no confusion. okay. So if the answer's yes that they have asked, then you proceed to the next question. okay. And the next question is, does the individual have an observable disability or does the housing provider already have information? Giving them reason to believe that the person has a disability. So you know, if the individual is blind, he's in a wheelchair. Those are readily apparent disabilities, right? If it's a mental condition or emotional condition, that's where it gets. Tricky   Ana Rivero: You have a tenant that perhaps is former military and you know that you know what? Just from conversing with them or something that they wrote in the application, then that also is considered correct. Previous knowledge.  Sal Jurado: That situation does happen though. It happens not often, but it does happen. Then it gets into, you know, the difference between the observable and the non-observable disabilities. And it gives you examples, you know, blindness is for the visible ones. And then it gets into, you know, the mental conditions for them for the non-visible is all right. So if, if it's not readily apparent, if the individual has a disability, you move on to the next question. has the person requesting the accommodation provided information. The reasonably supports that the person seeking the accommodation has a disability. That's where we get into if they have a mental issue or if they're former military and they have PTSD, you know, how they provided, you know, documentation supporting their claim. and that's where, you know, what I normally see is, you know, that the letter from the doctor and you can't, You cannot request the specifics of how he's been treated or what it is. But if the doctor gives you a letter like I said earlier, that says, you know, John DOE has a disability. He needs a dog or a cat, you know, to assist them with his condition. My personal opinion, that's enough. Okay. Like I wouldn't take the chance of denying him and had an issue with her. Another thing, if you, if you improperly denied individual, you know that they can report you to HUD and even dealing with HUD, you know? Right. Yeah opens up a whole new can of worms...  Yes. a whole new can of worms.   Okay. Now then we get into. Ana Rivero: And that was there before. I think right up until now, nothing's really changed. Nope.  Sal Jurado: There's not, the new guidelines don't really change. , what attorneys were doing before or managers doing before. It just, it just help. It helps. The managers will set up a set of best practices on what they should be asking themselves and. What information they can be requesting from individuals. Like for example, for example, you know, I've seen associations have like a form, like a preprinted form that says, you know, name of the doctor, day of treatment, you know, describe the condition that you have. And then it has to be notarized. You know, that they're very clear that that cannot be done. You cannot require, you cannot have preprinted forms. You can not require the doctor to state under oath, you know, this is what I'm requesting. Right. It cannot, you cannot require that anything be notarized. So that is a change. Cause they came up very clearly saying, you cannot do that.  Ana Rivero: interesting. Sal Jurado: Yes. So okay. The documents from the internet. Okay. So then you move on to the next question. How does the person requesting the accommodation. Provided information, which reasonably supports that the animal does work, performs tasks, provides assistance under, provides therapeutic emotional support with respect to the disability. So we go back to the letter, you know, once, once you get a letter from, whether it be a medical doctor or a psychologist, psychiatrist, you know, that States, you know, the individual hasn't had a disability. He needs this animal. At that point. My position has always been you grant the reasonable accommodation, but there are exceptions. You know, I've had situations where the board is concerned that the dog is, dog is aggressive or too aggressive animal, right? Which is a tall, which is a tricky situation because you know, what the guidelines, what not this set, but what the former set of guidelines stated was that whenever you have an animal that's considered a threat, you know, you need to base your decision on facts. Not a hunch. It can be based off of, you know, I think that dog might be aggressive because a it's a pitbull Ana Rivero: Should have bit somebody, you are shown aggressive tendencies.  Sal Jurado:  Aggressive tendencies. Exactly. And then what pit bulls, you know, pit bulls are illegal in Dade county they come, right? Right. this supersedes the Dade County law. So just because the individual has a pit bull, right? But this way, even if the condo docs say no pets, even if it's a pit bull and there's a law that says no pitbull such as Dade County, this law, the FHA supersedes all that, right? So if the, if the individual requesting the animal provides a letter from a doctor, provided that the dog is not aggressive and the board has no reason to believe it's aggressive, then you have to make an exception or you set out to have the pitbull,  Ana Rivero: Let me ask you a question because I think what also tends to happen is that you have a no pet policy and you have an applicant, they come in, they say they have no pets on your application, but they move in two weeks later, a week later, there's the dog, and all of a sudden, so you send a letter and you say, Hey, this is a no pet. You know, condo, all of a sudden they come back and they're like, well, it's an emotional support. And yeah. So  Sal Jurado: That happens a lot.  Ana Rivero:  Oh, it happens all the time. And I think that that is, is a stickler for board members because they feel that they were lied to and should be reason enough to either tell that person will, you're no longer approved, or you have to get rid of the animal. Yes. So how does that,  Sal Jurado: They address that? They address that and they're very clear that the request can be made at any point in time. They can even be made after. For example, I represent a lot of landlords, and let's say the landlord has a no pet policy, right? The guy shows up with a Great Dane. Huge dog, right? So. I send the tenant a seven-day notice to cure, which is what the law requires. You have seven days to get rid of the dog. You know, our lease says no pets. At that point, after I've sent him the seven-day notice, then that's when for the first time ever, well, emotional support. Right. So the new guidelines, they're clear in that that request can be made at any, at any point in time. Okay. So just because they asked for it at a later point in time and they're not upfront with it at the beginning, that doesn't mean you can say no. You still have to go through the analysis, you know, is if it's a service animal, you know, is it a dog? You know, are they trained? If it's an emotional support animal, did they give me documentation supporting the disability and the need for the dog to assist with a disability? Right. It's still the same.  Ana Rivero: Is there anything else that we haven't covered that they've added or that they might, listeners?  Sal Jurado: Let me see. There's a, let me see. Yes. they do have a new section on, on unique animals, right. Which is maybe to deal with, which is mainly to deal with the alligator and the, and the swarm of bees issue. You know? So. With regards to unique animals.  I'm just gonna read it. If the individual is requesting to keep a unique type of animal that is not commonly kept, then the requests, then the request store has a substantial burden of demonstrating a disability-related therapeutic need for the specific animal. So the, you know, the individual has to, prove why a swarm of bees is what I need. Interesting. Clarify. It clarifies that.  Ana Rivero: I wonder what could be the possible argument. I'm sure that had to have been some sort of logic behind that. The alligator I saw, and I think the gentleman had him from when he was, you know, a baby. So maybe a while down and we'll can be, you know, friendly.  And it's funny because I recently, my mom was recently injured and she stayed at a rehab place and they had. It’s not a service animal, but they have therapy dogs going into the nursing home, to help the patients feel better. And I think we're seeing that also with hospitals now. Yeah, totally. I know it's a different animal together as far as, you know, there's a big difference in the hospitals, but I think it's interesting how there is truth to animals being.  Sal Jurado: The law has a good intent, right? Because like you said, there are individuals who do need an animal to assist them with their life and that I totally get that. The problem is that you have those bad apples, right, who don't really need it and they just want to get around my pet fee or they just want to get around on a no pet policy. But it's taken advantage of the FHA.  Ana Rivero: And I think what's important is for board members and landlords to understand that these provisions are very, you know, HUD is a very serious, they could claim discrimination. That's a very serious accusation and can have tremendous, liability potential for the association as a whole. So they should be very careful. And obviously we always recommend when we get a request like that, let's send it off to the attorney and have the attorney review it. And like you, yourself said, you called to follow up with the doctor and it's always better that the attorney handle that and don't you get personally involved, you know? But, I'm glad to see these out. I hope that it does help. with the situation, and I thank you for coming out and helping us learn a little bit more. And thank you for sending that to me. I appreciate it.  So for our listeners out there, and you want to share a little bit about maybe your website or phone number where they can get ahold of you if they wanted to get more information,  Sal Jurado: You can visit our website at www.juradolaw.com, or you can call our office at (305) 594-4050. Ana Rivero: And he told me that he does visit the Fort Myers area, so he also does, I guess, work throughout all of Florida.  Sal Jurado: Also Palm Beach, Broward Dade, Monroe and I do some work in, Collier County and Lee County as well.  Ana Rivero: Perfect. And of course, you can reach us at www.alliedpropertygroup.net  or give us a call at (305) 232-1579 It's nice to meet you all. Have a great day.  Thank you.  

In 2017, Hurricane Irma came by Florida but luckily it was not a direct hit. Unfortunately, it still caused enough damage to a number of people and property. Though there were policies and procedures issued since this calamity, we as individual homeowners, board members, and associations still need to know what to do to get ready for a hurricane.   In this episode of Community Association Matters, Assistant Code Compliance Director Edgard Estrada from the City of Doral explains the things we need to prepare before and after a hurricane hits.   Before the hurricane   Food and water. According to Edgard, 1 gallon of water should be allotted per person per day, while for pets such as dogs and cats, ½ gallon would be enough. Make sure to prepare with enough water for at least 3 days. As for food, it’s best to stock up on non-perishable foods such as canned goods (tuna, Spam, sausages, etc.) which would last you and your family for at least a week.   Hurricane kit. The hurricane kit includes your first-aid: bandages, gauze, medicines like ibuprofen and paracetamol. It also should contain a flashlight and extra batteries. It is good to also have a portable radio for news alerts. Ultimately, the hurricane kit must be easily accessible, and all members of the family should know where it is kept.   Remove lawn furniture. Hurricane force winds can easily blow lawn furniture. This is why Edgard says items like garden gnomes, beach chairs, grills, etc. should be temporarily stored indoors at least 72 hours before a hurricane. If something’s too big to store at home or in a storage shed, then at least tie it down to make sure they don’t become projectiles flying out in a hurricane and cause bigger physical damage to property and individuals.   Tree pruning, trimming, and grass cutting. Tree pruning is important in order to keep trees sustainable, making them stronger and able to withstand strong winds during a hurricane. But some homeowners and community associations don’t know that there is a proper way to prune trees. If done incorrectly, a tree will grow back weaker, and thus the tree (or its branches) can come right off at the slightest force wind.   For this reason, Edgard recommends hiring professional landscapers that have arborists on staff who can perform proper tree pruning and trimming. Standard guidelines (which can be found online) should be followed. Also, this should be done before hurricane season — tree debris can be a big liability to the community in general.   A common mistake some owners make is mowing the grass and blowing the grass blades into the sidewalk and into the street. This should not be done as it can cause clogging of the storm drain, which effectively results into a greater flooding event.   After the hurricane   Assess for damage. Edgard suggests that the first thing homeowners and associations should do is to assess for any kind of damage in the exterior. Clear your driveway. It’s best if you have a chainsaw in the event that there are large trees in your general area.   Look out for hazards. Just because the wind and rain events are over doesn’t mean that danger is over. If there’s flood water, be careful going into waters because you don’t know how deep it is, or it might have cables that can cause serious electric shock.   Also check out for places where stagnant water can be inadvertently stored. Look out for possible mosquito infestations, especially now with the recent diseases like the Zika virus. Check potted plants, empty any fountains and containers that might be filled with water.   Be mindful of other exterior structures as well, such as swimming pool barriers that may have fallen after a storm. Restore those immediately as leaving it unattended may lead to untoward incidents.   Debris removal. Aside from individuals helping out in the cleaning, associations should also try to communicate with landscapers that service the community, so they can give priority in cleaning up your community. But on a similar note, everyone should still be patient with the landscapers (and also the FPL) because nothing can be done to rush clean-ups and repairs.   We’re prepared… now what? If individual owners are prepared for the before and aftermath of a hurricane, so must community associations. They should have measures and countermeasures for this situation. For instance, there is an ordinance in the city of Doral which requires homeowner associations to have an emergency plan in place. Each should provide general information, like the board of directors and their contact information, and also proof of insurance for the community as well. The association should make sure that the community is covered legally and have enough reserves to cover any unforeseen emergencies.   To conclude, Edgard believes that a community association should have an effective plan of action which is properly disseminated to homeowners so that the community as a whole is prepared in the event of an unexpected calamity.

What happens when a condominium has a construction defect? A construction defect is a problem in the workmanship or in the materials used to build a structure, which ultimately causes harm to a person or property, usually amounting to huge financial damages.   The common solution for many community associations in this circumstance is to file defect claims against the developer of the condominium. Under Florida law, an association can bring claims against a developer within 10 years from when the original construction was completed.   But filing construction defect claims is not as easy as it sounds. In this episode of Community Association Matters, we speak with commercial litigator Phillip Joseph who co-chairs the law firms of Ball Janik. He identifies four common obstacles that associations face which prevents them from filing defect claims against developers…   Board inaction   Philip gives three instances of inaction where board inaction can hinder a defect claim:   The first instance is when a board member holds off filing defect claims due to conflict of interest. Imagine a board member reluctant to bring in claims on behalf of the association because it would hinder his chance of selling his unit.   The second instance is when the board does not take necessary steps to properly investigate the association’s properties for defects such as retaining consultants, engineers, architects, and attorneys to look at possible construction and design issues, and to give advice so that the board can file defect claims.   The third instance is when the board is faced with the reality of construction defects— instead of filing claims, they are paralyzed by the enormous responsibility before them. Board members may tend to hold off on decision making or would want to delegate that responsibility to owners.   Developer’s ‘poison pills’   Phillip says that many developers, in an attempt to avoid construction defect claims, put anti-litigation provisions or ‘poison pills’ in governing documents. These hinder or prevent boards and community associations from bringing claims.   The most common poison pills are the following: to get a majority vote (75-80%) of owners to approve filing for a claim; to give only a short period of time for owners to make the vote (around 60 days); to get owners to approve a maximum litigation budget; and to have owners specially assessed, i.e. all owners have to pay upfront prior to litigation procedures   Though these anti-litigation provisions are often unenforceable, the board should still be careful when dealing with governing documents and should seek counsel with specialized litigators.   Florida state laws   There is a statute in Florida which says that if poison pill provisions are put in the governing documents, Florida law will most likely invalidate those provisions (making them unenforceable). Unfortunately, this only applies to homeowner associations and not condominium associations.   But according to Phillip, though there isn’t a statute directly on point for condominium associations as there is with homeowner associations, if you have a similar poison pill provision that you saw in a case from a different state, like the Trustees of Cambridge Point Condominiums case in Massachusetts, then a Florida court looking at those provisions would basically decide the same as the Massachusetts court.   Trends in the industry   A significant interest of developers, building contractors, and design professionals in Florida’s economy means a lot of ongoing constructions throughout the state. As a result, there are a lot of claims being brought all throughout.   But what is the trend among other states? On one hand, Maryland in 2018 has gone on one extreme by taking matters into their own hands. Maryland legislators no longer waited for a court to decide these issues: they instead specifically passed laws that prevented developers from including poison pill provisions in governing documents.   On the contrary, Utah passed legislature in 2017 which made it extremely difficult for associations to bring claims against developers. First, the board must send notice to all its owners that it’s going to sue. Second, 75% of voting owners must be in favor of proceeding. Lastly, all owners must pay 10% of all the fees and costs of the anticipated litigation.   All states have different trends with regard to legislature, but ultimately, Phillip believes that the solution is to raise the board associations’ awareness about poison pill provisions and educating them to go forward with bringing in claims when necessary.  

In 2008 Americans experienced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The drop in real estate prices caused tremendous turmoil and had far reaching impacts worldwide.  Banking and insurance institutions closed down; the largest mortgage lender and the largest savings and loan companies crumbled; and the auto industry giants had to be bailed out by the Federal Government.  Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and, in some cases, some lost their entire life’s savings.  The economical outlook was bleak!  It was no different for community associations.  Many owners could no longer afford to live in their homes and stopped paying their maintenance fees.   Associations’ receivables reached an all-time high and the number of foreclosures in South Florida went through the roof.  Times were tough!  However, associations with a strong collection policy were able to recover.  The financial crisis of 2008 caused us all to evaluate our economical situations and in some cases we had to wait for the local and federal governments to step in and make a difference.  Today – life is very different.  Unemployment is at its lowest and home prices have climbed back up.  Associations are enjoying low receivables and most do not have a collection problem.  However, that does not mean that one many not be looming and Associations need to be prepared.  Board members must be aware of the collection process and ensure that their association has a good collection policy in place.  In this episode of Community Association Matters we speak with Jason Martell with The Law Firm of Martell & Ozim, PA about the steps taken in the collection process for association assessments.  Jason recommends that the association send a past due balance letter within 15 days after the payment due date.  If the owner does not pay, the association should then submit the account to their attorney for collection.  According to Jason Florida Statutes require that two (2) letters must be sent:  first, a Notice of Intent to Lien letter; and then a Notice of Intent to Foreclose letter.   In a condominium association the Notice of Intent to Lien provides the owner with 30 days to satisfy the delinquency before a lien is recorded.  For a homeowner association the Notice of Intent to Lien must provide the owner with a 45-day notice.  If after the appropriate time has lapsed and the owner has not submitted payment or made payment arrangement with the association, then a Notice of Intent to Foreclose Demand Letter is sent to the owner and a claim of lien is filed against the property.  The homeowner can then contest the lien informally by simply reaching out to the attorney’s office or they can do it formally by submitting and recording a Notice of Contest of Lien in the public records.  The association then has 90 days to file its lien foreclosure lawsuit.  If the matter has not been resolved at this stage then Jason recommends that the association proceed by foreclosing the lien.  Before a foreclosure is filed, Jason’s office takes into consideration whether there is an active bank foreclosure against the owner or if the owner has filed for bankruptcy.   Once it is determined that foreclosure is the best option for the association, the lawsuit is then filed.  The lawsuit must name the following parties: all title owners, unknown tenants, and all inferior lien holders.  All parties named on the suit must be served.  If the unit has a tenant the association is entitled to collect the rent from the tenant until the account is brought current.  If one of the parties cannot be served through individual service or through substitute service, some additional steps must be taken by the attorney to serve via publication.  Once the parties have been served, a party in a lawsuit has 20 days to file a response. If no response is filed the attorney can then proceed to file a default against that individual.  The attorney can then ask for a Motion for Summary Judgement where they ask the courts to enter a judgement in favor of the association.  Once the courts enters that judgment, they will issue a sale date.  The property is then sold at auction.  A third party can purchase the property at the foreclosure auction.  In this scenario the third party winner is likely responsible for all monies owed to the association.  According to Jason, if the association is the winning bidder then it should obtain a writ of possession to gain physical access to the property.  He also recommends that the association acquire basic liability insurance and change the locks.  The association can then rent or sell the property.   Jason clarified that the association is not required to pay for the mortgage nor the property taxes.  If everything goes well the association should recover all of its dues.  For associations that wish to speak with Jason to see how his firm can help them establish a collection policy and collect past due assessments, they may contact him at 407-377-0890 or via email at jmartell@martellandozim.com.  Don’t miss this episode of Community Association Matters.  You can click here to listen in to this podcast.  Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so that you don’t miss future episodes!   

Lets assume your community has a no pet policy.  For years that policy went unchallenged, but now your association finds itself with an accommodation request from an owner for an Emotional Support Animal.  Is your association required to approve that accommodation?  Is it legal for you to ask for additional documentation?  What are the consequences if you deny such a request?  These answers are becoming more common today than they were in the past.  With the improvement in technology, associations are facing challenges to their policies and procedures that were unheard of just a few years ago.  In order to answer these questions, in this episode of Community Association Matters, we speak with Donna Dimaggio Berger, Esq. from the law offices of Becker.  First, we have to understand what is a disability.  A disability is a physical or mental impairment, which substantially limits one or more of such person’s major life activities.  Major life activities include caring for oneself, walking, talking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, and performing manual tasks.  There are physical disabilities as well as mental disabilities, such as depression, anxiety, panic disorders, stress related issues, OCD, PTSD, learning disabilities, autism, and ADHD/ADD, to name a few.    Next, it is important to begin making the distinction between Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals, collectively called Assistance Animals.  According to the US Department of Justice, a Service Animal must be registered and are trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability.  Service Animals are working animals and are not considered pets.  Service Animals are typically governed by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).  The ADA covers hotels, restaurants, and other public venues, including condotels, and condominiums that have retail space.  However, the Fair Housing Amendment Act does cover associations as they are housing providers and, among other things, it protects individuals from discrimination because of one’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex/gender, familial status, and/or handicap/disability.  According to Donna, an Emotional Support Animal does not need to be registered and is not just restricted to being a dog or miniature horse; an Emotional Support Animal can be any type of animal as long as it does not conflict with municipal or local ordinances.  In addition, an Emotional Support Animal does not need to have a skill other than providing emotional support.  An individual requesting an accommodation for an Emotional Support Animal must provide a letter from a licensed medical professional verifying that the individual has a disability and that one of the major life activities is affected.  The letter should also describe the need for the specific accommodation or modification and must demonstrate the relationship between the disability and accommodation or modification.   In addition, the accommodation must be reasonable.   With today’s technology, some medical professionals may be speaking with a patient through teleconference.  So although the medical professional is not in the same city or country as the patient, an argument can be made that the medical professional is in fact treating that individual.  This is where some it becomes difficult for associations.   How does an association Board of Directors or manager know when a request for accommodation is valid or when it is fraudulent?  If an association denies the accommodation they may be exposing themselves to liability.  Donna recommends that an association adopt as a policy that all requests for accommodation be submitted to the association attorney who can perform additional vetting and rule out possible abuse.   In addition, it is a deterrent for those that are not legitimate.   It is also important that Board members understand that asking someone with a physical disability that is obvious, for a letter from a doctor that may in of itself be a violation.  However, per Donna, if the disability is not easily recognizable then the Board should ask the individual for a letter.  She adds that accommodations can be revoked if the accommodation is no longer reasonable.  Her firm has successfully revoked accommodations in the past.   However, Donna warns associations not to deny a request for accommodation for an Assistance Animal without consulting the association’s attorney.   It is important that all individuals be treated equally and that is why establishing a policy is the best course of action.  It ensures uniformity and in forwarding all accommodation requests to the association’s attorney, the association’s Board is limiting their exposure.

  Some time last year in the summer, I turned on CNN, as I typically do to bring myself up to speed with the news.  I was horrified at the video before me; it was showing an apartment building ablaze in London.  According to reports, 79 people perished in that fire and more than 600 residents were impacted by this fire that quickly spread through the 24-story apartment building.  I immediately began thinking, could this happen here. Not only did this incident impact me, it also impacted Florida Governor Rick Scott’s decision to veto Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for House Bill 653.  In his letter to the Secretary of State dated June 26, 2017 Governor Scott wrote, “[w]hile I am particularly sensitive to regulations that increase the cost of living, the recent London high-rise fire, which tragically took at least 79 lives, illustrates the importance of life safety protections.”  What was Govern Scott referring to?  HB 653 would have allowed high-rise buildings from opting out of the Engineered Life Safety System (commonly referred to as ELSS) with a two-thirds vote from the membership. In vetoing this bill, high-rise buildings have until December 31, 2019 to provide full sprinkler system protection throughout the building.   A high-rise building, defined as a building greater than 75 feet in height, can “Opt-Out” of this requirement with a majority vote from the Board of Directors.  However, associations that “Opt-Out” are required to implement an ELSS.  To get more information on this requirement and to understand an ELSS better, I reached out to Robin Collier from Sprinklermatic Fire Protection Systems, Inc. According to Robin, the ELSS is a report that provides an analysis of the building’s life safety components.  It is prepared by a qualified engineer and essentially is a score-card that grades your building’s life safety features depending on the types of life safety systems the building currently has in place.  The engineer will then make recommendations to bring the building up to code, which includes fire sprinklers throughout the common areas as well as one sprinkler head through the front door of each unit.   High-rises are also going to be required to have integrated smoke detection and alarm system; as well as a system of approved compartmentation to prevent a fire from spreading. It is crucial that an association understand the recommendations being made by the engineer.  This is because as soon as an association signs off on this report, they have to meet its requirement. Because this report looks at the various life safety components, several contractors will be working in your building at the same time.  Robin recommends that the association retain the engineer to not only provide the ELSS report but also to serve as the conductor through this process.  It is important to also discuss how these contractors are going to get paid and what is their exit strategy.  Ideally the engineer should conduct the inspection of the work performed to ensure that the work was done in compliance with the plans and the contract. Naturally, it is important that associations also involve their attorney to understand the agreements that they are entering into and help them navigate through the process.  Board of Directors should take the time to get to know their engineer and contractors.  Robin recommends that associations have the vendors do a presentation to inform the Board of the work to be performed and estimated time frame from beginning to end. Robin is extremely passionate about this topic and we highly urge you to listen to this latest podcast of Community Association Matters.  You can click here to listen in to this podcast.  Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so that you don’t miss future episodes!     

Whenever a community is working on a project, I often wonder whether they will need a Surety Bond.  I have heard they can be expensive and can be complicated to enforce.  At other times, I have heard that they are a must!  I was lucky that Alex Barthet of The Lien Zone was available to help us learn a little bit more about surety bonds. Alex is a partner at Miami Construction Lawyers, which, as its name implies, specializes in construction law.  Alex has been an attorney for almost 20 years and has served as the Chairman of the Miami-Dade Council, Associated Builders and Contractors Florida East Coast Chapter (2013) and Chairman of the Education Committee, Associated Builders and Contractors Florida East Coast Chapter (2013).  He hosts his own podcast, Lien Zone, and is a mechanical engineer by education.  He is a leading expert in the field and I was very fortunate that he took time out of his busy schedule to sit with me.   It is important to understand the difference between a surety bond and insurance.  With insurance, you pay a premium and in return they cover a claimable event within the parameters of the policy.  The insurance company does not expect you to pay them back for the cost of the claim.  In a surety bond, the surety will expect to collect the money they pay out in a claim.  This is because a surety bond is a contract between three (3) parties, where one party is responsible to the second party for the performance of the third party.    Surety bonds provide a sense of security and can provide peace of mind.  According to Alex this is because the surety bond has performed its due diligence on the contractor.  This includes reviewing the contractor’s financial stability, years in business, and past performance.  A surety also investigates the contractor’s pending and past lawsuits.  As a result, not all contractors are bondable.  A contractor that is bonded should be able to provide a letter of bondability that provides the limits for which a contractor is bonded.  This is important as you do not want to hire a contractor with a $1 Million Bond for a $10 Million project.   There are two (2) types of bonds commonly used by Associations: a performance bond and a payment bond.  Lets explore a payment bond first.  According to the Business Dictionary a payment bond is a deposit or guaranty that is submitted by a contractor as a surety that all sums to subcontractors, suppliers, and other creditors will be paid on time.  A payment bond also keeps a property free and clear of any liens.  This is especially important when an association hires a contractor, because it allows owners to sell their units free of any construction liens for a project being performed in the community.    The performance bond protects the owner from any default or failure of the contractor to complete the terms of a construction agreement.   A performance bond also ensures that the contractor completes the project, as well as all of the other terms stipulated in the contract.   Surety bonds can serve as an assurance to owners in your association, that as a Board member, you have done the best you can in hiring a contractor that will be able to perform the work under the agreed upon price and within a specified time frame.  The surety will step in and finish a project, when a contractor is not able to finish or comply with some terms of a construction agreement.  Of course this comes at a cost; and depending on the total cost of your project, a surety bond can be expensive.  The cost for a bond, according to Alex, ranges from .75% of the contract price (on the low end) to 2.5-3% of the contract price (on the higher end).  It is recommended that as an Association you ask for a copy of the actual invoice for the bond because contractors use the bond as a profit center.  Alex advises that the terms and conditions of the bond can also be negotiated.  It is important that the Association have their attorney review the bond form in addition to the construction agreement to ensure that they are better protected.  Alex recommends that the bond should not include a provision that it go into effect when a contractor is terminated.  It is best that the Association be allowed to trigger the bond when a default is issued to the contractor.  He also recommends that the bond include a time frame under which the surety has to respond to a claim. In addition to the protection a bond offers during the construction process, it also offers protection once the project is complete and is usually good for the term of the warranty issued by the contractor.  To learn more about surety bonds, please listen to this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters. Alex also has his own podcast called the Lien Zone.  You can click here to listen in to his podcast.  Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so that you don’t miss future episodes!  For more information on how Alex Barthet, Esq. can help you feel free to reach him at (305) 347-5295 or email him alex@barthet.com.    

Most of us move in to homeowner associations because we want to live in a neighborhood where owners have a minimum requirement to maintain their home.   Can you imagine your neighbor painting their home in bright purple?  Without the association’s governing documents, the association may not have a way to enforce a color scheme or worst may not have a way to maintain the common areas in the community.  In this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters we interviewed Daniel Lopez, Esq. an attorney with the Law Offices of Frank Perez-Siam, PA to discuss the Marketable Record Title Act (also known as MRTA) and the impact it plays on the validity of homeowner association governing documents.  This podcast is full of valuable information and explains step by step what your homeowner’s association must do to renew their governing documents.  Daniel also tells us what HOAs must do should their governing documents expire. Don’t miss out on this important episode.

I have been in this industry, in one capacity or another, since 1992.  I remember that Florida Statute 718 was virtually re-written around that time.  It was then that the manner in which condominium elections are held was changed to they system we use today.  I recall that when the change came forth, the new regulations were so rigorous that it was frustrating.  However, like anything else, once you get used it, you can’t imagine how life was before it came along.  In 1992, the number of condominium associations in the State of Florida was growing at a fast pace.  Most of the new construction was either a condominium or planned unit development.  As the number of condominium associations increased, so did the need for regulation.  Since then there have been several changes to 718.  In some years, the changes were minor; in other years, such as this year, there were sweeping changes that have had a tremendous impact on our industry.  This year, House Bill 1237 signed by Governor Rick Scott, is bringing forth more strict guidelines for Board members and CAMs.  To help us break those new guidelines down, we invited Maria V. Arias, Esq. of Siegfried, Rivera, Hyman, Lerner, De La Torre, Mars, & Sobel, PA to join us in this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters.   We begin by discussing a new section added to the Florida Statutes, section 718.71, which now requires associations to provide the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) with a list of the names of all financial institutions in which each association maintains bank accounts.  A member in the association can request a copy of this list from the DBPR. The bill, however, mostly made changes to section FS 718.111.  One of the first changes is that the Statute now clarifies what a kickback is and that the guilty party can face criminal charges in addition to civil penalties.  Per Maria, “the emphasis of this bill…has to do with making it clear to directors, officers, vendors, in relation to the association, including the management companies…that you will be exposed to potential civil as well as criminal penalties” if you do not follow the law. These changes are in response to the recent reports of election fraud and other abuses.  The Florida Legislature felt that it needed to add specific language in FS 718 to clarify that certain acts are criminal.  For example, FS 718.111 now includes language referencing other sections in the Florida Statutes that state that forgery is punishable as a felony.  It specifically includes language that forgery of a ballot envelope or voting certificate constitutes as forgery and it is a felony in the third degree that carries a 5-year prison term and/or a $5,000 fine.  Theft or embezzlement of association funds has always been a crime but again, section 718.111, now specifically has language to emphasize this point; and adds that it is punishable depending on the amounts stolen.   The Statute now makes it a criminal offense to destroy or refuse to allow the inspection of an official record of the condominium association.  Refusing an owner his right to inspect the official records within the period required by law can also be punishable as a third degree felony.  Maria states that she feels these changes are “intended to place some controls and to let people know that it is serious business; if you want to govern, you are going to have to do it correctly.  And if you don’t do it [correctly] or if you do it [incorrectly then it] leads to criminal charges.”  In this regard, Maria highly recommends that associations consult their attorney for establishing a policy in dealing with records requests. The Statute also added new requirements as it relates to a Board member’s eligibility to serve on the Board.  It now states that an officer or director charged with a crime referenced in the changes specifically stated in the Statute, presumably related to theft, embezzlement, forgery, destruction of documents, etc., must be removed as a Board member and the vacancy must be filed by electing a new board member, unless the association’s governing documents state otherwise.  According to Maria, most condominium By-Laws require that vacancies be filled by appointment to be done by the remaining directors.    If there is a criminal charge pending against the officer or director, he or she may not be appointed or elected to a position on the board.   If the charges are resolved without an adjudication of guilt, then that individual must be reinstated for the remainder of his/her term.  There are several ambiguities with this section of the law.  Maria recommends that condominium associations discuss this provision with their attorney to prepare specific guidelines as to how to implement this at the next Annual and Election Meeting.    She adds that she feels that these changes are intended to ensure that individuals who serve on a Board of Director or who are thinking of joining a board understand that they must perform their duties correctly and consult their attorney if there is a doubt. The Statute further prohibits an association from hiring an attorney who represents the management company of that association in question.  In addition, it prohibits a board member, manager, or management company from purchasing a unit in foreclosure sale resulting from an association’s foreclosure of its lien.  It also prohibits these parties from taking title by deed in lieu of foreclosure.  Official records now also include bids an association receives for materials, equipment, or services.  Furthermore, renters of a unit are now allowed to inspect and copy the association’s bylaws and rules. One of the biggest changes from HB 1237 is the requirement that condominium associations that have more than 150 units (excluding time-share units) are now required to have a website by July 1, 2018.  The website must independent and wholly owned and operated by the association; or the website must be operated by a third-party provider.  The association’s website must have the following documents posted: The recorded declaration and bylaws, the Articles of Incorporation, and any amendments; Rules of the association; Management agreements, leases, contracts, and bids; Annual budget and proposed budgets to be considered; Financial report and any proposed financial report to be considered; Director certifications; Contracts or documents regarding conflicts of interest or possible conflicts of interest between an association and is directors; Unit owner meeting notices and agendas (these must be posted at least 14 days in advance of the meeting, in plain view on the front page of the website, or on a separate subpage labeled “notices” which is conspicuously visible and lined on the front page); Documents to be considered and voted on during owners’ meetings and documents listed on the agenda (must be posted at least seven (7) days before the meeting at which the document or information within the document will be considered); Board meeting notices, agendas, and materials must be posted in accordance with FS 718.112, which is typically 48 hours in advance of the meeting; The website must also only be available to owners and employees of the association and cannot be available to the general public.  The association must provide an owner with a user name or password to access the private section of the association’s website.  Maria has a specific concern as it relates to the posting requirements on the website related to members’ meetings and agendas.  In particular, if an association meets all of the mailing requirements under the statute related to special meetings and board meetings but fails to upload the notice on the website as required, is that association not in compliance and required to properly post on the website?  This question cannot be answered now.  She hopes that the Legislature will take corrective action and clarify this point. The Statute now requires condominium associations with 50 units or less to prepare a report of cash receipts and expenditure.  Lastly, an association, its officer, director, employee, or agent cannot use a debit card issued in the name of the association or billed directly to the association for association expenses.  There are many more changes that will be discussed in the next podcast of Community Association Manners.

There are many factors that contribute to your condominium or HOA unit’s property value.  One of the fastest ways to impact property values in your association is by revamping your community’s landscaping.  New bushes, seasonal flowers, and fresh mulch can go a long way in helping your community stand out.  Buyers pay very close attention to a community’s entrance and their overall upkeep when considering buying a home in a condominium or homeowner association.  To keep your newly landscaped area looking its best, it is important to ensure that your association’s irrigation system is working properly.  In this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters we interviewed Laura Vasquez of the UF/IFAS Miami-Dade County Extension to help us understand the different components of an irrigation system and how to ensure that it is working efficiently.  The Miami-Dade Extension has several programs, one of which is the Urban Conservation Unit where members of the team come out to condominium and homeowner associations to evaluate ways that they can help conserve water and provide participating associations rebates.   Essentially, they review an association’s irrigation system, its design, the timers, and other components.  The team then makes recommendations as to how your irrigation system can become more efficient and reduce waste.  The association also receives rebates and irrigation equipment to help continue the water conservation efforts. Irrigation plays a pivotal role in ensuring that your plant life is healthy, because it provides one the most important resources a plant needs, water.  Laura explains that even in the summer months associations should run their irrigation system.  The reason for this, she adds, is that rain normally falls once a day, so all of the water comes in one period in the day.   The evaporation rate is so much higher in the summer months due to the high heat index.  In addition, the soil is not able to retain all of that water and as a result, the excess water runs off.   Thus, plant life do not receive the nutrients it needs.  Ideally, it is best to hand water your plants because you control how much water you give and for how long. Unfortunately, in today’s hectic day and age, hand-watering is not feasible; not to mention impossible in associations with vast green areas.  The problem with irrigation systems is that people usually set them but do not check on them regularly.  The system could come on when not needed; there could be a broken pipe that is undetected; or the direction of the sprinkler heads can overlap.   It is important managers, maintenance staff, and even Board members be familiar with the community’s irrigation system to ensure that your system is working efficiently and correctly.  An automated system is great and has tools that can help you do a better job of maintaining your irrigation system.  And yes – there’s an app for that! Weather devices such as a rain sensor, backflow preventer devices, and irrigation sub meters are important parts to help conserve water and make sure that your system is working well.  In addition, these components help ensure that you are not overwatering your plants, as that too can be harmful to plant life.  It is also important to understand that the soil in South Florida is very different throughout the different regions.  For example, the soil in Homestead is vastly different from the soil in Miami Beach.   Your irrigation company and/or landscape company should have a basic understanding of this to help your condominium or homeowner association prevent run off. One of the ways that the irrigation industry is helping in conservation efforts is through technology.  There have been tremendous advances in irrigation technology.  For example, there are Smart Controllers such as Evaporation Transpiration (ETs) that allow us to enter the amount sod we have, the different types of plants in a zone, the soil type, the type of sprinklers in a zone, and the location of that zone as it relates to sunlight and topographic layout of the area (if it is flat or has a slope).  All of this information is calculated, along with the amount of rain and temperature.  It then regulates how much water that zone needs based on all of this information.  Soil moisture sensors are separate to the Smart Controllers.  These sensors go underground and should be located in numerous locations throughout the community.  It then sends a signal to the timer in the morning letting it know how much water that soil received that day and if the soil has reach capacity.  A message is then sent to the timer so that it does not turn on.  Both of these systems are extremely effective and have been proven to save 50% of water consumption.  In addition, flow sensors let us know when there is a break in a sprinkler line.  Flow sensors are attached to the smart controllers and it turns off the timer in that zone when the water flow is above the average water flow for that zone.   In ensuring that your community’s irrigation system is working properly and efficiently, you do your part in helping save water and helping your plants flourish.  The UF/IFAS Miami-Dade Extension can come out to your condominium or homeowner association for a free evaluation of your irrigation system.  Many of our associations have taken advantage of this initiative; we highly recommend it.  For more information, you may contact Laura Vasquez at (305) 248-3311 extension 239 or visit their website.  As always, there is a lot more that is discussed in the podcast.  Click here to listen to this week’s episode and to subscribe to future episodes.

I had a very difficult time passing the science courses in college.  In fact I struggled so much that I had to drop it twice and failed a third attempt.  I knew that it was impossible; and certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.  I was so pleased when I learned, that as an alternative, there was an Environmental Science class that could substitute the biology requirement; and an Environmental Pollution class that substituted the chemistry requirement.  I knew that was my way out.  Those classes were by far the most enjoyable classes I had taken.  Not only did it provide me with a thorough understanding of the natural environment in South Florida it also gave me a new appreciation for our environment.  So for this week’s podcast, I invited Henry Mayer of the UF/IFAS Miami-Dade County Extension to join us and talk about how the environment impacts our condominium and homeowner associations and what we need to do to safeguard them.  In particular there is a great concern that there is too much development and construction in South Florida and that it can have a detrimental impact one of our most valued resources, water.  Per Henry, we have 5 million acres of lawn in the State of Florida and we need to manage our resources carefully to ensure that we are not wasting water.  Water of course has a tremendous impact on our lives and provides a lot of the nutrients plants need to keep their cell content.  It is important for those of us managing irrigation systems in our communities, be extra careful that we do not over water our plants.  In conjunction to water, plants need good soil to provide plants with additional nutrients they need to grow.  Henry further adds that non-native plants, such as Ixoras, Magnolias, Foxtails, and Gardenias tend to do very poorly in South Florida because our soil is very alkaline.  He then clarifies that compacted soil, which means that the soil has lost all of its nutrients is caused by machinery, when you park your vehicle on the grass, or you regularly walk on a trail. In addition to water, nutrients and soil, a tree’s root system plays a major role.  When seeds germinate, early in plant’s life cycle, they produce roots going down; but those roots in South Florida tend to die very soon because our water table is very high and they do not have enough oxygen.  When this happens the lateral roots grow.  Lateral roots are very close to the surface and are very important as they provide anchorage to the tree, allow for storage of nutrients, and help absorb water with additional nutrients.  Henry adds that most roots are in the top 2 to 3 feet of soil.  There are some roots that often times grow above the surface.  Henry informs us that this happens because the tree is looking for oxygen. Unfortunately, in communities, lateral roots are a major tripping hazard.  This is especially true in older communities built many years ago where developers installed Black Olives because they grew fast and provided a lot of shade.  A Black Olive’s root system is extremely invasive and can often times cause damage to the plumbing lines, lift up pavement or sidewalks that can cause a tripping hazard, and, in some extreme cases, the roots can cause structural damage.  To help reduce liability in your community, you can cover the roots with either 1” to 2” of gravel or with no more than 2” to 3” of mulch.  Because mulch decomposes it should be reapplied every 6 months.  If the roots are so invasive that you must cut them, he recommends that you stay away more than 5 times diameter the trunk.  He provided an example:  a tree with a 20” diameter multiplied by 5 equals 100” or 8 feet.  You should not cut any roots within those 8 feet that are close to the trunk.  Those roots are anchorage roots and they help stabilize the tree.  If these roots are cut the tree’s stability is compromised, especially with Tropical Storm or Hurricane winds.  And while we are discussing Tropical Storms and Hurricanes, Henry recommends that trees be trimmed before Hurricane Season.  He stated that the general guidelines require that not more than 25-30% of canopy be trimmed in any one event.   There are different techniques used by arborists to reduce the canopy but one cannot “hat-rack” the tree.  He adds that arborists should provide specific information as to how the branches are going to be cut.  We all know that landscaping is one way to miss a big impact on a community’s value.  In order to have a successful landscaping project, the way your trees are planted play a big role.  I know I have never had a green thumb; and have killed every plant I’ve ever received.  I now know that it is because I was making my planting holes too deep.  Henry informed us that you cannot plant trees too deep because this prevents the tree from getting the nutrients it desperately needs and the roots do not develop.  The other consideration is the planting hole has to be three times wider than the root ball.  In addition, new plants need a lot of water for the plant to really grow. The team at the UF/IFAS Miami-Dade County Extension is able to come out to your community free of charge to conduct an assessment of your common area and help you learn what you can do to improve the landscaping plan in your community.  For additional information you may visit http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/.  There is so much more information provided in this podcast, click here to listen to it in its entirety.  For more information on how Allied Property Group can help your community, call us today at 305-232-1579.

By: Ana Sanchez Rivero, CAM Estoppel letters or certificates are often prepared by an association’s management company.  It should normally include the name of the owner, property address, monthly dues (whether regular or special), any fees due upon transfer, balance due, pending violations, and insurance information.  Senate Bill 398 signed into law by Governor Scott, which goes into effect on July 1, 2017, now requires that in addition to that information other information be included, and regulates the fees that can be charged by an association and/or its agent in preparing an estoppel letter or certificate.  In this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters we reached out to one of the leading condominium and homeowner association firms in South Florida to help us decipher the new law. Maria Victoria Arias, Esq., an attorney with Siegfried, Rivera, Hyman, Lerner, De La Torre, Mars, & Sobel, PA was kind enough to discuss the numerous requirements mandated under this bill.  The estoppel certificate or letter must now be provided “within 10 business days after having received a written or electronic request from a unit owner, the owner’s designee, a unit mortgagee, or the mortgagee’s designee.”  In addition, the Association is required to designate a person or entity on their website as the one who is responsible for receiving the estoppel requests.  The website must include the name of that person or entity, their street address, or email.  The certificate must then be hand delivered, mailed or emailed to the entity that requested the estoppel certificate or letter on the date that it is issued.  The statute now modifies the fees that can be charged to: $250 for the estoppel letter or certificate; an additional $100 for an expedited request (expedited means that the estoppel letter or certificate will be provided within 3 days); an additional $150 can be charged if the account is delinquent.  The statute also stipulates a range that can be charged to owners of multiple units. Maria adds that the statute also requires that the estoppel certificate contain:  Date of issuance; Name(s) of the unit owner as reflected in the records of the association; Property address to include unit number; Parking or garage space number, as reflected in the books and records of the association; Attorney’s name and contact information if the account is delinquent and has been turned over to an attorney for collection. No fee may be charged for this information; Fee for the preparation and delivery of the estoppel certificate; Name of the requestor; Assessment information and other information to include regular periodic assessments, interests, paid through date, due dates of all items, including other monies that could be owed. This information has to be itemized and detailed. Other information to be included, in a “yes or no” format: if there is a capital contribution, transfer fee, resale fee, or other fee due; if there is any open violations of the rules and regulations; if there is a right of first refusal; if yes, do the members or the association exercise that right; Provide a list of and contact information for, all other associations of which the unit is a member; Provide contact information for all insurance maintained by the association; and Provide the signature of the officer or authorized agent of the association. Maria further adds that the statute now states that the estoppel is valid for 30 days.  If the estoppel certificate is sent via regular mail to the requestor then it must be valid for 35 days.  Maria expressed a few concerns over a few of these provisions.   For example, the parking space assigned to a unit is information that is often not recorded with the governing documents and is often lost in the transfer of documents.  Maria clarifies that the statute says “as reflected in the books and records of the association”; but the question becomes that the statute does not say what that document should be.  Often times, an association uses an Excel spreadsheet that may have inconsistencies and may be invalid.  Maria recommends that associations reach out to their association’s attorney so that they can prepare some language that can be added to clarify this in the estoppel certificate or letter. The other concern that was discussed is the issue of a transfer fee.  Maria clarified that the transfer fee is used interchangeably with application or screening fee.  Maria expressed that associations should consult their attorney to determine whether this is something that the association even has a right to charge this fee.  Maria adds that there is a 2-prong test.  First, the association must have the right to approve the sale or lease in their documents.  Secondly, the documents have to state that the association can charge a transfer fee for that provision.  Maria tells us that with regards to the right of first refusal, if it is stipulated in the documents, then you must answer yes, because of the way that the statute is requiring the question be presented on the estoppel certificate.  Maria suggests that if the association is waiving their right of first refusal that they contact the association’s attorney to prepare a waiver.  Again, she stresses that this is another area that should be consulted with the association’s attorney. For information on how Maria V. Arias, Esq. can help your association click here or you may call her at (305) 442-3334.  For information on how Allied Property Group can help your condominium or homeowner association navigate thru these changes, call us today at (305) 232-1579 or visit our website at www.alliedpropertygroup.net.

    It’s that time of year again!  Yes budget season.  It’s time to begin reviewing the financial reports and begin calculating costs for next year’s projects.  Condominium and homeowner associations are governed by many regulations; budget reporting is one of them.  It is important that the Board of Directors of your condominium or homeowner association understand the various elements that make up your community’s budget.  To get an expert’s point of view, in this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters, we invited Pierre Vilme, CPA of Gerstle, Rosen, & Goldenberg, PA.    Lets start with the basics.  Budgets should be prepared by someone familiar with financial reporting.  To ensure that your budget is based on actual figures you should start by pulling the most current financial report.  Pierre recommends that associations review their August or September financial report, which will give them 8 to 9 months worth of financial information.  Budgets must be prepared annually and before the end of the calendar or fiscal year.  Pierre stated that he has seen situations where associations do not approve a budget before the end of the calendar or fiscal year and carry over the current budget into the next year.  They then hold their budget meeting a few months later, this does not meet the requirement set by Florida Statutes.  The budget should be finalized two months before the start of the next fiscal year.  Pierre informs us that one way for associations to save time when preparing their budget is to write a description next to each line item and highlight the reasons for a variance.     All association financials should be prepared on an accrual basis.  If an association prepares their financials on a cash basis, they must make the necessary adjustments to the reports before the end of the fiscal year and ensure that it is on an accrual basis.  Although preparing financials on a cash basis is very common for many businesses, because associations have a receivables component, the financials must be prepared on an accrual basis.  The association’s receivables and bad debt are a very important consideration in preparing the budget.  In order to establish bad debt, Pierre states that Board members should be familiar and consider the association’s business environment.  For example, if owners normally pay within 30 to 45 days of being delinquent, those receivables should not be considered into the bad debt equation.  However, those owners that are seriously past due for a year or more, should be considered.   Because the financial statements are on an accrual basis and in order to ensure that you have reasonably accurate financial statements you must include bad debt to account for those owners that are not paying.     During the real estate crash in 2007-2010 many associations acquired title to some of the units.  Because the mortgagee’s foreclosure was pending, the associations often times rented those units.  Pierre recommends that associations check with their attorney as to the best way to apply that rental income, but he suggests that it be applied to the owner’s ledger.  If the account is brought current said rental income minus that unit’s monthly assessment fee should be reported as rental income and should be reflected on the budget accordingly.  Pierre notes that associations should also consider ancillary income, such as laundry income or valet income.  Especially in a scenario where an association is allowing a laundry company to lease their laundry rooms; that laundry income is subject to sales tax.  The same applies to valet income where the association is renting out parking spaces that are not assigned in the governing documents to an individual owner.  Sales tax reports should be filed with the State of Florida on a monthly basis.    Florida Statute 718 no longer requires associations to perform a reserve study.  The legislators are putting the burden on the board of directors and their fiduciary responsibility to being savvy as to the association’s finances.  However, Pierre recommends that associations perform a reserve study every 2-3 years.  Condominiums are required to have roof, paint, and paving reserves plus any other components stipulated in the governing documents.   In a reserve study an engineer will inspect the building components, such as the roof, concrete, and paint then plug in that information into a software that will allow them to determine the cost to replace that component and its remaining life.  There are two (2) methods in which to fund reserves.  One is the straight line method and the other is the pooling method.  In the straight line method you identify the component of each replacement item.  The pool method still requires the association to know the cost of the replacement item but associations are allowed to pool the funds and are not required to break it down by component.  However, there is no longer a benefit to choosing one method over the other.  In both methods, associations are required to disclose how the funds were disbursed.  For more information on how Gerstle, Rosen, & Goldenberg, CPA can help your firm you may visit their webpage www.grgcpa.com or call Pierre Vilme at 305-937-0116.  For additional information on how Allied Property Group can help manage your association please call 305-232-1579.     

  A lot of focus is normally given to hurricane preparation.  It is important to prepare and make sure that your family has as much information as it needs in case a hurricane does hit.  But what do you do during a hurricane?  And what happens after?  This week’s podcast of Community Association Matters answers these important questions.  According to the Official Broward County Hurricane Preparedness Guide, when the storm arrives everyone should stay in a safe room.  They identify a safe room as an interior room in your home without windows or doors.  Good examples of this are closets, bathrooms or small storage rooms.  Try to select a room that is central so that it is easy for everyone to access it.  Clear out the room before the storm hits so that you are not doing that in the middle of the storm.  Never open windows and doors; you must keep the wind out of your house.  As Broward County’s guide states, “buildings do not fail because of unequal pressures inside and outside…[Opening windows and doors] allows wind to enter the building and increases the risk of building failure.” I have often wondered what I should say to my small children should a hurricane hit us.  It is recommended that you comfort your children and reassure them that they are safe.  You should talk to them and explain what a hurricane is.  Broward County has a link on their website that can offer help to parents as to what to discuss with your child and how to keep the conversation age appropriate.  Encourage them to express their feelings.  They can do this thru a variety of ways, by talking, drawing or even playing.  In today’s day and age where even young children have access to the internet, try to keep them from media reports.  This can add unnecessary levels of stress, especially on a young mind.  I remember that after Hurricane Andrew my dad and I ventured outside of our house to assess the damage.  I was in shock.  We got lost right away as many of the street signs and traffic lights had been knocked down or blown away.  So right after a storm you should stay in doors, unless it is an emergency.  There will be downed trees and power lines.  Some of those power lines may be live so it is important to steer clear.  Report sparking power lines to 911.  Avoid standing water.  In many cases, you will not be able to see what is underneath and you can step on a live wire, become injured with a sharp object, or get bitten by a snake.  It is important to keep in mind that this water is contaminated and anything it touches can also become contaminated.  Do not drink from the faucet until government officials have given the all clear.  If your home has water damage, contact a licensed electrician and have them inspect your home before turning on the power. If your home receives natural gas, you should evacuate immediately if you see a broken gas line or smell natural gas.  Ventilate the area by opening windows and doors.  Do not light matches, turn on any light switches or use the telephone.  Immediately call your gas service provider.  You should contact your gas provider before the hurricane hits for instructions on what to do.  Most hurricanes hit during warm weather and mosquitos can become a problem. You should take precautions by staying indoors at dawn and dusk; wear long sleeve shirts and pants to protect your skin; use repellent containing deets, except for children under two months.  You should also remove any standing water as soon as you can. After a storm, you should assess the damages to your property.  You can best do that by taking pictures or videos of your home after the storm.  Whenever possible it is better if you can document your personal belongings before the storm.  This way you can document what you own and the condition of your personal property.  If there is a storm surge, some of these items can float away.  Having taken pictures before can help show your insurance carrier that you had the item.  You should then report the damages to your insurance representatives. Now if you are like me, you have become spoiled by air conditioning and the thought of spending one night without a/c is enough to drive you nuts!  After Hurricane Wilma, I remember all of my family and friends going out and buying generators and we learned that generators bring forth a completely new set of problems.  Broward’s hurricane guide provides some important safety tips when it comes to generators.  If you install a permanent generator, you must pull the necessary permits and it must be installed by a licensed electrician.  Use the generator in accordance to the instructions provided by the manufacturer.  Portable generators should be placed outside in a well ventilated area.  Never place a generator inside a home – this includes garages, basements or crawl spaces. Remember that we cannot see or smell carbon monoxide and it is deadly.  If you begin to feel sick, dizzy or weak while using a generator –  immediately get outside to fresh air and seek medical attention. If it is not feasible for you to have a generator it is important to stay cool.  Keep an eye out for the symptoms of heat exhaustion. Staying tuned is very important during a hurricane and can sometimes be very difficult so be patient.  Expect delays in cell phone coverage.  Use the phone for necessary calls only.  Sometimes text messages get through when voice calls will not.  Remember that you can also use your car charger to charge your phone.  Inevitably, after a storm there will be debris.  Debris removal varies from city to city and from association to association.  Priority will be given to debris that is blocking roads and that pose an immediate safety issue.  It may take a days or even weeks for all of the debris to be picked up.  If your home is damaged and you wish to begin making repairs it is important to remember to check your governing documents to see what you can and cannot do without association approval.  You can also contact your association’s management company for additional information.  Regardless, as we discussed in the previous podcast, it is important that you hire licensed contractors to do repairs and that you get permits from your local municipalities.  You can check online to confirm that the contractor has a license and verify that he has insurance.  Ask for references and verify those references.  Check with the local building department to see if there are any pending complaints against the contractors.  There are several organizations that offer assistance after a hurricane.  For more information, visit your local municipality’s website for additional information. You can always visit alliedpropertygroup.net for how Allied can help your community.       

In this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters we had the honor of interviewing Edgar Estrada and Natalie French of the City of Doral and discussed with them the different steps that residents, associations, and businesses must take to prepare for a hurricane.  Edgar is the Assistant Code Compliance Director for the City of Doral and Natalie is the Media & Emergency Management Specialist for the City of Doral Police Department.  Hurricane season runs from June 1 thru November 30th.  Many of us know that there are 5 hurricane categories but not many know how these categories are determined.  According to Miami-Dade County’s hurricane readiness guide the categories are broken down as follows:  Category 1: sustained winds of 74 to 95 mph  Category 2: sustained winds of 96 to 110 mph Category 3: sustained winds of 111 to 129 mph Category 4: sustained winds of 130 to 156 mph Category 5: sustained winds of 157 mph or higher It is important to note that according to Natalie, most of the damage is not caused by wind, it is caused by storm surge and flooding.  Other causes of injuries in a hurricane are live wires and medical emergencies, such as heart attacks caused by the increased stress level caused by disasters.  Some of the steps that condominium and homeowner associations should take are as follows: Trim the trees in the community. Edgar recommends that associations hire an arborist to determine the proper amount of foliage to be trimmed and where.  By trimming the trees early the association can prevent a tree from becoming “top heavy” and falling down.  It also prevents dead or lose branches from becoming lose and a projectile.   Associations should also note that most municipalities do not maintain or clean the drains located in private communities. That role often times falls on associations.  Condominium and homeowner associations should clean the drains in their community regularly.  The City of Doral requires that drains be cleaned annually.  Natalie suggests that associations check with their local municipalities because some municipalities offer debris removal after a hurricane even in private communities.  The City of Doral offers this service but communities are required to sign an agreement with the city to implement this service in their community.   Check your shutters and ensure that you have all of the screws and panels needed to properly secure the property. If you do not have hurricane shutters or panels, Miami-Dade County’s hurricane readiness guide recommends that you use 5/8” plywood to cover windows and doors.    Remove all furniture and lose debris around the community. This includes pool and patio furniture, arm gate posts, and potted plants.  If you do not have room in your community for temporarily storing these items, Natalie recommends that the association rent a storage unit for a few days.   Individuals should have enough supplies (food, water, medicine, and personal care items) for three (3) days. Remember to buy plenty of batteries, a radio that is battery operated, and manual equipment, such as a manual can opener. If you are going to a shelter, it is important to check the county website for information as to what you can and cannot bring.  Not all shelters allow pets, so it is important to plan accordingly.  After a hurricane, Edgar urges board members and residents to be careful when hiring a contractor after a storm.  Many unlicensed contractors come by communities and come to affected areas to take advantage of the situation.  He added that most repairs require city and/or county permits despite the fact that it is an emergency repair caused by a hurricane.  In addition, many contractors increase their prices dramatically during a hurricane.  This is illegal and you should report price gauging to the proper authorities. The City of Doral also has an application called Doral Alerts; this application provides weather alerts.  If you live in the City of Doral, you should subscribe.  It is called Everbridge and can be downloaded for free as long as you have a smart phone.  Natalie stated that you should check with your local municipality to see if they offer something similar. For additional information, please visit the City of Doral’s website at cityofdoral.com and click on Public Safety to access information on emergency preparedness.   Below are links to additional websites with more information on hurricane preparedness.  For information on how Allied Property Group can help your community please visit our website at www.alliedpropertygroup.net. Miami-Dade County Emergency Management:  http://www.miamidade.gov/fire/emergency-management.asp Florida Department of Emergency Management website for public information: http://www.floridadisaster.org/DEMpublic.asp Florida Department of Emergency Management website for businesses: http://www.floridadisaster.org/DEMbusiness.asp

Does your condominium or homeowner association feel under represented with the legislature?  Do you wonder where some of the laws affecting your community may come from?  In this week's podcast we interview Russell Robbins, Esq. from Basulto Robbins & Associates LLP and discuss the Community Association Institute.  CAI, as it is commonly referred to, is the leading association for condominium and homeowner association across the country.   In this podcast we discuss the CAI's mission, their education program for Community Association Managers and Board members, their lobbying efforts, and much more.  

What if there were a faster and more secure way of registering proxies at your condominium or homeowner association meeting?  Well there is and in this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters we interview Donna DiMaggio Berger, Esq. of Becker & Poliakoff, PA to discuss their electronic voting system, BP Ballot.  According to Donna, voting online thru BP Ballot is more secure, increases member participation, and saves time.  It is more secure than a paper vote for a few reasons.  First, in order to vote online the owner must register and assign an email address to his account.  The skill set needed to hack an email is much greater than the skill set needed to modify a paper ballot or proxy.  In addition, online voting creates a digital imprint.  If needed, an owner’s vote can be easily tracked.  The need to verify a signature or ownership requirement at a meeting, is eliminated with online voting.  Secondly, BP Ballot increases membership participation.  The reason for this is that owners that do not reside in the unit typically do not vote.  This is especially true for owners that live outside of the United States.  With BP Ballot, owners can vote anytime they wish and from virtually anywhere in the world.  In addition, the number of votes disqualified for procedural reasons is also reduced, thus increasing the number of votes cast.  For example, in a condominium an owner can only vote for the number of positions open.  If the owner votes for more than the number of positions open that ballot is disqualified.  With BP Ballot the owner is not allowed to vote for a number greater than the positions open thus allowing their ballot to count.  As another example, in most associations ballots must be anonymous.  Neither the owners' name nor address or other indicating factor may appear on the ballot.  If an owner accidentally writes their name on a paper ballot that ballot must be rejected.  This is entirely eliminated with online voting. Lastly, BP Ballot also saves time.  Normally in a paper election, it takes hours to register owners at the beginning of the meeting.  Not with BP Ballot.  It takes owners about 5 minutes to register themselves online.  Once registered the owner can vote during an election of directors, an amendment vote, waiving of reserves, or an material alteration at their convenience.  The owner will have a time frame determined by the Board in which to cast his/her vote.  Donna recommends that the Board leave the dates open up until the day of the meeting to ensure increased participation. In order to implement online voting in your community, you should check with your association’s attorney to ensure that the correct procedure is followed.  Each association and their governing documents is very different and that can mean that you may be required to follow a different process than the one we discuss here.  According to Donna, a Board of Directors will have to pass a resolution at a board meeting to allow for this method.  A statutorily compliant letter must be mailed out to all owners 14 days in advance.  It is important that your association attorney draft this letter.  A consent form should be mailed out together with this notice.  The association can upload all of the required documents, whether it is a ballot, the amendments, or plans in case of a material alteration.  In order to participate in BP Ballot, the owner/member must then consent to use online voting.  Once the member has opted in and provided an email address, the association then uploads the list to the BP Ballot software.    Once the owner registers they will receive a unique pin, which they need to file their vote.  When the owner votes he/she will receive an email confirming their vote.  If the owner registers, but does not vote right away, they will receive a reminder email three (3) days before the end of the voting period. It is important to note that associations cannot restrict members from submitting their vote thru paper votes.  In other words, owners who wish to vote thru paper vote must be allowed to do so.  The cost for BP Ballot for existing Becker & Poliakoff clients is $350; for non-clients the cost is $750.  For additional information on BP Ballot you may reach Donna via email dberger@bplegal.com or via telephone at 954-364-6031.  Don't forget to visit alliedpropertygroup.net/latestnews for this week's blog.

Special Assessment!  I am sure those two (2) words alone got your attention.  It probably even made the hairs on your body stand up.  Condominium and homeowner association Boards hate those words, but it is a necessary evil.  Especially for associations that do not have reserves in place to cover their major assets, such roof, pool equipment or resurfacing, replacement of gates, painting, or resurfacing of the roads.  However, if your community has to replace its roof and you do not have the reserve funds available to cover the cost, your association must pass a special assessment.  What happens if you have to replace the roof now and cannot wait until the special assessment is paid in full by all members?  Is a loan the right fit for your association?  Only you as a Board can determine what is the best solution for your community, but if you decide that getting a loan is the right thing to do then I recommend that you listen to this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters.  I sat down with Cesar de la Noval from Executive National Bank to discuss their process for approving loans to associations. Before I go any further, it is highly recommended that you contact your association’s attorney to determine that you (1) have the ability to request a loan on the association’s behalf and (2) whether there are any specific requirements, voting or otherwise, that can significantly hinder the process.  It is important to note that not all banks are the same and not all banks understand community associations.  Some conventional banks have requirements that do not apply to condominium or homeowner associations.  Before selecting a bank you should ask them what are their requirements for qualifying your association, in addition to their rates and term. For example, Executive National Bank does not require that the individual Board members sign personal guarantees and they do not file a lien on the association’s property, thus allowing owners to freely sell their unit.  This is very important, especially since members of the Board change from year to year.  The bank will most likely ask for the following documents: A completed application; List of Board members; A roster of owners; A list of the units rented; Current budget; Two most recent year end financial reports; Two most recent tax returns; Most recent interim financial statements; Aged Accounts Receivable Report; Complete set of the association’s governing documents; Letter from attorney certifying that the association may borrow the funds; and Copies of the signed contract and other proposals. Once they receive these documents, the bank may perform a physical inspection of your community.  There are several factors that are taken into consideration when underwriting a loan.  Executive National Bank requires that the delinquency rate be no higher than 10%.  They specifically look at units that are more than 60 days delinquent.  Some banks look at anything over 30 days.  It is important to know where your community stands in this regard.  Many banks will not even bother moving on to the next step if the association is unable to qualify for this basic requirement. Executive National Bank also considers the number of rented units in your condominium or homeowner association.  If you have more than 80% of the units rented, they may not approve your loan.  They also take into consideration whether one (1) investor owns multiple units and the impact the special assessment or increased payment may have on that one (1) investor.  They would also like for the special assessment not to exceed 50% of the maintenance fee amount.  For example, if your maintenance fee is $200 a month, the special assessment monthly installment cannot be greater than $100.  The process can take weeks or months; it all depends on how quickly you are able to get the documents to the bank and whether or not a vote of the membership is required.  Your association documents may have some other sort of requirement; it is crucial that you get your association attorney involved early on in the process. Cesar recommends that if you do take out a loan make sure it does not have a prepayment penalty.  If an owner is able to pay the special assessment early, you want to make sure that the association is not penalized for that action.  Most banks require that the association’s bank accounts are transferred to the bank that provides the loan.  This is because they want to establish a relationship with you and for them to have a better picture of your financial situation. There a lot of factors that you as a board member must take into consideration when considering to get a loan for your next project.  Loans can certainly help cash flow and allow you to resolve a serious problem now rather than later.  But it does not come without risk.  It is important that you get your association attorney involved early on in the process so that you can prevent potential problems.  To listen to the podcast in its entirety click here.  Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page for upcoming seminars and events.  To get more information on how Executive National Bank can help your community, you may reach Cesar de la Noval at (305) 256-3311 or email him at cdelanoval@executivebank.com. 

  During one of our previous podcast and blog, we discussed how to properly vet your vendors to help ensure that you have picked someone reliable and who will execute a timely and professional job for the association.  But who manages the vendor?  Who inspects and creates the punch lists throughout the job?  Who checks up on inspections and the results of those inspections?  In short, who supervises the supervisor?  In the end, the vendor will be the expert and it is imperative that the right company is chosen for the job.  While Board members and property managers are not project managers, there is a list of things that they can do to help keep the project in question moving along. Meet with the vendor often to discuss what was completed and what is next.  The vendor should provide to you an understanding of the work, which was just completed and what to expect next.  You should be able to track the work and look for proper workmanship.  Did they clean up after themselves?  Were they timely, did they properly relay any issues to you and offer solutions?  Be wary of constant change orders and it is important you do whatever  you can to keep them honest.  Again, picking a good vendor is paramount. What inspections will be involved?  Track the inspection by visiting the municipality’s website (time and day if possible) and to view inspection results.  The inspectors will ensure that the follow-up inspections will have corrected deficiencies.  It is highly recommended that you keep a record of those inspections and when they were finalized. Ensure that you have money on the association’s side.  Whenever possible do not pay the vendor too much in advance.  Too often paying the vendor in advance leads to gaps between phases of work.  In South Florida, we see a high volume of vendors that are more interested in being paid and not as interested in whether they took pride in their work.  Look for vendors who take pride in their punctuality, cleanliness, and workmanship.  Once you pass final inspection, print it and keep a copy for your records.  You want to have that in your hands prior to releasing any payments.  Sometimes the vendor will press you for final payment prior to passing inspection or prior to providing you with a release of lien.  Even if you pass final, ensure the vendor has been provided a final punch list of items so those items can be corrected prior or immediately after final inspection passes.  I personally always try to have the punch list provided prior to final inspection so as to give the vendor ample time to correct any deficiencies.  If you pass final and the punch list has still not been cured, I do withhold payment (of course you want to check with the attorney to ensure that you can do this).  A lot of times there is a small 10% retainer built into the vendor and association contract specifically for this reason.  The association attorney would come into play with a review of the contract prior to the commencement and that retainer to ensure that said language has been inserted into the contract. Ask for a release of lien (if applicable) prior to releasing any final checks.  This is very important.  I have seen associations come to Allied from other management companies and one of the issues they have is that a supplier has filed a lien on the association for lack of payment.  The vendor was paid in full and failed to pay the supplier; this could be done by a roofing material supplier or a painting manufacturer.  The association would then either be involved in litigation or pay the amounts owed to the supplier after all due diligence has been exhausted.   I strongly recommend that you pay attention to detail along the way so as to avoid surprises.  There will be issues along the way.  Construction is at times unpredictable and unforeseen issues do arise.  Look for all possible alternative solutions and not necessarily the least expensive ones.  The long term success of the project depends much on making the right decisions regarding work order changes, materials used, and how you handle certain construction issues that arise during the project.  For more information please visit our website www.alliedpropertygroup.net.  

I went to a presentation before an HOA a few years ago. I remember being all excited about the presentation and the possibility of picking up the business. We had just opened Allied Property Group and any business at the time would have been welcomed. The Board for that community had decided to schedule the presentation during a Special Assessment meeting. From the moment I walked in to that meeting, I felt the tension. The owners were all talking at the same time and some were even screaming. The Board was engaged in this screaming match with the owners. I kept thinking of my mother and how she calls me everytime there is a condominium meeting gone wrong being showcased on the Spanish news. It truly felt like this meeting was evolving into its own telenovela. After sitting in the meeting for 30 minutes, and all of a sudden, a board member picked up a chair and was about to throw it at an owner in the audience. Needless to say, I walked out of the meeting and did not make the presentation. All too often this is common place in Association meetings. Especially during Special Assessment and Budget meetings. After managing for almost 15 years and serving in this industry for more than 25 years, I have learned there are three (3) things that can help you run a successful meeting in a tense situation. The first thing you want to make sure you do is set the stage early on; review the agenda and do not deviate from it. The second thing is provide supporting documentation that the owners need to better understand the circumstances surrounding the special assessment or maintenance fee increase. Last, but not least, is that as a Board you always must maintain control. It is important that associations consult their attorney for the best way to implement this procedures. Every association is different and so are their governing documents. You want to make sure that before you implement any new rules you are aware of the proper procedures. So how do you set the stage? You set the stage by introducing yourself and the other board members. If you have a professional present at the meeting to provide a more detailed explanation, introduce them as well and explain why they are there. You then state the procedural rules that you have adopted and carefully review the agenda to make everyone aware of the topics you will discuss. It is always a good idea to have extra copies of the agenda. Sometimes we have a section on the sign up sheet where the owner can indicate if they wish to address the board on any particular matter on the agenda. You should be clear that everyone who signs up to speak will have the opportunity to address the board and/or ask questions. Inform the owners that they will have a 2-minute limit in which to address the board. The time limit is irrelevant, you can make it 2, 3 or 5 minutes; the point is to set a limit for each owner to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to address the board. I recommend that you inform the owners the reason for having time limits. People are more open to accepting procedures that they understand. You can give the owners this opportunity to speak at the beginning or end of the meeting. Some would argue that you can put it at the beginning of the meeting so that the owner can express their concern and not have to sit thru the entire meeting. I am a fan of doing it at the end of the meeting. If you did a good job during your meeting and explained everything, the number of questions that remain to be asked will be minimal. It is fine if you do not use this method. There are a variety of other ways in which to control owner participation and maintain order. Whatever method you choose is fine, just have a method in which to recognize owners and give owners the opportunity to speak. Secondly, you should provide as much information as possible related to the subject matter. I say this because a lot of times owners do not attend the board meetings where the actual discussion and considerations that lead to the decision to increase the maintenance fee or that led to the special assessment. It is important to have your documentation ready to show to the homeowners that you need to pass this special assessment. If you are replacing an item that breaks down or the roof, it does not hurt to have owners present at the meeting that are suffering from a leak in their unit. The owner affected by this roof leak will become an advocate for the new roof and the special assessment to cover it. In addition, have the invoices present to show the amount spent on those repairs. A professional opinion to show the cost savings by replacing the item versus repairing it is also helpful. As a qualified specialist, vendors are in a unique position to offer more details than you or your manager. You also want to provide the proposals that you have acquired from the different companies/ vendors. If it is an increase in the budget that is making the meeting contentious – provide evidence of the expenditures that caused the increase. If it was an insurance premium – provide copies of the invoices. If you are not able to bring these documents to the meeting, in the very least post them on your community website or ask owners to provide their email address so that the proposals can be emailed to them. Make it as easy as possible for the owners to access this information. Don’t forget to bring the minutes of past board meetings where these items were discussed or again, inform the owners that it is available to them at the association’s website. Do not chastise owners who did not attend past board meetings. They may not have been able to attend for a valid reason. But all of this is lost if you do not gain control of the meeting and stick with the agenda. As Board members you have business to discuss; business the affects the association. Your Board meetings is where you discuss this business. If you allow owners to run the meeting, you will never discuss that business and you will not achieve your goal. If owner is being disruptive, in a polite but firm manner inform the homeowner that he is being disruptive and is out of order. If the owner continues to be disruptive then ask the owner to leave the meeting. Everybody should follow the rules as they allow everyone the opportunity to get the information that they need. My experience has been that if you lay this groundwork, state the rules, you provide the documentation and you give everyone an opportunity to speak, the owners will respond positively. Do not forget to always consult with your attorney before implementing any of these rules so that he or she can guide you as to the proper way in which your Board can implement these procedures. Don't forget to visit our website www.alliedpropertygroup.net for more information.  Please like us on our Facebook page and send in your contact information to receive future blogs and information on upcoming educational seminars free to Board members.

Now a days everything is smart?  We have smart phones, smart TVs, and even smart watches!  But smart cameras?  Believe it!  Most communities have surveillance cameras to deter crime or property damage.  Something happens in the community and then we look at the video footage to see if it captured the event.  What if the cameras can be reactionary and not just preventative?  Jason Mulhilvill of Kent Services sat down with us this week to discuss Kent’s vertically integrated services.   By introducing analytics, they now offer smart cameras.  Analytics can turn a traditional passive system to a smart camera.  This allows them to provide real time information and is a proactive security measurement.  Now you are thinking that this can be expensive or you will have to purchase new equipment, not so says Jason.  They can go into most existing systems and add that analytics platform to the cameras. A community will most likely not have to purchase new equipment to make it match with the new software.  So what is video analytics?   It is a platform that is installed in the equipment.  The area covered by the camera is then masked.  If someone encroaches in that area, the cameras will pick it up and send an event notification.  The cameras can distinguish whether it is an animal, a vehicle, or a person entering that area.  The event notification is sent to the designated individual(s); whether it is the manager, a board member, or an onsite security guard.  The event notification feature gives real time information and allows the parties to receive information as soon as the event is triggered.  For example, if your community has surveillance cameras in the pool area and your pool hours are from 9am to 8pm.  Then someone enters the pool area at 8:30pm; an email is sent to the designated parties.  Lets say you wish to search for this event/incident.   With this system, you now have the ability to search for this event.  Rather than spending hours reviewing video footage, your security team, committee, or property manager can merely type in a certain time frame and it will take them directly to the event within the search criteria.  With the analytics platform, the cameras also become interactive.  When there is an event, the command center receives a notification and can see the event occur in real time.  The cameras will also be able to identify the location of the event.  The guards at the command center, thru a speaker, can communicate with the perpetrator and/or call the police as soon as the incident occurs.  This is an extremely effective tool and can prevent a crime from being committed or a tragedy from occurring.  This system can also work in tandem with Kent's BMX software.  BMX is a video tele-entry system.  This system allows residents to provide a virtual key, which is a QR Code, for special visitors, such as their landscape crew, a nanny, or a housekeeper.  The resident can control who receives them and on which day and time that individual is allowed to come in.  Management can then run reports to determine who has received a QR code.  This system can also be used as a Smart Guard; where the camera system and intercom can eliminate the guardhouse position.  This can represent a significant savings for many communities.  The association can also restructure their budget and perhaps add other security measures, such as a roving patrol.  There are a variety of ways in which this system can be implemented.  In one case there is a guard that will tend to the visitor and the other a computer that greets the visitor.  This system also makes it easy to run reports to show when someone gains entry.  For communities that have unmanned gates, an LPR (license plate reading) camera and an overview camera can be installed at the entrance to capture and record who is coming in.   For more information on these systems, you may call Jason at 305-815-2789 or email him at jmulvihill@kentservices.com.   You can also visit kenttechnologies.net.  As always Allied Property Group is here for your management needs. Please call us today at 305-232-1579 and find out how we can help your community.

It’s the middle of the night. Everyone is fast asleep and all of sudden you hear the water trickling down. You wake up thinking that you left the kitchen faucet on but you wake up to find that your entire apartment is flooded! You immediately get out of your sleepy haze and wake up to the sobering reality that a common area pipe has just burst. Do you know what to do? More importantly, does your property manager and maintenance staff know what to do? More often than not, this situation is overwhelming. However, it doesn’t have to be. According to JP from Super Restoration, having a plan of action and preparing for these scenarios can make an unbearable situation a little easier to deal with. In addition to ensuring that your association has an Emergency Plan of Action and a Maintenance or Preparedness Manual, it is equally important to train your staff and run thru a drill on a quarterly or semi-annually basis. Front desk personnel, the concierge, maintenance staff, the manager, security personnel, as well as several Board members should be acquainted with the location of the buildings’ shut off valves. In case of a pipe burst, those individuals should know where to turn off the water to prevent additional damage. Next, they should identify of the source of the leak. Whether it is a fire sprinkler head that needs to be replaced or a common area pipe that needs to be repaired; it is important to identify the source so that you can make the necessary repairs and get the water turned back on. Once the water has stopped and other mitigating measures have been taken, you should notify the insurance agent and begin getting insurance involved. Identifying the responsible party is part of their job. Most likely insurance will name their own private adjuster to investigate the cause of the loss. Most of the time these acts are normally covered by insurance. It is important to ensure that as a Board member you are familiar with what is and is not covered by your insurance policy. Ask the agent for a meeting and ensure that you understand your insurance policy. Ask your agent what are the exclusions in the policy? Mold is more often than not an exclusion to most policies. Your next step should be to get a restoration company out to the property. Super Restoration assigns a crew to each floor. They begin by extracting the water to prevent it from moving further and causing more damage. They then install blowers to begin drying the affected areas. Dehumidifiers are then brought in to evaporate the water that made contact with any surfaces, i.e. walls, carpets, etc. The dehumidifiers will remove any humidity and will dry the surfaces to prevent mold. JP adds that mold can start growing within 24 hours or 2-3 weeks depending on the temperature in the room. It is important that the temperature in the walls and floors be taken to identify secondary damage. This is the water damage that you cannot see; a common example of this is water that gets into drywall, the wall absorbs it like a sponge and those walls remain wet. We cannot see or even touch this type of water damage; you need specialized equipment that helps identify those locations. It is important that these areas be identified so that the appropriate measures can be taken to immediately dry those areas and prevent a more costly loss, such as replacement of the affected areas. This step alone can save associations and property owners thousands of dollars. According to JP, the drying process takes three (3) to five (5) days. Super Restoration returns every day to measure and re-evaluate what the moisture content is and ensure that it is going down. If the moisture content is not decreasing and it is not at the industry standard for mold content by the fifth day, you must replace the affected areas. JP recommends that the every Association invest in a high capacity water extraction machine. These machines cost anywhere from $700 to $1,000 and can extract 100-150 gallons of water at a time. He also recommends that associations purchase a moisture detection device. These typically cost anywhere from $300 to $500. They help to identify water damage inside the drywall or carpeting. This will allow maintenance personnel to immediately react and begin mitigating damage. Now to prevent this from happening in your community, associations should have their maintenance staff be pro-active and reach out to the air conditioning tech, mechanical engineer, and plumbers to perform a preventative inspection to make sure the building is running as it should. These inspections can help identify possible areas of concern and allow you to address the issue before it becomes a problem. Be proactive! JP recommends that when you have a large loss a third party environmental company be contracted to ensure that the mold remediation company is doing their job and meeting industry standards. Remember, mold is a licensed industry and mold extraction can only be done by licensed personnel. Having the maintenance man remove mold on their own can expose the association to major liability. Hire a licensed mold remediation company - period. The safety and health of the residents is what is important here. For more information on how your association can formulate an Emergency Preparedness Plan you can contact JP from Super Restoration at 800-516-8059 or visit their website at www.superrestoration.com. Please visit our website at www.alliedpropertygroup.net for more information.

Terrorism!  It is a scary word and to think that it can happen anywhere is an even scarier thought.  But it is the reality we are faced with today.  Despite the increase in terrorist threats in the United States, not a lot of condominium or homeowner associations are discussing this and even less have a plan in place in case a terrorist attack occurs in their community.  In this episode Ana Sanchez Rivero of Allied Property Group interviews Victor Guembes, Corporate Manager at Regions Security Services.  They discuss the methods used by terrorists and the key role that we can play in prevent a terrorist attack.  Information on how an Association can formulate an Emergency Plan are also discussed.

You would think that association board members know better than to hire a contractor that is unlicensed.  But sometimes in an attempt to save money, associations hire unlicensed contractors.  In the long run, however, this practice can be more costly than hiring a licensed contractor.  Here is an example: An association in Miami Beach contracted a construction company recommended by a homeowner to remodel the association’s lobby.  The homeowner swore up and down that this contractor had done a great job remodeling their unit and by far was the least expensive. Because the contractor was recommended by a homeowner, the board did not vet the contractor and did not have their attorney review the contract.  After all, the contractor was highly recommended by this very active homeowner and the contractor’s price was well beneath all other proposals.  This was too appealing to pass up.  The project was a disaster!  The contractor was over budget and took three times as long to complete the job.  In the end, the contractor abandoned the job and disappeared with the association’s money.  The homeowner, who highly recommended this contractor, sold his unit and was never heard from again. Fortunately, this example is fictional, but situations like this occur more commonly than we think.  To help in avoiding these horrible situations, associations should always hire a licensed contractor where the work being performed requires a license.  Vetting a vendor is actually easier than one thinks, and with a few key strokes, association boards have a tremendous amount of information at their fingertips.   Some of these issues, and other things an association may want to think about prior to choosing a contractor were discussed during a recent interview in Allied Property Group’s podcast, Community Association Matters.  In the State of Florida, an association can visit myfloridalicense.com to verify that a Contractor is licensed with the state; and sunbiz.org to confirm that a corporation is active.  They can also visit their county clerk of court websites and / or conduct a records search to find out if there are any pending or past law suits against the contractor and / or the qualifier or any unsatisfied judgments.  It is a good idea to also ask for a Certificate of Insurance and request that the Association be added as an Additional Insured where legally permitted, and review the coverage to make sure it is adequate.  All of these, and many other factors should ultimately be discussed with the Association’s attorney prior to entering into a contract. Lastly, the association should ask the contractor to provide references.  Although this may seem trivial, think of it this way: isn’t it a potential red flag if the contractor will not provide references?  Isn’t it a potential red flag if the references provided were for jobs very different in scope than the job being considered?  You should accordingly contact the references and ask a series of questions, such as: Whether the project was completed on time and in budget; Were there any issues with the city or county inspectors; How communicative was the contractor during the process. Now what happens if things go wrong?  Hopefully you have consulted with an attorney prior to signing a contract, and they have worked with you throughout the process to help add layers of contractual protection.  These are basic suggestions for associations to consider when hiring a contractor.  Every association is different, and every situation is unique.  Get management assistance from Allied, and get legal assistance from your lawyer.  For more information and in depth thoughts, you can also listen to our podcast, Community Association Matters.