FYI: Click on Direct Links for NCC Documents

Click on this direct link to see the meeting minutes for the last 3 years: http://nautiluscondosrules.blogspot.com/2009/03/minutes-of-december-08-annual-general.html
. AGM/BOD Meetings 1/29/11
. AGM/BOD Meetings 12/20/10
. BOD Meeting 10/4/2010
. AGM/BOD Meetings 12/20/2009. BOD Meeting 12/20/2008
. BOD Meeting 12/6/2008 (Adjourned – no quorum)
. BOD Meeting 04/16/2008 (Emergency Meeting)
. BOD Meeting 03/01/2008
. BOD Meeting 12/8/2007
. BOD Written Consent in Lieu of 1st Meeting  4/1/06
 Condo Documents - Direct Links
By-Laws of NCC - http://tinyurl.com/37vbqkz
NCC Articles of Incorporation - http://tinyurl.com/34wp8pj
Rules and Regulations - http://tinyurl.com/39lbjwl
New 10/4/10 Condo Management Agreement - http://tinyurl.com/39sy3cy
Old Condominium Management Agreement - http://tinyurl.com/3x8963n
Balance Sheet of 10/2010 -  http://tinyurl.com/2d4oh4j


Other Nautilus Cove Condo blogs are:
Nautilus Cove Condo - 2008 Civil Suit - http://nautiluscovesuit2008.blogspot.com/
Private Grill are Not Allowed at NCC - http://nccgrills.blogspot.com/
Meth Lab Arrests at NCC (#1502) - http://nautiluscovearrests.blogspot.com/
American Utility Mgmt - http://aumsucks.blogspot.com/

Hard to think of 4 years ago as being "the Good Old Days"

Remember when prices started at $154,900 for a 2/2? Then they went down to $124,900. Now 3/2’s are going for $75,000 (#1606) and 4/3’s for $90,000 (#102).

A lot of reading material here for you:

This site has been on the blog for several years and worked its way to the bottom.  I've brought it back to the top and made some changes.  It is worth a look.

This is the main site, enjoy the music while you look at it.  http://www.ccfj.net/  

Condo News Articles:  http://www.ccfj.net/PNEWS.htm

Click on link for interesting articles about Condos in Florida, other states, condo stories and various Florida condo court decisions:

http://www.ccfj.net/condoaart.html

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Also FYI:   A condo advice column is available to read at: 
http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/condoblog/
and another is at: 
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-consumer-vasquez,0,710891.columnist

TAKE ALL THE RENT - NOT JUST SOME

When the statute was originally amended in 2010, the law allowed the condominium association or HOA to collect the monthly amount of the assessment from the tenant of a delinquent unit owner. The statute has now been amended in 2011, to allow the association to collect all of the rent from the tenant and apply all of it to the outstanding sums owed by the delinquent unit owner. In order to make the demand on the tenant, the association is required to use a form as provided for in the statute. A lawsuit has been filed in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the statute alleging that the landlord is deprived of due process because he or she never gets the opportunity to dispute the delinquency before the association takes his or her rent.

CANT RUN FOR BOD IF DELINQUENT

Now, a unit owner cannot even run for the Board in a condominium if they are delinquent in the payment of any fee, fine, regular or special assessment to the association at the time they submit their Notice of Intent to Be a Candidate. It is no longer sufficient to allow a delinquent candidate to run for the Board when delinquent and then become seated by becoming current prior to the votes being counted at the annual meeting.

CREATING COMMUNITY DIRECTORIES

Unit owners have always been provided the protection under Florida Condominium and HOA law from ensuring that certain personal information like phone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses were protected from disclosure to other unit owners by the association. The statute has now been amended to allow these unit owners to waive this protection and consent in writing to disclosure of this information to fellow owners. The primary purpose of this amendment is to allow communities the ability to publish a community directory. 

Note:  Another way to find Owner address and tax information is by using the Bay County Appraisers site at:  http://qpublic.net/bay/index-search.html  The easiest way to access all the records at once is to click on the blue "Search by Parcel Range" choice and put in Starting:  40000-100-000  Ending:  40000-100-170.  Many owners do not live on property and this site will give you their mailing address as well as unit address and it is much more informative than our own records plus you can use the click on link to go directly to the County tax records.

BOARD MEMBER CERTIFICATION

The new law clarifies the certification requirement for Board members. Now, a Board member can get certified by attending a course one year before getting elected to the Board or within 90 days of having been elected. Moreover, recertification is not required if the director serves on the board without interruption. The Florida Legislature did not remove the ability to become certified by simply signing an affidavit.

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Misc FYI:  My blogsite has 300 posts going back to 2007, most people just look at the top 5-6 items and never get any further, take some time and explore the whole site, there is a lot of information plus all the condo documents.

Misc. FYI:

Now and then I get some incoming from owners/renters and sometimes from other folks having problems with their HOAs. I will post the links to this video if anyone wants to take a look at how bad an association can get. I don't know the issues other than the video but the music is nice.

We don't have this problem at NCC, if anything we have the reverse, a BOD that does nothing. So things could be worse, we could be like the "Lakes of Jacaranda" the video gives us:  "A rare glimpse into a hugely dysfunctional Home Owners Ass. in a southwest Florida community".

Thanks to Ken Davies for the videos.  http://youtu.be/hCcKCaW_9rY

Florida's Constitution and laws protect your property from seizure to pay debts.

Here is a short list of the items that a creditor can never take away from you even if the creditor has a judgment against you:
(a) Article X, Section 4, of the Florida Constitution prohibits the seizure of your homestead (except for taxes and mortgages on the property).

(b) The cash value of life insurance policies cannot be seized by a creditor (see Florida Statutes, Section 222.14).

(c) The value of an annuity contract cannot be seized by a creditor (see Florida Statutes, Section 222.14).

(d) Wages of the head of a household cannot be seized by a creditor. Under Florida law, the head of a family includes any person who is providing more than one-half of the support for a child or other dependent.

(e) Earnings from wages that are put into a bank are exempt from garnishment for six months. Always keep proof of the source of all deposits to your bank account to prove to the judge that your wages were the source of all deposits into your account (see Florida Statutes, Section 222.11).

(f) Disability income benefits may not be seized to pay a creditor under Florida law (see Florida Statutes, Section 222.18).

(g) Money kept in 401K plans and other retirement plans such as individual retirement arrangements may not be seized by creditors under Florida Statutes, Section 222.21.

(h)Money placed into prepaid college tuition plans and medical savings accounts may not be seized by creditors and may not be garnished or be subject to legal process in favor of any creditor under Florida Statues, Section 222.22.

(i) A creditor may not seize $1,000 worth of value in a car (see Florida Statutes, Section 222.25).

(j) Any professionally prescribed health aids such as walkers, special beds or other items are exempt from seizure by creditors (see Florida Statutes, Section 222.25(2)).

(k) "Earned income credit" described in 26 U.S.C., Section 32 of the Internal Revenue Code, may not be seized by a creditor even after the amount of the credit has been placed into a bank account (see Florida Statutes, Section 222.25).

(l) Florida's constitutional protections are so powerful that even a criminal who purchases a homestead with the specific intent of defrauding a creditor cannot lose his house (see Havoco of America, Ltd. Vs. Elmer C. Hill, (790 So.2d 1018 Fla. Sup. Ct., 2001).

Mortgages and Foreclosures

Here are some interesting quotes with links to the entire article:

“Some 4.2 million mortgage borrowers are either seriously delinquent or have had their cases referred to lawyers to pursue foreclosure auctions, according to LPS Applied Analytics. Of those, two-thirds have made no payments at all for at least a year, and nearly one-third have gone more than two years.

These cases can go on and on. Nationwide, it takes an average of 565 days to foreclose on borrowers in default from their first missed payments to the final auction. In New York, the average is 800 days and in Florida, where the "robo-signing" issue is particularly combative, it's 807.

If they want to fight evictions hard, borrowers can remain in their homes even longer while their cases are being worked through.”

For additional details see:   http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/09/real_estate/foreclosure_squatter/index.htm?iid=Lead

And also:

Millions Of Homeowners Have Not Made Mortgage Payments In Years

By Chris Morran on June 9, 2011
It now takes an average of 565 days from a homeowner's first missed payment until a lender ultimately forecloses on a property. It takes significantly longer — 807 days on average — in Florida, a state with a large number of underwater mortgages. And then there are all the people who won't necessarily go into foreclosure but who have been advised not to make payments in order to qualify for a loan modification. This all adds up to millions of Americans who have gone at least one year without making a single payment.

Direct link: http://consumerist.com/2011/06/millions-of-homeowners-have-not-made-mortgage-payments-in-years.html

Update:  A bit further down this blog is the post: "How NOT to run a Business:" which deals with the inept firm that has just started to represent NCC as our ‘Registered Agent’. This firm twice filed totally incorrect information as to who are our officers and what positions they occupy (ie:  in correcting their first error they got it wrong again).

A third filing on 6/6/11 got it more or less correct, they have the basic information correct but failed to completely fill out the form.

I asked Concord Management to make sure that this firm did not charge us for 3 filings and their District Manager has assured me this will not happen. I suppose it is expecting to much to have them fired for incompetence but if I were on the BOD they would not represent us and I have mentioned this in a recent letter to them.

From the: What Else Is Going On At Nautilus Cove Dept

Tonya Boutwell is getting tossed out of #302, last year she was evicted 7/21/10 from the Waterstone at Jenks apartments in Panama City. There are also 2 small claims certified judgments in Bay County Records for a Tonya Boutwell with a 'D' and a 'Denise' for the middle name,  (Tyndall Credit Union for $4,999 and State Farm for $11,010) and also under this name are many traffic charges and 2 cases of worthless checks.

Just looking the person up in the County Records, which is available free online, would have save a lot of nonsense and the unit would not have been rented to her in the first place. 

Want to look up a person or firm, do it at: http://records2.baycoclerk.com/CourtCaseWeb/Search.aspx

Want to see who owns what at NCC (or anywhere) go to: http://qpublic.net/bay/index-search.html

Rules and Regulations of Nautilus Cove

Our original set of documents has always been in need of some changes.  These documents are simply copies of generic documents used on many condos and sections of them are not relevant to our complex.

9 months ago I revised the original Rules and Regulations to remove text that has no relevance to our particular condo.  The revised document was presented to the BOD both by email in October 2010 and in hard form at the AGM in January 2011.  It requires a simple aboption by the BOD to update the document, you can see the proposed 'new' RRs at:  http://nautilusrules.blogspot.com/, it has been there since October last year.

No signifigant changes have been made and it only requires a BOD vote to adopt the new set of RRs.  At a later date the BOD should consider making other changes, for instance the RRs conflict in some sections with the 39 page 'Declaration of Condominium', at least in the areas regarding parking regulations and this needs to be standardized.

For the moment the BOD should adopt the revised RR document shown at the above site.

How housing could rebound -- in 2025

Some economists think home prices will remain depressed for a decade or more.

I've been saying 12-15 years and that only gets owners who (like me) bought in 06-08 back to their original purchase price. This does not even take into condideration the $2,700 a year in condo dues, insurance, taxes and whatever you spend in upkeep. So as I said before you will NEVER get your original purchase money back.

CNN Money says in part:  
"House prices have fallen further in the past five years than they did in the Great Depression – and there's no sign the free fall is about to stop", and also:  "So how long till you get your head back above water on a house bought at the top of the market?  Try 2025".

For the entire article see:  http://tinyurl.com/3h8e87l

Even though it seems a good time to buy the market probably won't hit bottom until 2012 and many people are going into rental property rather than take the plunge into homeownership.  At NCC we have had those foreclosed units sell at 45-55% of original prices.  The banks and mortgage companies want to get rid of this inventory so such good deals will probably take those distressed condos off the market a few months after they are available for sale.  This is good news for the new Owners and it helps to have those units under new ownership as we need those quarterly dues payments coming in.