A recent decision by Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals (“4th DCA”) highlights the deference courts in Florida give community association boards of directors when they make informed, reasonable decisions with respect to enforcing restrictions in their governing documents. In Miller v. Homeland Prop. Owners Ass’n, Inc., 284 So. 3d 534 (Fla. 4th DCA 2019),
A community association’s declaration of covenants governs the duties and responsibilities between an association and its owners. When interpreting the text of such documents, courts will apply a rule of strict construction that requires a court to apply any unclear or ambiguous language in the manner most favorable to the owner. Strict construction has a
Many communities impose a capital contribution (sometimes called an initiation fee) on new owners. This is a one-time, nonrefundable fee paid by the buyer at closing. These fees usually go into a special account used to fund capital improvements and repairs in the community. Both Fla. Stat. §720.308(6) and §720.308(4)(b), prohibit a developer from using
The number of pending bills this year affecting community associations in some way or another is substantial. Multiple bills regarding vacation rentals reveal the battle lines in Tallahassee between local governments, communities, and the hotel lobbyists versus the vacation rental companies. Senate Bill 1196 and House Bill 1129 are considered community-association friendly bills that impose
An interesting new decision out of Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal addresses whether an Association, whose members are unit owners within a condominium, was entitled to revive its declaration of covenants and restrictions pursuant to the Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA) as it existed in 2016.
As we have addressed in previous posts, generally speaking,
As we discussed in our main 2018 Community Association Legislative Update post, this year’s statutory amendments included one of the biggest efforts to date to help community associations avoid the disaster of their governing documents being extinguished by the Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA). As a basic premise, if a community’s governing documents are subject
