Yesterday’s edition of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel featured a column by Donna DiMaggio Berger, the executive director of the Community Advocacy Network and a partner in the Katzman, Garfinkel and Berger law firm.

In what Ms. Berger calls an "unprecedented move,"  The Federal Emergency Management Agency  recently announced that it would end

I’m posting the links to three recent articles for my blog readers:

  • The first story involves the efforts of a condominium association in Jupiter, Florida to use a dog’s individual DNA to help identify canine offenders (and their owners) of the community’s "pooper scooper" rules.
  •  The aggressive approach taken by a  homeowners’ association in

Those of you that have attended our seminars for resident owned communities know that I stress the importance of all board meetings being properly noticed and open to all association members.

I’m asked at least several times every year whether a ROC board can meet in "emergency" session and thus dispense with the requirements to

I’m posting links for my blog readers to two articles from last Sunday’s Sarasota Herald -Tribune and a story that was summarized in a recent edition of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association’s newsletter.

  • The first article from the Herald-Tribune focuses on the tragic consequences of an accident involving a golf cart.  I’ve covered this

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just issued its predictions for the upcoming hurricane season, which begins June 1.

If NOAA’s forecast is correct, we’ll have a very busy summer tracking storms in the Gulf and the Atlantic:

According to NOAA, there is a seventy per cent chance of the following:

  • 14 to 23 named storms (either tropical storms with top winds of at least 39 miles per hour or hurricanes)
  • 8 to 14 of those storms will reach hurricane status (with top winds of at least 74 miles per hour)
  • Of those 8 to 14 hurricanes, 3 to 7 will become major hurricanes (with top winds of at least 111 miles per hour)

I’ve posted on hurricane preparedness before but this is certainly a good time for ROC managers and board members to review their existing hurricane preparedness plans and to remind their residents (snowbirds and full-timers alike) of a few important points:

  • Residents should not wait until the last minute to evacuate their communities–especially those in need of special care or with pets
  • Do not leave lawn chairs, tables, etc. outside when a storm is on the way.  Anything that can become a projectile should be brought inside or be otherwise safely secured.
  • A mandatory evacuation order means just that: evacuate your community.  Unless your clubhouse is a Red Cross certified storm shelter, it should not in any event be used to "ride out" the storm.
  • Make sure all contact information for residents is readily available
  • Appoint one or two "full time"residents (not the manager) to serve as the "information centers" in the event that a storm hits the community.  All residents should be advised to contact these residents rather than the manager or other board members for updates on conditions at the community.   The manager and the other board members will have their hands full in dealing with the challenges facing any community in the aftermath of a storm.

We all hope that this hurricane season will be as quiet and uneventful as last year’s but, as always, taking the proper steps to prepare for the worst is the best course of action for managers, board members and residents in our communities. 

Continue Reading ROCs Should Prepare for an Active Hurricane Season

The managers and board members in the communities we work with have been faced with some rather interesting situations during the past few months.   Here’s a sampling–see if you can guess what they have in common:

  • A ROC manager receives a frantic call from one of the residents in her community about  another resident who

I read two articles in last Sunday’s edition of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that should be of great interest to resident owned communities.

The first article focuses on the "false sense of security" that many Florida residents may have when the next hurricane approaches because they purchased "home protection products" even though the claims that these products make

Another hurricane season has arrived in Florida and with every approaching tropical storm system I expect to receive at least one call from an ROC manager or board member asking whether the residents can use the community clubhouse as a storm shelter.  My answer is consistent although not always popular:   Unless the community clubhouse has been certified as