Year: 2018

Hurricane season starts June 1st.  If you haven’t ensured that the association property is properly insured, you better get busy.  And fast.  Let’s go over what the condo statute says about a board’s obligation to insure the condominium property.   Florida Statute 718.111(11) states: (a) Adequate property insurance, regardless of any requirement in the declaration of…

I write this blog the day after I did my last seminar of the season.  Starting from about September to now, I’ve taught all over the state in so many wonderful cities and venues.  At all of these seminars there’s always talk about apathy in our communities.  Nobody cares.  Nobody shows up to meetings.  Nobody…

There’s a pretty good chance that if you’re reading this blog, at one time or another you came in contact with a courtroom. If you lost your case, the experience may have felt awful. If you won your case after litigating for years and years the experience may have been worse. In any event, of…

There’s a pretty good chance that if you’re reading this blog, at one time or another you came in contact with a courtroom.  If you lost your case, the experience may have felt awful.  If you won your case after litigating for years and years the experience may have been worse. In any event, of…

All of you know how terrible the condo and HOA statutes are in terms of the association’s ability to collect unpaid assessments when a bank forecloses on a unit or home.  If the bank gets back a unit in foreclosure, they owe the association the lesser of 1% of the mortgage or 1 year of…

Some years are quiet when it comes to the passage of new laws affecting Florida community associations.  This was definitely not one of those years.  Here are the new laws in summary form as a result of the passage of HB 841. 718.111 —- OFFICIAL RECORDS: The law now makes it clear that the association…

Memorial Day is one of those holidays that makes you stop and think.  It’s not just about bar b ques and baseball games and fun-filled festivities.  It has more meaning than New Year’s Day and perhaps even July 4th.  Today is the day we honor every person who ever fought for and gave their life…

Boards of Directors love to have extra money in the bank.  Who doesn’t?  But the question is…… when is enough enough? Boards of Directors are required to simply pass a budget that pays the association’s bills.  Anything collected, above and beyond what pays the bills is   “Common surplus” which means the amount of all receipts…

You may recall that last year, The House and the Senate passed legislation that would have allowed condominiums in excess of 75 in height to opt out of a mandatory engineered life safety system. Legislation already existed that allowed these condominiums to opt out of sprinkler requirements.  Condos opted out of the sprinkler requirements, only…

On Friday morning it looked pretty bleak in terms of whether there would be any new condo and HOA laws passed this year.  Friday, after all, was the last day of the legislative session and the bill, HB 841, seemed to have stalled in Florida’s Senate. By law, the legislative session was required to be…