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
Afew weeks ago on the Condo Craze and HOAs radio show, I was sent a chart by a listener that showed that just under 50% of condominiums were funding a reserve account in full each month. As I was broadcasting this information, I felt that it sounded a little high. It turned out that I was referring to a…
Read: LET’S GO TO THE NUMBERS → As we have written about a million times, each condominium unit pays $4.00 per year to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes. That $4.00 is supposed to be spent on the people who are paying it. The law states that: All fees shall be…
Read: THE PERFECT JOB FOR THE DBPR → In a word — YES. Are all these new laws really necessary? In a word –YES. This is all happening due to a complete lack of foresight and planning by The Florida Legislature. Mandatory Reserves and Mandatory Inspections should always have been the law. I urged The Florida Legislature in May of 2018 to make…
Read: WILL THE NEW LAWS BE DEVASTATING FINANCIALLY TO SOME FLORIDA RESIDENTS? → THE BIG CHANGE: NO LONGER IS THERE THE ABILITY TO WAIVE RESERVES OR USE THEM FOR OTHER PURPOSES Effective December 31, 2024, a unit-owner controlled association may not determine to provide no reserves or reserves less adequate than required by the items listed in the mandatory structural integrity reserve…
Read: FLORIDA’S NEW CONDO RESERVE and FIRE SAFETY LAWS – PART TWO → et’s start discussing the new condominium laws that go into effect on July 1st. We won’t cover them all in one week, so look forward to next week’s blog as well. IF YOU HAVE A MANAGEMENT COMPANY the statute says: If a community association manager or a community association management firm has a contract…
Read: THE NEW CONDO LAWS ---- MANDATORY INSPECTIONS – PART ONE → Ireally hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I have never been more afraid of an economic collapse in Florida, especially South Florida, as I do now. I couldn’t care less about the statistics that get reported about whether foreclosures are going up or not. I’m telling you that they are. I know because process…
Read: THE HOUSING NUMBERS JUST DON’T ADD UP → Even after the death of 98 innocent people at The Champlain Towers in Surfside, the fact is…….The Florida Legislature did not pass a single law regarding the need for more building inspections, mandatory funding of reserves, mandatory education for board members or anything whatsoever to prevent another…
Read: MAYBE IT’S TIME TO BRING BACK AND OLD LAW → Today, I feel sadness for the victims in Surfside and their families. I said a million times on the air and in columns that they did not die in vain. I swore that as a result of their deaths, The Florida Legislature would ensure that at least some forms of reserves would be mandatory, that inspections by…
Read: MY APOLOGIES TO THE FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS → It’s almost a dream, but a year ago things were certainly different in the condo world than they are today. I was dealing with fights about mandatory masks in the common areas, fights to re-open the pool and gym, meetings only being held by Zoom and all sorts of other issues all related of course to the…
Read: WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES → 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 → 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 → 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 → Afew weeks ago, I wrote a blog called It’s Time To Stop A True Florida Farce. The blog spoke about the fact that members of community association boards of directors can still get certified without taking an educational class. Instead, they can sign a rather silly piece of paper that states they have read…
Read: THANK YOU SENATOR ANNA MARIA RODRIGUEZ! → 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 → 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 → 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 →Read it. Then watch it.
