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
Last week, we spoke about how difficult it is to obtain personal liability against an individual director of a community association. The plaintiff would basically need to show a crime, fraud or self-dealing. What about when the directors make decisions that may ultimately be incorrect but were made in…
Read: THE FLORIDA BUSINESS JUDGMENT RULE → Let’s say your condominium building needs a paint job. It just so happens that the President of the association is the owner of a general contracting firm. He tells the Board to stop racking their brains trying to find a company. He promises to have his company do the job right. He will certainly give…
Read: SHOULD THE BOARD HIRE A BOARD MEMBER'S COMPANY? → Ijust researched why golfers often times yell the word “FORE” when they’re about to hit a golf ball. It’s basically done as a warning to others to be on the lookout. It’s also very appropriate to yell to people who own or who are looking to own in community associations that mandate golf course membership.…
Read: FORE! → Over the last several years, the issue of delinquencies in our Florida community associations became worse and worse. The more people didn’t pay, the more the good paying owners had to pay. The more bank foreclosures, the less the association was receiving in badly needed revenue. The real solution to the…
Read: FINALLY - A REMEDY THAT WORKS FOR ASSOCIATIONS → 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 → (4) MANDATORY NONBINDING ARBITRATION AND MEDIATION OF DISPUTES.—The Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation shall employ full-time attorneys to act as arbitrators to conduct the arbitration hearings provided by this chapter. The…
Read: FLORIDA STATUTE 718.1255 → When I teach the topic of association records at our Condo Craze Board Certification seminars, I try to make the topic pretty simple. In sum, if the record relates in any way to the operation of the association, it is an official record of the association and must be maintained. Arbitration cases have…
Read: NO…………. YOU CAN'T SEE EVERY OFFICIAL RECORD. → 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 → 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 seems like the biggest issue today for community associations is whether or not “no-pet” communities have the authority to question individuals that request exemptions, so they can reside with animals that are medically necessary. Before we get into the authority of associations, it’s important that you…
Read: SERVICE ANIMALS AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS-PART 1 → There was lots of news last week about Lebron James coming back home to Cleveland. Well….Lebron isn’t the only person coming back home. It’s happening in alarming numbers. College graduates, graduate school graduates and even some with professional licenses and degrees are returning home to their parents…
Read: RETURNING HOME → Many of you have seen outgoing board members sign long term contracts with a vendor just before getting off the Board. Often times, these contracts were executed by a single board member without any vote of the board whatsoever. The question is……is the contract still an obligation of the association even…
Read: CAN ONE RENEGADE BOARD MEMBER BIND THE ENTIRE BOARD? → It’s officially hurricane season here in Florida. Pretty soon, the media will be trying to scare the bejesus out of us the minute a single cloud rolls off of Africa’s west coast. We all know how lucky we’ve been for close to a decade now, but one day our luck will again run out. Imagine for a moment that…
Read: WHEN YOUR BELONGINGS AND YOUR DOCS GO OUT THE WINDOW → 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 → Iremember as a kid when Century Village was being built and Red Buttons was all over the TV in New York telling everyone why they need to retire to one of the fine “adult only” communities that are being built in South Florida. Dare I say it, but in a couple of more birthdays, I’m eligible to move in. So,…
Read: 55 AND OVER COMMUNITIES – A PRIMER →Read it. Then watch it.
