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
So this blog will discuss the collection process from the association’s perspective. It will tell you what the association must do if it wants to attempt to collect from an owner who is not paying their assessments. It does not tell you what to do if the bank already started foreclosure proceedings or if…
Read: THE COLLECTION PROCESS–PART 1 → Sorry, but I’m just not interested this week about blogging about condos or HOAs. Not with the devastation I see on my TV. Not with the destruction I see to the city I grew up in. This week, we have larger, national issues to focus on. It simply bothers me when people post that our country is broken. No…
Read: WE'RE STILL THE BESE OF THE BEST → So things are coming back to normal little by little. Although, I still need a dam haircut. If I wait another week or two, I figure my dog and I can go together. To his groomer. The ”emergency powers” given to Boards of Directors expire today. The Governor is allowing public places to slowly re-open.…
Read: TO OPEN OR NOT TO OPEN → My how we love to gamble. For some, you don’t even have to leave the community. Perhaps the most common form of gambling in our condos and HOAs is running a Bingo game. Before starting bingo in your community however, here’s what you need to know: 4) The right of a condominium association, a cooperative…
Read: BINGO! → Most weeks we blog about particular statutes, laws, cases or regulations. This week we’re going to blog about something that may be more important than all of those things. Our behavior. Our interaction with each other. How we treat each other. I think this blog is going for about a decade now. You can…
Read: I'M NOTICING AN UNUSUAL TREND → Last week we suggested that now was a good time to consider spending some time reviewing your declaration and finally trying to amend those provisions that need amending. I hope you listened. Since we’re not quite back to life being normal, keep busy and now think about amending your rules. Some general…
Read: AND DON'T FORGET YOUR RULES → You’re under a virtual quarantine? Haven’t been to work in a while? Feeling a little trapped in your home? If you’re a Board member…….when the going gets tough……..that’s no time to shirk your responsibilities and turn off the world. In fact, believe it or not, now may be the perfect time to attack…
Read: YOU CAN STILL BE PRODUCTIVE → We all remember just how bad our communities suffered about a dozen years ago during the great recession. Our firm represented condominiums where nearly half of all units went into foreclosure. It was terrible for community associations. The paying owners were often times forced to pay double to make up…
Read: WILL IT BE THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS ALL OVER AGAIN? → Wow what a difference a week makes! The world became different this week, like nothing most of us have ever seen or lived through before. For the time being, this Corona Virus has changed life as we know it, requiring us not to stay inside and hide, but not to tempt fate, while staying smart and taking…
Read: SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW? → Ican’t hold it in any longer. I must tell someone. I have been less than honest with the readers of this blog and the listeners to the Condo Craze and HOAs Radio Show. I’m a fake and a fraud. The truth is…………despite the fact that I urge all of you out there to get involved in your community, to run for…
Read: I MUST CONFESS → In the housing context, pursuant to The Fair Housing Act, a reasonable accommodation is a change in a rule, policy, practice, or service that may be necessary to allow a person with a disability the equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. Failure to provide a reasonable accommodation may be construed…
Read: WHAT IS A REASONABLE ACCOMODATION? → For a time, directors had to be careful about keeping their emotions in check while at Board meetings. When a director said “I had enough, I quit” that actually meant they were gone. That outburst was enough to be treated as an effective resignation. See: See Dehne v. Ocean Club II Condo. Ass’n Inc., Arb.…
Read: WHEN DOES "I QUIT" REALLY TAKE EFFECT? → Hope everyone had both a happy and a healthy new year. I also hope you are all well rested and are now ready to stand-up and protect yourselves by demanding new laws that benefit our community associations. For the next few weeks, we will let you know what community association law bills have been filed in…
Read: SO WHAT MAY BE IN STORE FOR 2020-PART 1? → We all know that the condo and HOA statutes contain differences that often times don’t make any sense. Let’s review two more instances of there being no real justification for differences among the statutes. In an HOA, before the Board files suit, there is a statute they need to consider: 720.303(1): Before…
Read: OTHER LAWSUIT ISSUES → Last week we discussed how the expenses of your condominium or HOA get divided among all of the owners. The blog ended by warning you that there is one type of expense that is not subject to the standard rules, and that’s when it comes to your association’s bulk cable and internet bill. In both a condo and…
Read: BE CAREFUL ABOU THE CABLE BILL → So why is it that in some condos and HOAs the bigger the unit or the bigger the home does not necessarily mean the bigger the monthly assessment payment? For condominiums built before 1992, the developer was able to create a set of documents where anything goes when it comes to what a particular unit will…
Read: WHY DO THEY PAY LESS THAN I DO? → To keep it simple……in a condominium, when the board sends out its budget, that budget SHALL include reserve accounts for pavement, painting and roofing and anything else expected to cost $10,000.00 to repair or replace. However, the statute says…. This subsection does not apply to an adopted budget in which…
Read: THE OWNERS NEED TO VOTE TO WAIVE RESERVES BEFORE THE BOARD VOTES TO WAIVE RESERVES → Irecently represented an individual who lives in a condominium association in Palm Beach County. He originally lost the election because the following types of votes were not counted: Exterior envelopes that the association said were forged; Ballots returned in envelopes other than envelopes provided by the…
Read: A PRIMER IN RUNNING YOUR CONDO ELECTION →Read it. Then watch it.
