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
This blog is going to make a lot of people angry and perhaps a lot of people thinking I did the right thing, but here we go….. The tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida occurred on June 24th, 2021 killing 98 innocent men, women and children. I was there a few days later staring at…
Read: THE NEW LAWS – A LITTLE BACKGROUND → For the rest of my life September 11th will always be one of the toughest days of the year for me for obvious reasons. I went to NYU which is located a short distance from The Twin Towers. I would see them every day. They were as permanent a fixture as there was. I went to a meeting of all of the law schools…
Read: UNITED WE STAND – BUT DON’T DARE LEAVE YOUR SHOES OUTSIDE → Board members I’m telling you now……..be careful. I’m seeing it already. Unit owners are starting to freak out over the passage of huge assessments to cover the costs of mandatory inspections, mandatory repairs and massive increases in insurance rates. As we know, we’re not talking about pesky increases to…
Read: BOARD MEMBERS BETTER BE CAREFUL → Florida condominiums always had the obligation to provide for the safety of its owners, residents and guests when it came to preventing crime in the community. The condominium association was negligent if it knew or should have known about prior crimes in the community or surrounding areas, and failed to…
Read: NEW LAW IS A BENEFIT TO CONDOS AND REQUIRES A BOOST TO SECURITY → I can’t tell you how may fights I have been involved in regarding flags other than the U.S. flag flying above someone’s home and the fact that someone put down fake grass or stored a boat, that nobody can see, in their backyard. Well, here’s a new statute that solves both of those problems: Florida Statute…
Read: ANOTHER NEW LAW: HB 437 → THE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY RESERVE STUDY (g) Structural integrity reserve study.— A residential condominium must have a structural integrity reserve study completed at least every 10 years after the condominium’s creation for each building on the condominium property that is three stories or higher in height…
Read: SB 154 – PART TWO – NEW LAWS → Over the next few weeks, we will be blogging about the new laws The Florida Legislature passed, as they relate to Florida Condominiums and HOAs. Today, let’s start with the bill that was supposed to clear up all the glitches in the prior bill regarding milestone inspections and reserve studies. Here we go………
Read: SB 154 – PART ONE -- NEW LAWS → For those of you who are intelligent and decided to come to a Board Certification class in the last few months and learn all about the new safety and reserve laws, I applaud you. It was my honor meeting you and teaching you all over the state. I love that look in your eyes and the groan that comes over the…
Read: DOES THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE WANT YOU TO REMAIN DUMB? → Many of the associations I represent are getting ahead of the curve and they’re educating their owners about the expenses that are coming by having me show up at the condominium and put on a Power Point presentation showing precisely how these new laws came to be, including showing the actual vote by The…
Read: STOP THE CROWD FROM BLAMING THE BOARD → If you are reading this blog from Dade or Broward —- you are not going to be happy. On Friday, I received an e-mail from a two-story, 19 unit condo in Broward County stating that they are being told they need to go through the inspection process. We have always believed that the new mandatory inspection laws…
Read: SAFETY INSPECTION PROGRAMS ARE TOUGHER IN DADE AND BROWARD → I’m not going to tell you that you should have a bunch of new year resolutions that you must follow. We all know how long they last. So, I’ll only suggest one at the end of this article. However, I am going to tell you that if your budget still does not contain reserve funding, your new year is already off…
Read: A NEW YEAR UNLIKE THOSE IN THE PAST → I’m already hearing stories of developers making low ball offers to owners in high rise condominium buildings, offering to buy units at bargain prices. Here’s why….. Developers knows that in building of 25 years or more on the coast or 30 years or more inland, owners are facing massive upcoming expenses.…
Read: DEVELOPERS ARE ON THE PROWL → umors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I just spent a week in the hospital — again with kidney stone issues. This is I believe the 5th time I needed some sort of surgery for this never ending painful problem. I left the hospital with a tube coming out of my right side. I still need a…
Read: AN HONEST PERSONAL UPDATE → In light of the tragedy at The Champlain Towers in Surfside last year, The Florida Legislature, to its credit, passed massive condominium reform regarding safety, inspections and reserves. These laws are confusing to those who work in the industry every day, never mind to those who serve on condo Boards…
Read: IF THERE EVER WAS A TIME TO GET EDUCATED → 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 → Nancy Knowitall is the President of Broken Dreams Condo, a 10 story 120 unit condominium here in South Florida. Nancy decides that because it’s Labor Day, she is going to prove to the owners just how dedicated her and her board are, by holding a Board meeting to discuss the state of the condominium and all…
Read: A LABOR DAY TRADITION IS BACK → DISTRIBUTION OF THE INSPECTION REPORTS Upon completion of a phase one or phase two milestone inspection and receipt of the inspector-prepared summary of the inspection report from the architect or engineer who performed the inspection, the association must distribute a copy of the inspector-prepared summary…
Read: SOME OTHER NEW LAWS CONDOS MUST FOLLOW – PART TWO → We all know by now the myriad of new safety laws condos that are 3 stories or more are required to follow. They include mandatory fire sprinklers or an engineered life safety system (for buildings 75 feet or higher only), a Phase One Milestone Inspection after 30 years and every ten years thereafter (25…
Read: SOME OTHER NEW LAWS CONDOS MUST FOLLOW – PART ONE →Read it. Then watch it.
