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
As you all know by now, Florida condominiums having 150 or more units must have a website that only owners can access and which posts the official records of the association. Here’s a little background as to how the law was passed. When originally drafted, the law was only to apply to condominiums with 500…
Read: COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION WEBSITES → April 3, 2023 Ifeel like I handled a thousand annual meetings in the last month, flying from one to the other. When running the meetings, and depending upon whether the association is a condominium or HOA, it is important to know if the person running for the board, or even the winner of the election, is…
Read: OWE MONEY? YOU MAY NOT BE ALLOWED TO RUN FOR THE BOARD → 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 → Now that condominiums are going to have to pass huge special assessments in order to make repairs and maintain new accounts with potentially millions of dollars in the bank, let me tell you one of the reasons I heard as to why these new laws should not go into effect. “Because we don’t trust our Board having…
Read: MAKE SURE YOU’RE COVERED → 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 → If you are reading this blog from Dade or Broward —- you are not going to be happy. On Friday, I received an e-mail from a two-story, 19 unit condo in Broward County stating that they are being told they need to go through the inspection process. We have always believed that the new mandatory inspection laws…
Read: SAFETY INSPECTION PROGRAMS ARE TOUGHER IN DADE AND BROWARD → The other day I was complaining to my Rabbi about something by text. I received an e-mail back that said: “I HEAR YOU.” I can’t tell you how much better I felt. Two days later I wrote an e-mail to the customer service department of a big company. The next day I received an e-mail that basically said I hear…
Read: I HEAR YOU! → 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 → 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 → At a time when it would make sense for the condo and HOA laws to become easier to learn, they are becoming harder. Much has to do with why in the world are there such differences between the condo and HOA statutes? It’s actually ridiculous. For example: In order to get access to the official records, why…
Read: WHY THE DIFFERENCES? → This is definitely not the same Florida that it was even when I moved here in 1989. And it really isn’t the same Florida that that I remember as a kid coming down to visit my sister in the 70s. The amount of building of homes and businesses since then is like no other place in the country —–by far. But, is…
Read: HAVEN’T WE BUILT ENOUGH? → So last week we spoke about how a condominium may pass amendments to the declaration which would in effect limit or prevent leasing, but said amendment would not apply to those who did not vote in favor of the amendment. For a long time, Florida HOAs did not have language in the HOA statute which said sich…
Read: CAN YOUR ASSOCIATION PROHIBIT OR LIMIT RENTING? PART TWO → umors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I just spent a week in the hospital — again with kidney stone issues. This is I believe the 5th time I needed some sort of surgery for this never ending painful problem. I left the hospital with a tube coming out of my right side. I still need a…
Read: AN HONEST PERSONAL UPDATE → 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 → Iam getting swamped lately with requests from both condos and HOAs as to how to limit the number of homes or units that are being rented. People are getting real tired of Air BNB type scenarios and want to know how they can put a stop to it. Some background on this topic is necessary. In the landmark case of…
Read: CAN YOUR ASSOCIATION PROHIBIT OR LIMIT RENTING? → 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 →Read it. Then watch it.
