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
It has been a long time since we blogged about whether or not officers and directors of our Florida community associations should get paid for their service to the community. I certainly don’t know if payment to directors would cut down on theft of association funds and get more people to participate in the…
Read: IS IT TIME TO RE-THINK PAYMENT TO DIRECTORS? → As if there wasn’t enough to worry about in your condo or HOA, now we need to be concerned about flying objects that can take pictures of us while we are sitting in our back yard or even inside of our homes or condo units. About two years ago, a client of the firm called up and swore that a flying object was…
Read: DRONES IN YOUR COMMUNITY? DON'T FORGET TO DUCK → Two weeks ago, we made it clear that Florida community associations are allowed to borrow money absent a provision in the governing documents that would expressly prohibit it. But, just because you can borrow money doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. Many associations have an open line of credit with…
Read: THE PITFALLS OF BORROWING MONEY → You won’t hear an attorney say this too often, but I’ll say it today. I got lucky. About seven years ago, I simply wanted to do some advertising for my law firm on the radio. Instead, I was somehow talked into doing my own radio show. It happened real quick and I’ll admit it was real scary. We had…
Read: CENTRAL FLORIDA, SPACE COAST AND TREASURE COAST --- HERE WE COME! → Each year your condo association or HOA is required to pass an annual budget that in theory should pay all of the bills of the association. The statutes require this. Then a storm hits, or balconies start deteriorating and many Associations suddenly find themselves in desperate need to repair the common…
Read: TO BEG OR BORROW → This is the time of year that my family starts to see less and less of me. I’m writing this column from a hotel room in Bradenton, Florida. Tomorrow morning I have the honor of kicking off the L&L Condominium and HOA Expo by teaching our Condo Craze and HOAs Board Certification Course for both condominium…
Read: THERE'S LOTS OF RESOURCES OUT THERE → Last week was the holiest day of the year for me. It was Yom Kippur. It’s the day we atone for our sins. It’s a day that we say I’m sorry I have offended you. I’m sorry I upset you. Please forgive me. It is incumbent upon the person being asked for forgiveness to forgive. If asked, you must forgive…
Read: SAYING I’M SORRY → Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. About two weeks ago, I get a call early in the morning from the President of a condominium in Broward. He tells me that last night a unit owner unloaded 50 rounds of ammunition inside of his unit from his AR-15 assault rifle, his AK-47 assault rifle and his 9mm…
Read: CAN YOU GET KICKED OUT OF YOUR OWN HOME? → Everyone knows that whether you live in a condominium or an HOA, your association has an obligation to provide the unit owners access to the association’s records. What is an association to do however with the owner that won’t stop asking for access? Week after week, month after month, year after year, the…
Read: THE NEVER ENDING RECORDS REQUESTS → It’s been a tradition for the last few years in this blog to talk about how various Presidents of their community association spend their Labor Day. After all, the President of your association not only worked the whole year for your association, but did so free of charge. (But for those who were arrested…
Read: IT'S LABOR DAY ---- SIT BACK AND RELAX → There are all kinds of Board members and all kinds of reasons to want to become a Board member. Maybe you think expenses are too high. Maybe you think there’s not enough transparency. Perhaps you want to bring some diversity to a Board that has basically been the same group of folks for the last decade or…
Read: ARE YOU TOUGH ENOUGH TO BE A BOARD MEMBER? → It’s the end of the summer. Millions of kids across our state have to suck it up and return to school. And if the kids have to endure school for the next ten months, all of you can endure a measly three hours. I’m talking of course about Condo and HOA Board Certification. There’s a lot that goes into my…
Read: IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL TIME-PART 2 → think most lawyers would agree that some cases are simply more interesting than others. Over the last few weeks I have had the privilege of working on one of those interesting cases. It involves an attempted recall of two directors who were on the Board of a Hollywood Condominium association. I…
Read: IF YOU THOUGHT SOUTH CAROLINA WAS BAD…… LOOK AT YOUR OWN STATE → Although some Board members and unit owners often object, Florida community association law is clear, unit owners have the right to video tape meetings.
Read: ject, Florida community association law → For obvious reasons, this may be the toughest column I ever wrote. In fact, I’m not going to say much at all, as I want you guys to tell me the factors that you consider important when deciding to hire counsel for the association. I’ll tell you one thing that I’m not thrilled with. Association boards like…
Read: CHOOSING THE ASSOCIATION'S ATTORNEY → Our firm won an interesting HOA election case two weeks ago in arbitration before the DBPR. I think the case makes for some good precedent here in Florida and deals with an issue that has been plaguing HOAs for all eternity. As we know, each and every year, we get complaints from people that live in HOAs…
Read: NO QUORUM AT YOUR H.O.A. ANNUAL MEETING? IT MAY NOT MATTER → We already blogged about a new law that will bring further chaos and confusion to the association election process, and that is the law that now allows voting via the internet if a plethora of conditions are met. The Florida Legislature passed some other association laws as well this year. Let’s see what…
Read: SOME OTHER NEW LAWS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT APPLY IN YOUR ASSOCIATION → On Friday, I had the pleasure of being invited to attend a meeting of many representatives from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, including arbitrators and the Condominium Ombudsman. The purpose of the meeting was to hear from the public in regards to the new condominium statute that…
Read: ELECTRONIC VOTING – IS IT A SOLUTION OR A PROBLEM? →Read it. Then watch it.
