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Representative Juan C. Porras, a Republican from Miami, has shared a petition calling for enforcement and transparency over Florida HOAs.
FLORIDA, USA — A Florida lawmaker says he is “seriously considering” legislation that would repeal homeowner associations (HOAs) across the state.
Representative Juan C. Porras, a Republican from Miami, has shared a petition calling for enforcement and transparency over Florida HOAs. He says that current laws in place do little to protect homeowners from management and board members who don’t abide by them.
“In the Free State of Florida, we should not have authoritarian boards dictate your day to day life with no accountability,” Porras wrote in a post on X.
Porras has previously sponsored House Bill 983, which removed provisions relating to the recall of HOA board members and required new financial reports. The bill died in the Judiciary Committee in June.
“These homeowners associations and condominium boards act like pseudo-governments,” Porras said in a statement to WPTV. “But they don’t have the same level of accountability that, say, I or other elected officials have. I’ve been fighting hard to make sure we increase that accountability — and we’ll continue to do so this year.”
HOA laws are set under Florida statute Chapter 720, which lays out certain requirements for board members, such as completing mandatory educational training within 90 days of being elected, maintaining proper financial literacy and transparency, avoiding conflicts of interest and facing automatic removal from office if charged with crimes like theft, forgery or obstruction of justice.
The petition states that when laws are broken, the state’s enforcement powers have “little to no punitive measures built into them,” comparing it to if a police officer pulled over a driver for speeding and issued a ticket with no expense to it.
“The abuse would simply continue, this is the case with how Homeowner Associations are presently managed,” the petition reads.
As of Wednesday morning, the petition has over 1,500 signatures, putting it at 95% of reaching its goal.
“This must change!” it states. “If you agree that the State of Florida should work towards addressing these deficiencies in Homeowner Association law (Chapter 720), please help us by signing here.”