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
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 → 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 → For those of you who are intelligent and decided to come to a Board Certification class in the last few months and learn all about the new safety and reserve laws, I applaud you. It was my honor meeting you and teaching you all over the state. I love that look in your eyes and the groan that comes over the…
Read: DOES THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE WANT YOU TO REMAIN DUMB? → I was recently watching an interview of a black belt in karate. In addition he was built like The Hulk. He started to say what he does when someone curses him out and even challenges him to a fight. I was certainly expecting him to describe how he turns others into rubble. On the contrary, he said that…
Read: JUST WALK AWAY → oday the nation celebrates the birthday of our first and greatest President, George Washington. He certainly had problems to deal with. Assembling an army, fighting the British, battling extreme weather and lack of supplies. In the end, he defeated what was at the time, the most powerful nation on earth. And…
Read: IT’S PRESIDENT’S DAY. DOES YOUR PRESIDENT DESERVE SOME RECOGNITION? → 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 → 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 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! → 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 →Read it. Then watch it.
