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
Insurance payments may be the single largest expense of an association’s budget. Typically, and to over-simplify, the association pays for general liability insurance should someone get injured while on the association’s property. In addition, the association pays for windstorm insurance which covers…
Read: ARE YOU IN GOOD HANDS-2? → Originally, I was going to blog about resolutions that Board members should make for 2014, but that topic has been written about a million and one times. Everyone seems to have suggestions about how to be a better Board member. Let’s flip it around this time and resolve to be better unit owners, neighbors…
Read: A NEW YEAR AND SOME NEW RESOLUTIONS → It’s that time of year again — number crunching time. Time to figure out if everyone is going to be paying a little more next year in their monthly or quarterly assessments. Here are some things to keep in mind: In a condo — when the budget is mailed to the owners, the budget must show the reserves as…
Read: TIME TO PREPARE THE ANNUAL BUDGET → 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 → As our listeners of the Condo Craze and H.O.A.’s radio show know, we’ve been spending some time recently telling them how they can make their property ready for a hurricane, so that if a storm hits, they can weather it. We’ve spoken about preparing your roof, electricity, plumbing, interior furnishings and…
Read: IS YOUR BUDGET READY FOR A HURRICANE? → 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 → Thanksgiving is just three days away. Even with the “fiscal cliff” looming over our heads, unemployment still too high and Florida leading the nation in the number of foreclosures, surely there must be some things that those of us who live in condominiums or HOAs can be thankful for. Here’s a few: By all…
Read: EVEN IN A CONDO OR HOA - THERE ARE THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR → 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 → I’m hoping that after reading this column today, those of you who live in an HOA will forward some of these concerns to your local Senator or House Member, because I don’t even think they are aware of just how bad the HOA statute is and how condominium owners have far greater protections under the law than…
Read: CONDOS AND HOA'S ARE MORE DIFFERENT THAN YOU MAY THINK → To simplify, I like to say that any document that could be, might be or appears to be an official record of the association probably is. To further simplify, every unit owner in both a condo and an HOA can see all the official records with very few exceptions. (Even the accounting ledger for your unit)…
Read: THE MOTHER OF ALL BATTLES - GETTING ACCESS TO RECORDS → The Florida condominium statute provides that: Unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, the officers shall serve without compensation and at the pleasure of the board of administration. Unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, the members of the board shall serve without compensation. The Florida HOA statute…
Read: SHOULD BOARD MEMBERS GET PAID? →Read it. Then watch it.
