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
Here we go. It’s election time again in your community association. Year after year, we see some of the same mistakes, so let’s just review some of the laws and rules the too often get violated and may wind up causing your election to be deemed invalid in your condominium association. How many Board…
Read: DON’T MAKE MISTAKES AT YOUR ELECTION → It’s true what they say……as you get older the years seem to go by quicker. This week, we stop and we take a moment to breathe. We are not blogging about any specific condo or HOA topic because the three bloggers need to do something much more important. And that is to thank each of you for continuing to…
Read: WISHING YOU A HAPPY AND HEALTHY HOLIDAY SEASON AND NEW YEAR → So Tuesday has come and gone. We can finally watch TV again without being told which political candidate is the lesser of two evils during every single commercial break. No more annoying pop up ads on the internet begging for money or spam e-mails begging for your vote. Election season is finally over.…
Read: NOW THE REAL ELECTION SEASON KICKS IN → Ioften choose a topic for the blog that corresponds to an upcoming holiday or a specific time of year. For example, we normally write about your right to fly the flag on or about July 4th of each year. The next holiday is only 4 days away, and it’s Halloween. The problem is…..how can you write a…
Read: SO…….WHO IS THE SCARIEST PERSON IN YOUR COMMUNITY? → On today’s radio show, a woman complained that in her HOA, there is never a quorum that appears at the annual meeting and therefore the same board remains in place year after year. Remember…in an HOA, in order to have a valid election, a quorum must appear at the annual meeting. In a condo on the other…
Read: ARE TERM LIMITS A GOOD THING OR A BAD THING? → After doing this for 22 years now, I don’t get surprised that often any longer by anything that takes place in the world of condos and HOAs. This week however, I was quite surprised. Twice in the same week, community association managers brought it to my attention that companies that do business in South…
Read: CAMs: Avoid That Temptation at all Costs → It appears as if the foreclosure crisis is coming to a close. You made it through. You survived. You were one of the few that paid the mortgage payments each month, paid your taxes, paid your assessments, paid your insurance and you were nothing short of a model unit owner. Sorry…….you still have to go.…
Read: JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE → Many of you heard the Condo Craze show a few weeks ago concerning the Mainlands VII HOA in Tamarac, where a President was arrested for stealing over $180,000.00 from her association. Earlier in the week, I appeared on the local news regarding yet another President allegedly taking tens of thousands of…
Read: IS ASSOCIATION CRIME ON THE RISE? → It’s Labor Day and condo President Esa Nomyjob, has the day off from work. She gets to stay home from work and simply enjoy all the wonderful amenities her condo has to offer. It’s well deserved. The day starts off though with a call from Willie Winer, that the upstairs neighbor has apparently let the…
Read: A LABOR DAY STORY – TRUTH OR FICTION? → We’re approaching the time of year when Boards are starting to prepare the budget for the following fiscal year. As we all know, in a condominium, the budget must show fully funded reserves, and the owners then have the option of waiving or reducing the funding of reserves. In an HOA, the budget can…
Read: SUPPOSE YOU TOUCH THE RESERVE FUNDS YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TOUCH? → You look around the world and see that bombs are falling in neighborhoods throughout the Middle East, violent demonstrations are happening in European countries and tornadoes and floods seems to be destroying towns across the United States. Those are difficult problems to live with day in and day out. So…
Read: ARE THINGS REALLY THAT BAD? → Listeners of our Condo Craze and HOAs radio show know that we just discussed a new law for condominium associations that lets directors communicate, but not vote, by e-mail. On its face, I don’t find it objectionable that directors can communicate by e-mail. Of course board members need to exchange ideas,…
Read: ACCESS TO E-MAILS → Last week we blogged about how apathy can harm a community in many different ways. Everyone’s comments were great. This week I want to take the conversation in the opposite direction. Is it a good idea for the Board or community to be zealous or perhaps overly zealous in enforcing the governing documents…
Read: rules rules rules → As many of you already know, just because your next election is far off into the future, this doesn’t mean that in the interim, the current board members can’t be removed from office. The “recall” process is a procedure that can be used in both condominiums and HOAs. In simple terms, a majority of the…
Read: RECALL PITFALLS → KAREN: GOOD AFTERNOON, AND WELCOME BACK TO CONDO CRAZE AND HOAS HERE ON 850 WFTL. I’M KAREN CURTIS, AND I’M HERE AGAIN TODAY, AS WE ARE EACH SUNDAY AT NOON, WITH ATTORNEYS ERIC GLAZER AND SCOTT SHAPIRO FROM GLAZER AND ASSOCIATES, P.A. A LAW FIRM PRACTICING COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION LAW THROUGHOUT FLORIDA.…
Read: CONDO CRAZE AND HOAS - WEEK 223 → My column two weeks ago regarding the estoppel fee bill and what has happened since, has proven a point made long ago by fellow blogger Jan Bergemann. The community association laws are written by, directed, guided and championed, not by the people who live in these communities, but rather by the people…
Read: WHO TO TURN TO FOR HELP-PART 1 → My column two weeks ago regarding the estoppel fee bill and what has happened since, has proven a point made long ago by fellow blogger Jan Bergemann. The community association laws are written by, directed, guided and championed, not by the people who live in these communities, but rather by the people…
Read: WHO TO TURN TO FOR HELP-PART 2 → Without a doubt, one of the most common complaints unit owners hurl at their Board of Directors is that the Board hold private meetings that the owners simply never get notice of. May owners complain that these meetings violate the “Sunshine” laws that require public meetings, but they are incorrect, as the…
Read: SO WHEN IS A MEETING A MEETING? →Read it. Then watch it.
