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
Remember the TV show Eight Is Enough? Apparently, that’s how The Florida Legislature feels about your right to serve on a condominium board of directors. Eight years in a row is enough. This does not mean however that if you already served eight years in a row on a condo board that you are precluded from…
Read: CONFUSION REIGNS IN CONDOMINIUM ELECTIONS → If you ever tried to remove a tree from your condo or HOA community, you know how difficult, expensive and impossible it can be. There are applications to fill-out, inspections to be made, fees to be paid and promises made to put a new tree back somewhere on the property or in the municipality. Well, thanks…
Read: IMPORTANT NEW LANDSCAPING LAW → Every year at this time we head into the peak of hurricane season hoping that “the big one” stays away for another year. In my 30 years now in South Florida there have been three or 4 named storms that wreaked some havoc on our communities in South Florida and even more on the west coast and in the…
Read: HURRICANE HEADACHES → Fall is the time when Boards and their managers start scrambling to make next year’s budget. Here’s a few tips: Remember that in a condo, the budget must be mailed to the owners 14 days in advance of the budget meeting. In an HOA the association shall provide each member with a copy of the annual budget or…
Read: TIME TO MAKE THE BUDGET → The internet has allowed condominium and HOA owners access to the Florida Statutes, the HOA statutes, the Florida Administrative Code, case law, and all kinds of articles on community association law. While that is a good thing, it has unfortunately empowered some owners to think they have enough knowledge…
Read: A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS DANGEROUS → I’m writing this column sitting in the airport in Amsterdam, waiting to switch airplanes and come home after a truly glorious vacation. I didn’t want to wait to write the column until I got home out of fear I would forget too much. Over the past two weeks, me, my wife and my two kids traveled to…
Read: BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR → Maybe it’s the media’s fault, talk radio, reality TV, our medications, our upbringing or a simple degradation of how we feel and respect each other, but it seems that pure debate has been replaced with vulgarities, interruptions and even threats, both physical and verbal. One of the worst inventions in terms…
Read: IS DEBATE AND PROPER DECORUM POSSIBLE ANY LONGER? → Ijust got back from New York and New Jersey. My sister bought a beautiful condo in Jersey and I went to visit. She showed me around the community. Her specific condo building was in fantastic shape. Carpets in the hallway looked great. Walls looked good. Handsome to say the least. We then went to the…
Read: WHAT’S WORSE: OVER SPENDING OR UNDER SPENDING? → It’s the end of the summer. Millions of kids across our state have to suck it up and return to school. And if the kids have to endure school for the next ten months, all of you can endure a measly three hours. I’m talking of course about Condo and HOA Board Certification and Legal Update Course. There’s a…
Read: IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL TIME-PART 4 → In Iezzi Family Limited Partnership, v. Edgewater Beach Owners Association, Inc., the owner of a condominium unit filed a 27-count complaint against the condominium’s Association and seven current or former directors or officers of the Association, seeking both equitable and legal relief. The trial court…
Read: NEW CASE MAKES IT HARDER TO SUE A CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION → Many of you live in condominiums that have a “Master Association.” But what is a Master Association? Is it a condominium association? Is it a homeowner’s association? Is it neither? This question was recently addressed by the Third District Court of Appeal in Dimitri v. Commercial Center of Miami…
Read: SO JUST WHAT IS A “MASTER ASSOCIATION?” → Some of you have asked where I have been this week after not being reachable by phone, e-mail or even on the Condo Craze Radio Show. Well, I had an epiphany this week. I write this blog having gotten home from the hospital just a few hours ago. Last Sunday evening I was on vacation in Charleston, South…
Read: TRUST ME – THINGS CAN BE WORSE → As a result of higher taxes, out of control homelessness and crime, the news continues to report that people living in Northeastern states are moving out in droves and the beneficiary is Florida. Our population continues to explode. Who would ever have thought that the population of Florida would exceed…
Read: WILL PARADISE SOON BE LOST? → Insurance is a very strange product. Everyone is scared to death to be without it, but when it’s time to put in a claim, everyone is scared to death to use it. Delay in reporting a claim to your insurance company can be a costly mistake. Every policy contains provisions that require the insured to report…
Read: DON’T WAIT TO REPORT A CLAIM → In three days it’s July 4th. Our country’s birthday USA flags will be flying everywhere, even in our community associations and even if the Board in that association says take it down. Why then are there fights ever year on the news about Boards attempting to force owners to take the flag down? The…
Read: NO MORE FLAG FIGHTS PLEASE! → Ihave written several blogs about a unit owner’s responsibility to look after their unit, even when they go away for the summer or back to their home in the northern part of the country. Does the same responsibility apply to members of the Board? I believe it does. Board members deserve breaks too. They…
Read: OUT OF SIGHT DOESN’T MEAN OUT OF MIND – PART 2 → So, The Florida Legislature wrapped up its 2019 session last week. In a word, when it came to community association law, the session was simply unproductive. Not a single community association law bill passed. There was one change that effects high-rise condominiums however. There was an attempt made to…
Read: LEGISLATIVE / FIRE SAFETY – UPDATE → Even though I just completed a difficult stretch of teaching lots of board certification classes all over the state, I always like to think of ways to improve the seminar and keep attendees entertained on one hand, but promote just how serious the topic is on the other. While I take my responsibility to…
Read: WHO SHOULD TEACH THE BOARD MEMBERS? →Read it. Then watch it.
