COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MANAGER – A LICENSED PROFESSION?

By Jan Bergemann

Published September 26, 2014

   

Florida's community association managers are supposed to be licensed – and so are the management firms they are working for.

  

But: Are they really all licensed?

  

Definitely not! We hear all the time stories of folks who worked – and got paid – as community association managers without ever having a license. One of the problems we see all the time: The DBPR – supposedly in charge of licensing professionals in Florida – is very lax in enforcing license requirements.

  

Owners discover more and more often that the person they are paying as community association manager isn’t licensed. But complaints to the DBPR are often answered by offering the person, who worked and got paid as community association manager, to get a license – and all is forgiven and forgotten.

  

That surely doesn’t encourage folks to make the required licenseBEFORE starting to work in that profession.

  

It’s tempting to work without a license and avoid paying annual licensing fees if the only penalty you have to be afraid of is a letter asking you to get a license.

  

And – with the help of former State Representative Julio Robaina – CCFJ added a provision into FS 468.431 - 438 -- Part VIII (FS468.432) that requires Community Association Management firms to be licensed as well.

But how can you be sure that the person – and the firm – getting paid as community association managers are actually licensed?
Easy going: Go to the Website of the DBPR and click on the tab:Verify A License! (https://www.myfloridalicense.com/wl11.asp?mode=0&SID=)

  

Type in the name of the person who claims to be a licensed manager and/or the name of the firm he/she is working for. In all cases you should find a more detailed license description with aa license number and expiration date.

  

If you can’t find this info confirming that the person/firm has a license you better start researching more thoroughly. You might be on the right track of discovering that the person/firm working as your community manager/firm doesn’t have the required license!

Read More: http://www.hoa-condoblog.com/