Bermuda Bay Condominium Newsletter

Current Contact information for the Board:

President - Tori Elvir - bermudabaypresident@gmail.com

Vice- President - Adriana Lein- bermudabayvicepresident@gmail.com

Treasurer - Mike Martin - bermudabaytreasurer@gmail.com

Secretary - Chris Boyd - bermudabaysecretary@gmail.com

Director-at-Large - Vivi Iglesias - bermudabaydirectoratlarge@gmail.com

Juliet Mee, Property Manager: - bermudabaymgr@condominiumassociates.com

Administrative Assistant: Christine Dickey - bbboffice@condominiumassociates.com

Bermuda Bay Office: 727-864-0735

Bermuda Bay Security Phone Number: 727-212-9963 (Current guards are Hettie Grondin and Jaymon Jones)

If you have an after hours emergency, please call Condominium Associates at 727-573-9300 or reach out to a board member for assistance.

Police Non-emergency: 727-893-7780

Police Emergency: 911

Bermuda Bay Clubhouse WiFi: Username: Bermudabayclubhouse (it should pop up)

Password: bbclubhouse

ARC COMMITTEE - Roger Daisley hrdaisley@gmail.com

Beach Restoration Committee - Vic Vena - bigvic01@icloud.com

Courts and Sports Committee - Robin Ward - Rifkasema@gmail.com

Environmental Committee - Vic Vena bigvic01@icloud.com

Kayak/Trailer and Boat Committee - Barbi Martinson boutfintime101@gmail.com

Landscaping Committee- Barbi Martinson boutfintime101@gmail.com

Pool Committee - Cindy Vena cyvena@icloud.com

Preventitive Maintenance Committee - Meredith Borden mrkbdn@yahoo.com

Review Committee- Patti Brazil brazil.patty@gmail.com

Security Committee: Peg Daisley- MDaisley@msn.com

Social Committee: Michelle Lubotina Michelle.Lubotina@hhglobal.com

Stair Committee - Tori Elvir and Adriana Lein: bermudabaypresident@gmail.com and bermudabayvicepresident@gmail.com

bermudabaymgr@condominiumassociates.com

You are invited to attend a "Meet the Candidates" event hosted by Guy Coty, Tom Shaw, and Christina Stokes on November 9, 2023 that will be held at the Clubhouse and on Zoom (link below). The candidates that are running for the Bermuda Bay Board of Directors are:

• Chris Boyd
• Roger Daisley
• Robert Estabrook
• John King
• Laurel Poletti

Bring your questions! This should be a great time to figure out where each candidate stands on the issues that are important to you.

Reminder: The election will be held on December 2, 2023 at the annual meeting.

We look forward to seeing you at the event.

Juleit Mee, Manager

Bermuda Bay Beach Condominium Association, Inc.

Stephen W. Thompson and Rick Weller head up the condominium association law practice area at Najmy Thompson, P.L. With 47 years of combined experience, they are exceptionally skilled in representation of residential and commercial condominium associations, and are equipped to handle other legal issues that may affect condominium associations. The firm keeps up to date with all of the changes in the law regarding condominium associations and board obligations, as well as other legal issues that may affect the condominium association.

The firm is proficient in providing representation regarding board of director obligations, Declaration interpretation and enforcement issues, covenant amendments, imposition and collection of assessments, board recall issues, fair housing issues, insurance issues, maintenance and repair issues, and all other issues that face condominium associations. We are also equipped to handle, litigation, arbitration, mediation, and other administrative proceedings with the state agencies that regulate condominium association and/or fair housing affairs. The firm is also experienced in the condominium creation and condominium conversion, including all necessary documentary filings with the applicable state agencies.

Meeting day to day association concerns is a vital part of their service to our community association clients. We recognize the need for rapid response to pressing issues that face the community associations on a daily basis. Rick will be our primary contact for Bermuda Bay.

Wine and cheese and other hors d’oeuvres.

Smooth jazz provided by pianist “T.B.” Bertalan of Bermuda Bay

Silent Auction — items donated by

Bermuda Bay artists and craftsmen/women

and other arts and crafts donated for re-sale

 A dozen bottles of wine already donated.

 The Social Committee is donating a wine and cheese tray.

 Please bring an appetizer and/or contribute a bottle to share.

DONATIONS of ARTS or CRAFTS

Donations can be given any time to

Peg Daisley (917-847-7445) or Dawn Daisley (917-797-0998)

Or bring them to the clubhouse

Saturday November 11 th after 5 PM

NOTE that the net proceeds go to the

the Social and Landscaping Committees.

Donations that do not sell must be taken home by the donator.

Arts and crafts not retrieved after 24 hours will be donated to a charity.

Below is just some of the art you will find available.

41 people voted through the newsletter:

20% - Once a month

78% - Quarterly

2% - Twice a year

0% - Annually

Last year’s annual meeting included a vote on 3 amendments. Amendment 1, amending the

Declaration to allow unit owners to extend and rebuild lanais passed. Amendments 2 (Unit

Ownership Limitation) and 3 (changing 75% needed to pass material modifications) did not

pass. We would like to bring #2 and #3 amendments forward again with modifications that you

may agree with. The following article examines Unit Ownership Limitations. A future article will

discuss the 75% vote requirement.

Here is the wording of the proposed #2 amendment to the Declaration:

Ownership Limitations. No single business entity (including corporations, limited liability

companies, partnerships, trusts, cooperatives, etc.) person or family shall be approved or

permitted to purchase more than three (3) units within the Association at any time. For purposes

of this section, a “business entity” means and includes any corporation, limited liability company,

partnership, trust or cooperative, and any and all affiliates, subsidiaries or related entities

thereof. This section shall not apply to any Unit owned by the Association. Any owners who

currently own more than three (3) units at the time this amendment is recorded will not be in

violation of this section but may not purchase or acquire any additional units.

Bermuda Bay is our home. It should be a safe and beautiful place to live, laugh and play. We

need to be sure that the owners of our properties who live here and call Bermuda Bay home feel

secure with their investment and confident that a friendly lifestyle will remain here. Limiting the

number of units any one person or entity can own is the best way to ensure that our units are

not all being sold to investors who only wish to provide rental units.

PROS:

1. Very important to current owners, including owners with multiple units, is that multiple

unit owners will be “GRANDFATHERED IN” and will not be forced to sell any of their

currently owned units. However, they cannot purchase additional units beyond the new

restriction number. This will apply to all purchases after the date this new amendment is

adopted.

2. It’s important that we keep our condo complex owner-friendly. We need owners who live

on the property and care about the safety and maintenance of the property.

3. If we don’t have a large population of owner-occupied units, how can we recruit

knowledgeable and well motivated candidates for the Board.

4. We currently have so many rental units that potential buyers cannot qualify for FHA or

Fannie Mae loans. FHA currently requires that the owner-occupancy ratio must be at

least 50 percent. Fannie Mae currency requires a 51 percent ratio.

5. Property values will diminish as mortgage opportunities are constrained.

6. Currently, banks are denying mortgages for condominiums when an owner or entity

owns more than 10% of the total units.

7. It is the responsibility of the Association to protect itself and all unit owners from an

undue concentration of rental tenants to maintain Bermuda Bay Condos as a residential

(versus tenant) community.

8. The more rental units the complex has, the more difficult and expensive it may become

to get insurance coverage.

9. The more rental units, the more office administrative time it takes to support the rental

system.

10. More tenants, who seem not to always know and follow the rules, means more

maintenance with the dumpster, lift station, common area repairs, etc.

11. When units are rented out, the owner may not live here to do periodic inspections of the

unit resulting in dangerous deterioration of the unit. There have been instances like that

here previously.

12. With all the new development around us, and our complex being the only one in this area

with a beach, water access, and an adjoining nature preserve, it is prime property for a

developer. We need to put as many barriers as possible in the way of these developers.

13. If a buyer with endless funds slowly buys up many units, we are in line for a hostile

takeover. Our intentions MUST be in our documents and MUST be worded so that we

remain a RESIDENTIAL community, with owner occupancy a priority, but not a total

limitation.

14. We should be concerned about off-site investors buying several units and having

multiple votes that may be based solely on “investment opportunity” rather than our

lifestyle and property values. If we had 10 owners with 10 properties each, those

investment owners would have 100 of our 292 votes, and if they were voting as investors

rather than owners living on the property, they could vote in changes that are not good

for the residents living here.

15. Quote from Goldman and Pease, Florida Condo Assn. attorney: “Condominiums should

be wary of having too many unit owners who view the condo unit solely as a money

making asset. Absentee unit owners will not be as invested in the building and are more

likely to reject increases in maintenance expenditures or common area fees needed for

large capital projects in favor of maximizing their own profits.”

16. Once a big investor becomes interested in your property, there is no way to stop them

from taking your property in whole, and owners will find out that if you don’t sell quickly,

you will be offered a very low price. That’s why it’s so easy for big investors to take

properties.

17. If your condominium property is desirable, inherently, there’s a threat to it. It’s just a

question of when a developer will swoop in, not a question of “if”. If we want to preserve

the character of our community, we are wise to take preventative measures.

18. Keeping things as they currently are will not protect our community’s lifestyle or give us

long-term security from possible take-over.

19. There are currently no restrictions in our governing documents preventing a corporate

entity or an individual from buying (and renting) any number of units they desire. Vote to

pass this amendment to put these restrictions in place.

20. Not voting is not an option. If we don’t make this change, our community’s lifestyle and

long-term security from possible investor take-over will not be protected.

The amendment regarding the percentage necessary to approve is very important. Simply changing the number should not require the attorney’s approval. In order to determine what percentage is favorable to many owners, doing an unofficial survey, using the newsletter, would be helpful for all of us to know what most owners think is a workable percentage for approving motions, etc. As an example, the survey could have the following choices: What do you favor (select only one option)?

75% of all owners 60 % of all owners 55% of all owners Other = _____% of _____ owners, or ____% of owners who submitted votes.

Using the survey results would give this proposed amendment a good chance of passing. Since this amendment was shot down last year, we would like to revisit it again. It is too late to get on this ballot, but we have several other amendments that we can move forward in 2024.

Most of us agree the 75% threshold is unworkable and to not do something about it is ridiculous. Let's see what your thoughts are below.

Thank you for considering this important request!

Jesse Reynolds, 71 F

The WORK ORDER system in the Condominium Associates (CA) web site is best way to report a repair that is needed (it's not for urgent or emergency matters). When you sign into your CA account, click on OWNER INFORMATION and you'll see that the last item on the drop-down menu is WORK ORDERS. The nice thing about this is you can attach photos, videos. You will be assigned a Work Order number and you can check in on it, and add further comments if necessary. Our property manager uses this work order system to become aware of maintenance issues, assign them to someone, and follow up on them.

T-shirts have been ordered and should arrive in about two weeks. Take note of the nod to monarchs, wildlife, and part of our historical name "Hidden".

The Bay Pool Hours are 7:00am until Dusk

The Family Pool Hours are 7:00am - 11:00pm

Anyone can come to the clubhouse on Thursdays at 1:00pm to play mahjong. There will be a learning table, so come and learn a new game and join in the fellowship and fun.

Unless otherwise stated, the numbers I am reporting are as September 30th .

2024 Budget

The Budget Committee has prepared a proposed 2024 budget. It has been forwarded to CA for review and they have come back with a few suggestions. All but one of these suggestions suggest we consider using in-house staff instead of contracting out some of our work such as Janitorial Services. This is not likely a viable solution for us as it is very difficult to hire suitable employees.

The next step is to have a Budget Meeting with the Board to have it accepted and approved for distribution.

Bank Accounts

We have balances totaling $730k.

The operating account is $309k.

Major expense excesses compared to budget

 Legal fees

 Office & Administration

 Building & Exterior

 Plumbing

 Grounds Maintenance

 Insurance

Reserve Fund

The Reserve Fund currently has 462k in the account. The year-end target according to the Reserve Fund Study is just shy of $1 million. This year’s budget only provides for a contribution to the Fund of $350k compared to a recommended $880k. There is no way we are going to meet the target.

To make matters worse, many Stair Project expenses are being charged to the Reserve Fund. The Reserve Fund does not include an allowance for the Stairs Project. I am in the process of doing an analysis to see how much the Fund is being hurt by this but I can say it is well over $100k.

During 2021 and 2022, we had sufficient cash on hand in the Operating account to pay for some of the Stairs Project expenses in the amount of $402k. That has been carried on the books as “Amounts Owing to Operating from Reserves”. The Reserve Fund does not have sufficient to pay this amount so we will continue to carry this on the books through 2024.

Delinquencies

Delinquencies amount to $21k. This is an improvement of $14k since last month.

$12k is more than 90 days old. $8k of that relates to the 2022 Special Assessment.

There are many unit owners’ 2022 Special Assessment accounts which continue the have a balance. Most of these balances are relatively small. All owners are encouraged the check their Special Assessment account to verify a zero balance. If it is not zero, please pay it off as soon as possible. Contact the office if you need assistance. The accounts with older larger delinquencies are with the attorney for collection. Some of the delinquency improvement this month is the result of successful

collections.

Weekly Manager's reports will be sent out in an email blast to the community, so that the ownership can understand the progress that is being made on the property each week. I will attach them to this newsletter as well for your review.

We sadly say goodbye to a long-time resident and friend, Ruth Kukla. We celebrate her life with the many memories we have shared with her at Bermuda Bay.

Email: bermudabaymgr@condominiumassociates.com
Website: https://condo.cincwebaxis.com/
Location: Bermuda Bay Beach and Racquet Club, 4201 38th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33711, USA
Phone: 727-864-0735
Twitter: @BermudaBayStP