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
For those of you who follow this blog, you know that each Labor Day, I write a parody talking about a day in the life of a Board member, at a particularly annoying condominium. This year however, in light of the Champlain Towers tragedy, I just don’t think it’s right to start cracking condominium jokes just…
Read: A BREAK WITH TRADITION ON THIS LABOR DAY IN MEMORY OF CHAMPLAIN TOWERS → It’s hard to believe that we have been dealing with COVID for a year and a half now. It’s harder to believe that we will be dealing with it for at least another year and a half. It’s a never-ending nightmare with no end in sight apparently. Who would ever have thought this could happen? While we are…
Read: WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH…………… → No doubt some changes are on the way for condominiums as a result of the Surfside tragedy. The changes are long overdue. Here’s another long overdue change that is necessary..the condominium insurance statutes.Suppose I told you that under Florida law, there is no absolute requirement that your condominium…
Read: AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT…. PLEASE FIX THE INSURANCE STATUTE → Imagine a world where accountants can examine your heart and give you an opinion regarding its condition and your life expectancy. Suppose an auto mechanic can examine your kidneys and liver and give his opinion on whether or not they are healthy. Perhaps one day you can walk into my office and one of the…
Read: EVERYONE IS AN EXPERT → How many times have you heard someone bragging about how cheap their monthly expenses are at their condo? How many times have you heard comments like “We have a great board – the assessments are so cheap.” It turns out that those boards were not doing you a favor by keeping your assessments low. They were…
Read: ARE YOUR ASSESSMENTS LOW? THEN YOU’RE LIVING A LIE → In May of 2018, at about the same time the engineer was advising Champlain Towers South that their building need millions and millions of dollars in repairs, I wrote about the dangers facing condominiums all over the state because of the ability for owners to opt out of funding reserve accounts. I implored…
Read: I WARNED ABOUT THE DANGERS OF INADEQUATE RESERVES → On June 27th, Florida was no longer considered to be in a State of Emergency. Governor Desantis did not renew the emergency order. So that means all of the emergency powers that Boards of Directors of condominiums and HOAs had during the COVID pandemic have expired. The question is…….in practical terms —…
Read: THE EMERGENCY IS OVER! → Iwas lucky enough to be on vacation the past two weeks. On my last day, I woke up to the tragedy that was unfolding in Dade County as the Champlain Towers South Condominium came crashing down in Surfside. There are still over 150 people missing or unaccounted for. Before commenting on this devastation…
Read: A TRAGEDY WITH MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS → As they say…hindsight is 20/20. The tragedy in Surfside rips your guts out. I had to go there and see it for myself. I did. I then walked over to the memorial and saw pictures of the victims, including little kids, entire families and you wonder how anything like this could have possibly happened.…
Read: LET’S NOT FOCUS ON BLAME – AND FOCUS ON CHANGE INSTEAD → Avery interesting case was just decided by Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal. RIVIERA-FORT MYERS MASTER ASSOCIATION, INC., v. GFH INVESTMENTS, LLC. 2020 WL 7767856. To simplify, in a mixed-use community, meaning a community made up of commercial property and residential housing, the Master…
Read: MASTER ASSOCIATION V. SUB ASSOCIATION – WHO WINS? → So the Florida Legislature has ended their session and I’m sure everyone wants to know what association laws passed this year.So here we go….. Subrogation New law: If a condominium association’s insurance policy does not provide rights for subrogation against the unit owners in the association, an…
Read: HERE ARE THE NEW LAWS EFFECTIVE JULY 1ST → Prior to 2010 Florida law only allowed the association to fine for violations of the governing documents, if the authority to fine was contained in the declaration or bylaws. In 2010, the law changed and associations had the power to fine, even if the power to fine was not contained in the governing…
Read: IS YOUR FINING PROCESS FINE? → So The Florida Legislature has ended their session and I’m sure everyone wants to know what association laws passed this year. So here we go….. Subrogation New law: If a condominium association’s insurance policy does not provide rights for subrogation against the unit owners in the association, an…
Read: HERE ARE THE NEW LAWS EFFECTIVE JULY 1ST → Almost every association I ever represented complains about the community pest who won’t stop asking for access to records. Can the association stop it or at least limit it? Florida Statute 718.111 (12) states: The association may adopt reasonable rules regarding the frequency, time, location, notice, and…
Read: LIMITING ACCESS TO RECORDS – IT AIN'T EASY → The Supreme Court of Iowa came out with a big decision regarding emotional support animal law that I’m hoping Florida eventually follows as well. Karen Cohen vs. David Clark And 2800-1 LLC. This case involves a tenant with pet allergies who deliberately moved into an apartment building due to its no-pets…
Read: IOWA SUPREME COURT BRINGS COMMON SENSE TO THE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL ISSUE → Ioften times get phone calls from board members who are upset about the fact that some new owner went through the screening process, filled out the application, paid the fee and showed up for an interview. But it turns out that there are more people living in the unit than expected and none of them went…
Read: BUT THEY WEREN’T SCREENED AND APPROVED! → It’s funny how many times over the years, Boards have told me “We weren’t having a meeting, we were only talking about the condo” or “We weren’t having a meeting, we were in a workshop.” For clarification, let’s see how a “meeting” is defined by law. For a condominium, the Florida Administrative Code says:…
Read: WHEN IS A MEETING A MEETING? → There certainly have been a few debates lately and there may be another on the way. Who Knows? Maybe you think Trump won. Maybe you think Biden won. Maybe you think Pence won or maybe you think Harris won. It doesn’t matter if some of you even think the fly won. The bottom line is that it’s apparent that…
Read: LET'S HAVE A DEBATE →Read it. Then watch it.
