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 year we blogged about a long awaited decision by The Florida Supreme Court regarding what a licensed community association can do, without being accused of practicing law without a license. It bears repeating. The Florida Bar tried hard to curtail what community association managers can do without a…
Read: CAMS BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE OF LAW → Let’s pretend it’s the night of your annual meeting. It’s time to verify the signatures and count the ballots. Someone reminds the attorney not to count the votes of any owners who are more than 90 days delinquent. Are they right? Maybe…. I would first argue that without the Kaufman or “as amended from…
Read: SOME OTHER CONFUSING VOTING ISSUES → Happy New Year to everyone. In the condo and HOA world, with a few exceptions, the new year certainly means one thing; the annual meeting is almost here. I’m often asked whether or not I recommend that an attorney be present at the annual meeting or if the association should simply allow the community…
Read: DO I NEED A LAWYER AT MY ANNUAL MEETING? → Ihave been to some real nasty association meetings over the last 23 years. I’ve personally been cursed at, screamed at, yelled at and insulted. My wife can sometimes get that way. All kidding aside, I’ve attended meetings where control was totally lost and violence erupted. It happened more than once and…
Read: SHOULD THE POLICE BE ATTENDING YOUR MEETINGS? → 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 → 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? → The long awaited decision by The Florida Supreme Court is finally in regarding what a licensed community association can do, without being accused of practicing law without a license. The Florida Bar tried hard to curtail what community association managers can do without a license to practice law, while…
Read: THE LAWYERS V. THE MANAGERS --- SO WHO WON? → 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 → 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 → On today’s radio show, a woman complained that in her HOA, there is never a quorum that appears at the annual meeting and therefore the same board remains in place year after year. Remember…in an HOA, in order to have a valid election, a quorum must appear at the annual meeting. In a condo on the other…
Read: ARE TERM LIMITS A GOOD THING OR A BAD THING? → Believe it or not……I received more than one e-mail this year from people complaining that their annual meetings are being conducted in a language other than English and some people are fighting mad about it. I’ll risk being politically incorrect and say that I think it’s absurd that that a unit owner can…
Read: PICK A LANGUAGE….ANY LANGUAGE → Afew weeks ago, we blogged about how to run a successful annual meeting. I not so jokingly said the best way to make the meeting run smoothly was to order food. Lots of it. I also made it clear not to serve liquor. I wasn’t joking about that either. As many of us know, liquor tends to fuel the emotions and…
Read: A SUCCESSFUL ANNUAL MEETING – PART TWO – CURBING THE VIOLENCE. → You may recall that a few weeks ago I blogged about the fact that members in an HOA have far less protection than unit owners in a condominium. With the help of Jan Bergemann from CCFJ www.ccfj.net, and our lobbyist, I drafted legislation that would help HOA members throughout Florida. Here are the…
Read: YOU WANT REFORM? HERE IT COMES…I HOPE → Certification of Board Members: For whatever reason, The Florida Legislature believes that it’s only important for condominium Board members to learn the law, be familiar with their governing documents and get certified. HOA members can just “wing it” I guess. Certainly, education should be required for…
Read: CONDOS AND HOA solutions → Last week, I received an e-mail from someone who was complaining that her HOA was using the voting and election procedures required by the condominium statute, instead of the HOA statute. In other words, using the Florida Statute 718 laws instead of Florida Statute 720. She wanted to know if this was O.K.,…
Read: ELECTION TIME IS HERE → Election time in our Florida community associations is quickly approaching. The thought of the annual meeting doesn’t exactly invoke thoughts of birds chirping or humming birds humming, and is more akin to Halloween Horror Night at your association. Nevertheless, unit owners far and wide will be throwing…
Read: CAN MY NEIGHBOR'S BROTHER'S WIFE'S THIRD COUSIN FROM CLEVELAND SERVE ON MY BOARD OF DIRECTORS? →Read it. Then watch it.
