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
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 → Last week I blogged about the possibility of Board members walking off with your association bank accounts. Bank accounts that are about to explode with mandatory reserves and huge construction contracts that are on the way. Today, let’s talk about what you need to know about your management company. Often…
Read: THE GREED BEGINS – IT MAY BE TIME TO REVIEW YOUR MANAGEMENT CONTRACT OR PUT YOUR MANAGEMENT COMPANY IN PLACE → 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 → This is going to be a very interesting election year for condos. I perceive that there is definitely going to be two types of candidates. The first will run a campaign that basically says: CANDIDATE ONE: I have lived here for twenty years. In light of the tragedy in Surfside, the dramatic rise in property…
Read: IT’S ELECTION TIME AGAIN → The Florida Legislature will convene in March, so the next two months will be chaotic. Lobbyists will be walking the floors of The Capital wanting to meet privately with Legislators to explain why their proposed bill is so important and that the legislators must have a chance to vote on it. Some proposed…
Read: YOUR LEGISLATIVE WISH LIST → 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 → It has always been difficult to get volunteers to be on the Board of Directors. Even when times are good and the building has made repairs and has some money in the bank, you can never count on owners to volunteer their time for a position where on their best day they will be second guessed and criticized.…
Read: WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH → Ihave heard lots of excuses over the years about so many different things. Here’s a few that simply don’t work: My assessments should be less — I don’t use the elevator I have heard this from lots of people who live on the first floor. It doesn’t work. Regardless of whether you use the common elements, you…
Read: EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES → Ithink last night’s 60 Minutes episode made it clear that for some, living in their condominium unit may simply become unaffordable. The question is……which condos will suffer the most and which other forms of housing are most likely to retain their values and even go up. Everyone is freaking out that all…
Read: SO WHERE WILL PRICES GO? → 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 → 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 → So this week, my mom asks me to attend her Board meeting because the agenda says they will speak about the budget for 2023. She knows I have been babbling a lot lately about how assessments are going to soar and she wants to know if her community is set for the troubles I’m predicting. So I went. I won’t…
Read: A PERSONAL LETDOWN → 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 → As we have written about a million times, each condominium unit pays $4.00 per year to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes. That $4.00 is supposed to be spent on the people who are paying it. The law states that: All fees shall be…
Read: THE PERFECT JOB FOR THE DBPR → Today, we finally conclude all off the new condominium laws that were passed in 2022 by The Florida Legislature. There is a lot to know. ALL CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATIONS MUST: Although the DBPR has yet to produce the required form: On or before January 1, 2023, condominium associations existing on or before July…
Read: OTHER NEW CONDO LAWS TO KNOW – PART THREE → 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 → In a word — YES. Are all these new laws really necessary? In a word –YES. This is all happening due to a complete lack of foresight and planning by The Florida Legislature. Mandatory Reserves and Mandatory Inspections should always have been the law. I urged The Florida Legislature in May of 2018 to make…
Read: WILL THE NEW LAWS BE DEVASTATING FINANCIALLY TO SOME FLORIDA RESIDENTS? →Read it. Then watch it.
