Your Questions Regarding the Impact of Coronavirus on Associations Answered
Ana Rivero: Hi, and welcome to community association matters. The podcast for condominium and homeowners associations. In South Florida. As you know, Ana Sanchez Rivero your host for the podcast. And I want to thank you for joining us today. As you know, we cover a lot of topics that affect condominiums and homeowners and most recently, the Covid 19 phenomena has occurred. And obviously it's a gray situation that's affecting everyone in the world and it's having its impact on associations. So many of our clients have a lot of questions as to what to do and and what does it mean when we're going through this pandemic. We found through hurricanes, and I think most of us pretty much have a hurricane plan in place. We know what to do, but this is very new to all of us, and I think we're just learning our way around. A feeling way around and how to deal with these situations. So I asked David Iglesias, yes. from Iglesia Las Group to join me today so that we can cover some of So David, welcome to the show. How are you today? David Iglesias: Good, how are you? Thank you, Anna. Same thing. I'm working from home. I'm glad to be here, but not under these circumstances with this pandemic and everything else is going on. Ana Rivero: Yeah, this is a truly is crazy, I think. I think all of us can say that none of us have lived through this and it's definitely an extraordinary time. David Iglesias: definitely is. It's, it is for community associations. I think it is for the law. I mean, it's changing every single day and we're trying to just work our way through it. Ana Rivero: So, thank you for being here and I really appreciate that. And I want to start a little bit about, first of all, tell us about you. You've practiced condo law. David Iglesias: I do practice condo law. I've been doing this almost 14 years. I represent over a hundred associations, whether a condo or HOA, and I think one co-op, but I'm, for the most part, it's condo and HOA work. And I used to work for a large law firms, so I'm familiar with. associations on the grand scale as well as on my own here for the last five years or so, doing this type of work. Ana Rivero: Right. And I know that we worked together on a handful of communities, so, definitely look forward to continued growth for both of us. David Iglesias: Yes. Ana Rivero: So let's talk a little bit about coven. obviously we know that it's a, a virus. we know that, it spreads through contact. And, you know, it's, the projections are not looking very well and it looks like we're going to be in this for quite some time. So we, you know, today is March 30th. this is probably going to continue, at least according to president Trump, a lockdown as far as businesses and non essential businesses working from home for at least another 30 days. Right. David Iglesias: That's correct. I mean, from everything I've seen, and you know, our audience who's watching this today, they saw from the president, even the governor this morning who stated that it looks like it's going to be all the way through May 15th as to this so-called stay at home order. I think he said this morning that it's going to be for Miami Dade, for Broward, for Palm beach County, and for Monroe County. So I mean, that's at least another 45 days from now. So yeah. It is, it is considered an emergency. I think that for the last couple of weeks, lawyers been kind of going back and forth as to whether this is an emergency as it relates to associations. but, but yes, it's an emergency. It is an emergency. Ana Rivero: What does that mean exactly for associations? Do they, do they have additional powers? David Iglesias: actually, yes, associations have additional powers. and I guess when we say additional powers. I mean, it really means that some of these things like holding a board meeting, they can hold it, you know, within a shorter period of time than the 48 hours that's normally required. these emergency powers. again, there was a quest