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
If there ever was a column that I hated to write, this is it! Last week I spoke about a case I argued before The Florida Supreme Court in 2011 called Cohn v. The Grand Condominium. In that case, the minority commercial unit owners at The Grand Condominium challenged a new Florida statute that took away…
Read: WAS ALL OF THIS FOR NOTHING? → Boards of Florida condominium associations and homeowner associations are allowed to make rules regarding use of the common areas, access to records, the right to speak at meetings,and in a few other areas. Here are a few rules regarding rules: 1. Rules must be reasonable: Rules have to have a valid…
Read: SOME QUICK RULES ABOUT MAKING RULES → FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY If the unit owners elect to do so, they can vote for the association to prepare a lesser year-end statement than what is required by law. The law has changed and now states: An association may not prepare a lesser financial statement than what is required by law for consecutive fiscal…
Read: House Bill 1203 - Continued → House Bill 1203 and SB 7046 merged to eventually create a huge bill for the protection of homeowners in HOAs. It starts by placing lots of responsibilities on community association managers. A community association manager or community association management firm that is authorized by contract to provide…
Read: HB 1203: LOTS OF NEW PROTECTIONS FOR MEMBERS LIVING IN HOAs MAKES IT HARDER FOR CAMs → March 11, 2024 Until now there was no law in our Florida HOAs that would allow a home owner to install their own electrical generator with above ground or below ground gas tanks. Here we are, living in Florida with sometimes unbearable heat and humidity, we have a large elderly population, hurricanes…
Read: A GENERATOR BILL THAT IS LONG OVER DUE (Part 2) → I live in a great HOA. By great, I mean you would never know there was an HOA. It’s very hands off and it certainly seems like the owners in the community keep their houses well kept. One of the things I was allowed to do several years ago was install an underground 500 gallon propane tank in my front yard…
Read: A GENERATOR BILL THAT IS LONG OVER DUE → The Condo Craze and HOAs radio show will no longer be a radio show. After a 15 year run with 850 WFTL, it’s time to get bigger and better. Starting in 2024, the show will be moving into the 21st century and will be broadcast live on video on the Condo Craze and HOAs channel on You Tube. The new technology…
Read: CONDO CRAZE AND HOAs GETTING BIGGER AND BETTER → In 2020 when Covid was roaring, I had lots of questions thrown at me regarding what Boards can and cannot do when it came to mandating masks and/or keeping people out of the condominium property or HOA clubhouse. Newly enacted Florida Statute 381.00316 has just answered some of the questions we only guessed…
Read: UNFORTUNATELY – BACK TO COVID-19 FOR A MOMENT → If you live in an HOA and have been a reader of this blog, you know that you have been reading about the devastating times that thousands of condominiums and millions of condominium owners are going through as the state now requires mandatory inspections, mandatory repairs and mandatory reserves in our…
Read: HEY HOA OWNERS……DO YOU GUYS FEEL LIKE YOU’RE THE WINNERS? → While condo owners are now dealing with mandatory inspections, mandatory repairs and mandatory reserve accounts, both condo and HOA owners are facing the joint monumental problem of staggering increases in property insurance and the lack of choice among insurance companies. Our sponsor Greg Waltz sent me an…
Read: THE INSURANCE CRISIS IS AT A DANGEROUS POINT → Sometimes HOAs are simply forgotten about when it comes to new laws. There’s usually a hands off approach by The Florida Legislature. Not this year. This year a new act was created called the “Homeowners’ Associations Bill of Rights.” Florida Statute.303. Now, like condominiums, notices of all board meetings…
Read: AN HOA MEMBER’S BILL OF RIGHTS – HB 919 → 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 → A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about what Board members should do when they are confronted with a person screaming or yelling at them and otherwise acting nuts. In sum, the answer was “just walk away” because in those circumstances there is little you are going to be able to do to convince the maniac that…
Read: WHEN YOU CAN’T JUST WALK AWAY → April 3, 2023 Ifeel like I handled a thousand annual meetings in the last month, flying from one to the other. When running the meetings, and depending upon whether the association is a condominium or HOA, it is important to know if the person running for the board, or even the winner of the election, is…
Read: OWE MONEY? YOU MAY NOT BE ALLOWED TO RUN FOR THE BOARD → I was recently watching an interview of a black belt in karate. In addition he was built like The Hulk. He started to say what he does when someone curses him out and even challenges him to a fight. I was certainly expecting him to describe how he turns others into rubble. On the contrary, he said that…
Read: JUST WALK AWAY → The other day I was complaining to my Rabbi about something by text. I received an e-mail back that said: “I HEAR YOU.” I can’t tell you how much better I felt. Two days later I wrote an e-mail to the customer service department of a big company. The next day I received an e-mail that basically said I hear…
Read: I HEAR YOU! → We got three extra days this year to pay up. Three extra days to turn in our income tax forms and pay Uncle Sam. Instead of April 15th being the day, it is April 18th. We see it come out of our paycheck each week, we complain. We fill out the necessary forms during tax season and we hope we don’t receive a…
Read: THE TAX MAN COMETH TODAY → The Florida Legislature is in full swing. Each year lots of bills get filed, but few make it to the finish line and become law. Here’s an update on two bills that are moving towards becoming law: SB 394: This is my mandatory education bill, requiring directors to get certified by attending a course. Senator…
Read: LEGISLATIVE UPDATE →Read it. Then watch it.
