Florida condo & HOA news
Plain-English Florida condo and HOA law updates for owners, volunteer board members, managers, and everyone navigating community-association life.
Read the latest articles ↓From the front lines
Written by Eric M. Glazer · Florida attorney
Florida Statute states: 120.565 Declaratory statement by agencies.— (1) Any substantially affected person may seek a declaratory statement regarding an agency’s opinion as to the applicability of a statutory provision, or of any rule or order of the agency, as it applies to the petitioner’s particular set of…
Read: BEFORE YOU HIT THAT "SEND" BUTTON → Ihave been lucky over the past two weeks, having won a few condominium arbitration cases. One of the cases involved a demand by a condominium association for entry into a unit in order to verify the existence of a Jacuzzi, loft and fire pit. The owner refused and asserted many defenses. In the end, the…
Read: THE RIGHT OF ENTRY INTO A CONDOMNIUM UNIT → As if condos didn’t have enough problems, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have just come out with new guidelines that condos must follow. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government-sponsored agencies that purchase large quantities of home loans to keep money circulating throughout the home mortgage economy. They…
Read: IT MAY BECOME IMPOSSIBLE TO GET A NEW MORTGAGE IN MANY CONDOS → The Florida Legislature is in full swing. Each year lots of bills get filed, but few make it to the finish line and become law. Here’s an update on two bills that are moving towards becoming law: SB 394: This is my mandatory education bill, requiring directors to get certified by attending a course. Senator…
Read: LEGISLATIVE UPDATE → I mean no disrespect to anyone who suffered from Covid or who had a family member suffer from Covid over the last two years. My sympathies are with you wholeheartedly. However, in terms of having unit owners participate in the affairs of their communities by way of telephone or ZOOM, Covid was the kick start…
Read: SO DO WE NEED IN PERSON MEETINGS OR NOT? → Senator Anna Maria Rodriguez filed our mandatory condo education bill in Florida’s Senate. But if you think she’s done trying to change additional condominium laws, you would be very wrong. She also filed Senate Bill 274 which creates the Condominium Fraud Investigation Pilot Program. According to the bill…
Read: THERE MAY BE LOTS OF NEW SHERIFFS IN TOWN IF THIS BILL PASSES → Ifirst want to give you some good news. On the more broad scale, I want you to know that the listeners and viewers of this show, along with yours truly, really count in the eyes of The Florida Legislature. There have been many times when I drafted legislation and I asked each of you to call your local…
Read: WHERE WE ARE AT FOR THE MOMENT AND THANK YOU SENATOR BRADLEY → So, I get a call a few weeks ago from a reporter at The New York Times. He was doing a story about the incredible number of condominiums in Miami and how fast they were all built. How the entire skyline on the coast changed dramatically in the past 40 years or so and if it,s possible that The Champlain…
Read: HOW IN THE WORLD DID WE GET HERE? → I’ll tell you something – I give a lot of credit to Kathy Fernandez Rundle, The State Attorney for Miami-Dade County. She actually prosecutes cases of condo fraud, years ago she assembled a grand jury to make recommendations to the state legislature regarding condo crimes, kickbacks, conflicts of interest…
Read: ANOTHER STUNNING GRAND JURY REPORT ABOUT FLORIDA CONDOMINIUMS → After the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, The Florida Legislature passed the “bulk buyer” statute. The purpose of the law was to get large companies to purchase a bulk of units in a condominium without being labeled as a “developer”. If you are a developer you may owe lots of responsibilities to the…
Read: DEVELOPERS BEWARE: YOU MIGHT NOT BE A "BULK BUYER" AFTER ALL → So unfortunately we seem to be ending the year with the Covid numbers just creeping up — and that vaccine just can’t get here fast enough. I’m getting calls and e-mails every day, every hour, from communities that are simply scared to have their meetings in person – even if it’s the annual meeting or the…
Read: STAYING ALIVE → So all this talk about the Presidency lately has got me thinking about an issue that comes up every week in my practice for the past 30 years or so. I get a call from someone on a Board of Directors. And they tell me that they have a President on the Board who is a real dictator. He or she doesn’t listen to…
Read: WHEN THE PRESIDENT THINKS THEY’RE THE KING → Igot a call this week from The Sun Sentinel. They asked if I had heard about the prominent developer who approached the owners of the other Champlain Towers buildings that are still standing, offering to buy out all of their units. I had not, but I’m not surprised in the least about it. In fact, it’s…
Read: DEVELOPERS ARE ON THE PROWL → Most community associations have their budget meeting in the month of November for the upcoming year. By doing it in November there is plenty of time to print new coupon books and let the community members know what the new monthly assessments will be for the coming year. In terms of notice, in a…
Read: IT'S NOVEMBER – AND THAT MEANS IT'S BUDGET TIME → When the original bill was filed that required condominiums to have a website, the statute was only going to apply with condominiums of 500 units or more. In effect, the statute would have applied to less than one percent of all condominiums in the state. I met with the legislator who drafted the bill and…
Read: NO ASSOCIATION WEBSITE? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? → This is such an important topic that is often times difficult to teach. In a nutshell however, assume the following: Your condominium or HOA was created in the year 2000. That was when your declaration of condominium or declaration of covenants was recorded. Your declaration only adopts The Florida…
Read: SUPPOSE YOUR DEC DOES NOT HAVE KAUFMAN LANGUAGE? → Prior to July 1st, 2021 if a condominium dispute arose, the parties were forced to first arbitrate the matter before the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The law has now changed and reads as follows: (a) Before the institution of court litigation, a party to a dispute, other than an…
Read: TO ARBITRATE OR MEDIATE? → Idon’t envy Judge Michael Hanzman, the judge who is assigned to decide the fate of the property where The Champlain Towers South Condominium once stood. The question of what to do at this sacred site is not easy. Some families want no re-development and only a memorial. The City of Surfside needs to see…
Read: THE SITE OF THE CHAMPLAIN TOWERS NOT AN EASY TASK TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO →Read it. Then watch it.
