Community Association Industry Legal Blog

Section 718.113(5), Florida Statutes, governs the installation of various materials for hurricane protection that Florida’s condominium associations must abide by. Section 718.115(1)(e), Florida Statutes, governs the allocation of expenses for the hurricane protection installation. Both of these sections were amended by the Florida legislature in 2013. This blog is to provide a brief overview of the main provisions of these statutes in light of those recent changes.

There is a new trend rising within condominium and homeowners’ associations across the country, including Florida: online association voting. The reason for this trend is simple – it solves two major problems that associations constantly face: 1) the expense of utilizing physical forms; and, 2) poor voter turnout among the associations’ members. Online voting for associations takes the hassle out of the voting process, which improves overall turnout. It appears that allowing association to perform online voting seems a no-brainer. However, not every state legislature has kept pace with technology in this area of law. Florida is one state in which the law is lagging technology as Florida law is currently silent on the issue of association online voting. This presents a problem for a Florida association that wishes to improve the experience of its members while also ensuring it is abiding by the law.

The Florida legislature has always given Florida’s condominium associations great flexibility to construct and maintain their own bylaws, rules and regulations in which to govern their communities. In exchange for that flexibility, the Florida Statutes, within Chapter 718, regulate the operation of condominium associations in certain areas. One such area involves the financial reporting requirements of Florida’s condominium associations, which is specifically governed by Section 718.111(13), Florida Statutes. In 2013, the Florida legislature changed and amended a few key aspects of Section 718.111(13), which Florida’s condominium associations must be cognizant of to ensure they remain compliant.

On August 21, 2013, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued an opinion clarifying when the statute of limitations begins to run for a cause of action that a property owner brings against an association.  In Harris v. Aberdeen Property Owners Association, Inc., the Court held that the statute of […]

Condominium and homeowner associations are common when living in Florida. All associations are creatures of the Florida Statutes. They are corporations with a governing body typically called a Board of Directors who are elected by the unit owners. Sitting on the association Board gives decision making authority over other members of the community. Sometimes these Board members abuse their power for their own self-benefit or interest.

Several legislative changes to the Florida Statutes, occurring during 2013, have impacted the operation of Florida’s Condominium Associations and HOAs. This blog focuses on those changes applicable to the maintaining of official records. For Condo Associations, the laws governing official records are codified in Section 718.111(12)(c), Florida Statutes; for HOAs, those laws are found in Section 720.303, Florida Statutes.
The Florida Legislature passed House Bill 73 earlier this year, which amended the Florida Statutes and became effective July 1, 2013.

Florida is known as a “debtor-friendly” state, and one of the greatest protections afforded debtors under the Florida Constitution is the homestead exemption. Article X, Section 4, of the Florida Constitution states that creditors cannot force the sale of the debtor’s primary residence in order to satisfy a judgment or lien. This homeowner protection is also codified in the Florida Statutes in Chapter 222.

Florida’s homestead protection applies to the primary residence up to one-half acre within a municipality and up to 160 contiguous acres outside of a municipality. Fla. Const. Art. X, §4(a)(1). As long as those acreage requirements are met, it does not matter if the primary residence is worth 4 million dollars

Recently, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal issued a ruling that laid to rest any doubt as to whether a trial court has the jurisdiction to determine the amount of association dues owed to a condo association in a foreclosure action and the amount of attorneys’ fees to be awarded to the prevailing party in such an action…

Many of Florida’s associations provide their residents with gated entrances and security check-ins that enhance the safety of the communities they govern. When communities have hundreds of homes it is sometimes difficult to keep track of every family member living at each residence. As a security measure to ensure that every person entering the neighborhood is who he or she claims to be, many associations have security personnel swipe the driver’s license of the person entering.

It is common knowledge that when a company or individual files for bankruptcy, all collection activity stops. What is commonly not known is that condominium assessments are, in a manner of speaking, exempt from that rule. The fact is, all collection activity does not have to stop and you can still recover assessments that come due after the bankruptcy action is filed. Let’s read on to see exactly how all this works.