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
Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that 100% means 100% when it comes to condo termination, siding with unit owners who fought back against a developer’s attempt to change voting rules mid-game. This major decision highlights the legal battle over whether older condo declarations can be overridden…
Read: FLORIDA’S 3RD DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL SAYS 100% MEANS 100% →
Delinquencies are rising before mandatory reserves kick in. Learn the 120-day process associations must follow to collect unpaid assessments
Read: FORECLOSURES ARE ALREADY RISING →
Election night chaos: quorum issues, tie votes, & more! Learn why managers & attorneys must team up to avoid costly mistakes. Call for help!
Read: YOUR ANNUAL MEETING AND ELECTION IT AIN’T AS EASY AS IT SOUNDS – PART 2 →
Oftentimes, condominium associations amend their documents in an attempt to prevent an owner from owning more than one condominium unit. The question is, can that legally be done? The case of Tropicana Condominium Ass’n, Inc. v. Tropical Condominium, LLC, 208 So.3d 755, 759 (Fla.App. 3 Dist., 2016) truly…
Read: CAN A CONDO PREVENT OWNERSHIP OF MORE THAN ONE UNIT? → Last week I made it clear that Floridians better understand that if they cannot afford the mandatory wave of special assessments that are coming for inspections, repairs and reserves they better put their condo up for sale, and fast, before a foreclosure is ultimately filed against them for failing to pay…
Read: IT’S TIME FOR BANKS OR OUR GREAT STATE TO COME TO THE RESCUE → We are living in some incredible times right now in the world of condominiums. Many years from now, we will look back at the last few years as the years that changed the Florida condominium law landscape forever. We will always give credit to the unfortunate 98 victims of The Champlain Towers tragedy in…
Read: WARNING…IF YOU’RE STILL THINKING THAT IT WON’T HAPPEN…… → We all know what the cost of insurance is doing to our way of life. In most condominium associations, the cost of windstorm and peril insurance has tripled over the past few years, if not quintupled. And from what I am being told, there is no end in sight. God forbid another major storm hits and the…
Read: DO YOU REALLY WANT TO RISK NOT HAVING INSURANCE? → It’s November —and November means it’s time to get out the budget for next year. One of the line items that should definitely be included in your budget is “bad debt.” Bad debt is the amount of money you are not going to collect from your non paying owners. For example: let’s say that your assessments…
Read: IT’S BUDGET TIME. YOU BETTER BE INCLUDING BAD DEBT → We are already starting to see an uptick in the amount of owners falling behind on paying their assessments to their association. It is wise for an association to know how the collections process works in for the board to put in place a policy that works best for the association. In both condos, Co-ops, and…
Read: HOW TO COLLECT WHAT’S DUE? → 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 → It seems that for week after week we have been blogging about condominiums for the obvious reason that condo laws have undergone an absolutely dramatic change this year. Not only is the change dramatic, but it will no doubt lead to foreclosures of countless units when unit owners cannot pay the special…
Read: BACK TO HOAs THIS WEEK → 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 → 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? → Ireally hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I have never been more afraid of an economic collapse in Florida, especially South Florida, as I do now. I couldn’t care less about the statistics that get reported about whether foreclosures are going up or not. I’m telling you that they are. I know because process…
Read: THE HOUSING NUMBERS JUST DON’T ADD UP → We got three extra days this year to pay up. Three extra days to turn in our income tax forms and pay Uncle Sam. Instead of April 15th being the day, it is April 18th. We see it come out of our paycheck each week, we complain. We fill out the necessary forms during tax season and we hope we don’t receive a…
Read: THE TAX MAN COMETH TODAY → When I started practicing law in 1992, condominiums and HOAs had it a lot easier when it came to collecting their unpaid dues. If someone was thirty days late, you were able to file a lien on their home or unit right away. And if they didn’t pay within thirty days, foreclose on their unit. I don’t remember…
Read: IT’S GETTING TOUGHER TO COLLECT THOSE UNPAID ASSESSMENTS → In May of 2018, at about the same time the engineer was advising Champlain Towers South that their building need millions and millions of dollars in repairs, I wrote about the dangers facing condominiums all over the state because of the ability for owners to opt out of funding reserve accounts. I implored…
Read: I WARNED ABOUT THE DANGERS OF INADEQUATE RESERVES →Read it. Then watch it.
