Post by Admin on Jan 2, 2016 13:47:32 GMT -5
Owners should educate themselves to separate fact from fiction before giving informed consent to restore CC&R’s on their parcel. Participants in the mediated settlements went to great lengths to achieve a 2nd revitalization effort by persuading leaders to offer a legitimate package to S-bag homeowners that would survive future legal cH allenge. Here are some very good reasons to say "Yea!" to revitalization that I believe we can all agree on.
1-S-bag derives its authority to act on Owners’ behalf by virtue of the agreed-upon private contract, which is the Covenants. Covenants = Contract.
*CC&R’s provide S-bag owners with the constraints and orderliness of a written contract in terms of acts undertaken on their behalf by the Board and authorized use of parcels.
2- The presence of CC&R’s will activate Florida’s Homeowner Act, FS720.
FS720, the Homeowner's Act, offers legal "process" guidelines for HOA behavior and provides lawful basis for compelling compliance by HOA leadership.
3- S-bag's corporate documents (Articles,Bylaws) derive their authority from Covenants and these will be restored.
Though Articles and Bylaws do not expire with Covenants (because they are solely corporate documents), their full force and effect is substantially gutted by the expiration of Covenants, upon which they are based. Revitalization will restore full functionality to the corporate documents.
4-S-bag will get, as Florida’s gift to revitalized Covenants, a valid amendatory provision with a reasonable 66% affirmative voting threshold.
The current Covenants that are being revitalized do not have an amendatory provision. The "questionable" 1986 Amendment is on shaky legal ground and has an inferior amendatory clause (requiring a higher 75% voting threshold). Florida provides revitalized Covenants that were missing an amendatory clause with an amendatory provision with a lower, more attainable 66% voting threshold.
These FACTS offer the most protection to Owners/Consumers. Without these contractual and statutory guidelines, owners are vulnerable to the whims of the board du jour.
5-Most of S-bag will agree to be re-encumbered by the revitalized Covenants and life will go on.
I put this in the PLUS column because the tensions associated with expired covenants will be lessened. Business that has been postponed due to expired covenants can resume.
6- The success of revitalizing expired Covenants will herald a "new age" of Owner awareness of the importance of involvement in SLohA business.
Hopefully, truthful communication between leadership and members will be the new norm. Owners will, hopefully, be more interested and participative in SLohA business affairs.
*CC&R's = Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (aka called "Covenants, Declaration of Covenants, Declaration)