Florida condo ombudsman or the Department of Business and Professional Regulation is where condo owners can go if they have any complain regarding the administration of their Miami condo buildings.
Going to court is the most common option when there is a problem between Miami condo owners and homeowners associations; nonetheless this option is usually risky and very expensive. The state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation offers mediation and arbitration services when a complaint is filed, but they do not regulate homeowner associations and a majority of those complains end in court. The state's condo ombudsman does not regulate homeowners associations, either.
One of the main problems is that some Miami homeowners associations haven’t had elections for years because they can’t get a quorum at their annual meeting. Most of these associations require at least 30% of its owners to be present to hold the election. The requirement could decrease if we considered the fact that during a city election the voters you might only represent10% of the registered voters.
The state of Florida has no system to monitor homeowner association’s elections and no official entity to handle any dispute. Nowadays, there are several complains about elections which were held with many irregularities and inconsistencies in the state of Florida. In some Miami condo buildings homeowners do not know when the next election will be and some of them never get the 30-day notice of the election which is required in most of the cases.
Miami condo owners are beginning to demand that the management of their associations run more clearly and fairly. This will definitely require homeowner’s associations to review some of the rules and regulations in order to be efficient and fair.
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