Going to court can cost you money.
Mediation costs money, too, but not as much.
When Florida homeowners violate community restrictions, association boards look for ways to persude them to come back into compliance. If persuasion didn’t work, court was the only solution up until 2004. That’s when the legislature passed a law requiring mediation before court.
This was a move in the right direction, but the 2004 statute was cumbersome. The program was overseen by the Dept. of Land Sales, the filing cost was high, and it took six weeks just to find out whether or not the Department would assign a mediator to your case.
Those stumbling blocks were pushed aside in a 2007 revision of the statute. Mediation is still required but now an association can go directly to the homeowner with their request. The homeowner, in turn, has 20 days to agree to the voluntary mediation before a court action can be filed. The cost of the mediation is evenly divided, but this can be negotiated.
After more than a dozen mediations since passage of the new law, I have yet to see one case go to court. This works out best for everyone involved, except maybe the lawyer who doesn’t get to charge those billable hours in preparing for and going to court to resolve what should be issues more easily resolved between, what amounts to, neighbors.
It’s one source of revenue this particular lawyer doesn’t mind missing out on because the real goal in any such dispute is to keep those restrictions and covenants contained in every Declaration doing what they are supposed to do: unite the homeowners behind a set of ideas that work to the benefit of each person living in the community.
Posted by tedkbrown 