FLA Bureaucracy Hurting....
FLA property owners may be hurt by FLA bureaucracy.
In it's efforts to "protect disaster victims from unscrupulous and unlicensed contractors," the State of FLA will likely hurt many homeowners who need immediate help.
By mixing the terms "unscrupulous" with "unlicensed" (which are NOT synonymous) the State has effectively precluded property owners in distress from contracting with persons who might help them, if those persons are not licensed by the State. It becomes a 3rd degree felony under emergency conditions (just the very time when such help is often needed).
The State issued its emergency order after Charlie a few weeks ago (http://www.myflorida.com/dbpr/pro/hurricane_charlie/8_15_04_charley_release.pdf) proclaiming that "containment of unlicensed activity immediately after any storm or emergency is of paramount importance."
The emergency order calls for additional investigators and inspectors to hit the streets. Damaged areas will be patrolled. Sweeps will be conducted of reconstruction areas to check for licenses and permits.
But what of the hapless owners of properties who need immediate help lest they lose their houses to further debilitation in approaching storms, and/or final condemnation from unchecked damage and growth of mold?
It's complicated. In the State of FLA contractors must register in the county or municipality where they work and must have a card from that jurisdiction declaring them "competent" to work there. A contractor can only work where such a "competency card" has been registered.
Surely the nanny-state is beginning to hurt its residents as it leans on them in efforts to help.
Now, I am all for fighting against unscrupulous contractors. I've devoted a good bit of personal effort and energy in writing a book that teaches consumers how to tame a contractor. But blanket bureaucracy and heavy handed regulation under emergency conditions threatens to hurt many property owners who might possess the competency to hire and manage people to work for them, paying them for performance according to a contract, regardless of whence they find them.
We all understand the concept of important and overriding regional standards. Building codes set those standards, and local inspectors enforce them. After Charlie, then Francis....and now, should Isabel hit FLA, I'm afraid strict bureaucratic tourniquets, such as this State has applied to free enterprise, all in the name of citizen protection, can be disastrous to a population of property owners in distress.
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