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 week was a primer on how foreclosures generally work and how banks get off the hook when they get back a unit when they foreclose on an owner’s unit or home. We learned that the banks are protected by the law because they only owe a few bucks to the association when they get title to the unit or home…
Read: MAKE SURE YOUR DOCS DON’T COST YOU MONEY – PART 2 → Let’s start with what some of you already know……..foreclosures are on the rise. Incredibly, this is happening before huge special assessments are kicking in for many of you and before mandatory reserves go into effect. If foreclosures are already on the rise, what’s going to happen when special assessments…
Read: MAKE SURE YOUR DOCS DON’T COST YOU MONEY → I get so many calls and e-mails each week about whether the condominium or the unit owner is responsible to fix something that’s broken. Florida Statute 718.113 was recently amended and here’s what it says: (1) Maintenance of the common elements is the responsibility of the association, except for any…
Read: NEW CONDO LAW MAKES IT CLEAR THAT THE CONDO MUST MAKE THE REPAIR → While condo owners are now dealing with mandatory inspections, mandatory repairs and mandatory reserve accounts, both condo and HOA owners are facing the joint monumental problem of staggering increases in property insurance and the lack of choice among insurance companies. Our sponsor Greg Waltz sent me an…
Read: THE INSURANCE CRISIS IS AT A DANGEROUS POINT → Florida Statute 720.31 states the following: An association may enter into agreements to acquire leaseholds, memberships, and other possessory or use interests in lands or facilities, including, but not limited to, country clubs, golf courses, marinas, submerged land, parking areas, conservation areas, and…
Read: BUT I DON’T WANT TO PLAY GOLF ANYMORE………….. → I thought long and hard before writing this blog. I don’t want any of my readers or fans of the radio show or attendees of my seminars to take what I’m about to say as being either mean or personal because it certainly is not meant to be. So here goes…………… SOMETIMES YOUR QUESTIONS AGGRAVATE ME! There, I said…
Read: WHAT GETS ME FRUSTRATED → Florida condominiums always had the obligation to provide for the safety of its owners, residents and guests when it came to preventing crime in the community. The condominium association was negligent if it knew or should have known about prior crimes in the community or surrounding areas, and failed to…
Read: NEW LAW IS A BENEFIT TO CONDOS AND REQUIRES A BOOST TO SECURITY → Sometimes HOAs are simply forgotten about when it comes to new laws. There’s usually a hands off approach by The Florida Legislature. Not this year. This year a new act was created called the “Homeowners’ Associations Bill of Rights.” Florida Statute.303. Now, like condominiums, notices of all board meetings…
Read: AN HOA MEMBER’S BILL OF RIGHTS – HB 919 → I can’t tell you how may fights I have been involved in regarding flags other than the U.S. flag flying above someone’s home and the fact that someone put down fake grass or stored a boat, that nobody can see, in their backyard. Well, here’s a new statute that solves both of those problems: Florida Statute…
Read: ANOTHER NEW LAW: HB 437 → CORRECTION: IN A PRIOR BLOG IT WAS NOTED THAT THE FLOOR AND FOUNDATION STILL NEEDS TO BE INCLUDED IN A STRUCTURAL RESERVE STUDY —– THEY DO NOT. SB 154 – is a long bill. Here are the final new laws: 1. The association shall provide for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of the condominium property for…
Read: SB 154 – PART FOUR – NEW LAWS → Again, in a budget adopted by an association that is required to obtain a structural integrity reserve study, reserves must be maintained for these items: Roof. Structure, includingload-bearing walls and or other primary structural members and primary structural systems as those terms are defined in s.…
Read: SB 154 – PART THREE – NEW LAWS → 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 → Over the next few weeks, we will be blogging about the new laws The Florida Legislature passed, as they relate to Florida Condominiums and HOAs. Today, let’s start with the bill that was supposed to clear up all the glitches in the prior bill regarding milestone inspections and reserve studies. Here we go………
Read: SB 154 – PART ONE -- NEW LAWS → When a community gets turned over from developer control to unit owner control, the unit owners typically hire experts to determine whether or not the developer has breached their warranty by turning over the property with construction defects. This year, on April 13, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill No.…
Read: THE NEW LAWS: DEVELOPERS ARE PROTECTED YET AGAIN → After litigating for 32 years here is what I learned for sure. When litigating, it’s better to be rich. I understand that may be obvious, but as the costs of litigation continue to rise, it’s a lesson that the average Joe needs to learn and learn quick. The bottom line is that it’s better to be rich…
Read: IT’S BETTER TO BE RICH → 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 → In light of the new laws requiring mandatory inspections, mandatory repairs and mandatory reserve studies, some associations are looking to cut back and save money. That’s not a bad idea; unless you’re cutting back on your legal counsel reviewing all of the contracts provided to you by those engineers,…
Read: PENNY WISE POUND FOOLISH → A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about what Board members should do when they are confronted with a person screaming or yelling at them and otherwise acting nuts. In sum, the answer was “just walk away” because in those circumstances there is little you are going to be able to do to convince the maniac that…
Read: WHEN YOU CAN’T JUST WALK AWAY →Read it. Then watch it.
