Let’s face it, we do almost everything online – from shopping to paying bills. Following that trend, many community associations also conduct a lot of activity through a website, including; paying assessments, advertising sales or rentals, or posting documents, notices, minutes, and social calendars for members to easily access. In fact, the Florida legislature passed
Residents in Florida are no stranger to the potential hazards posed by dead, dying, diseased, and overgrown trees. In an effort to make the maintenance and removal of such trees easier for residential property owners, Florida passed into law Florida Statute §163.045 (the “Statute”). The Statute limits the ability of local governments to regulate maintenance,
The First District Court of Appeal decision in Coastal Creek Condominium Association, Inc. v Fla Trust Services, LLC, Case No. 1D18-1457 (Fla. 1st DCA, July 16, 2019) addressed whether a current condominium unit owner is jointly and severally liable for delinquent assessments accruing during the ownership of a remote owner. Having found that the joint
Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed an Assignment of Benefits (“AOB”) reform bill aimed at protecting Florida consumers from predatory insurance practices. The new law, which took effect on July 1, 2019, is memorialized by the addition of two (2) entirely new sections to Chapter 627 of the Florida Statutes. The new law addresses abuse of
As we discussed in our previous Legislative Update post, the Florida Legislature was working on number of bills that would have impacted community associations on a wide range of issues, and would have resulted in major revisions to Florida’s Condominium Act and Homeowners Association Act. However, as the 2019 legislative session came to a close,
Tension and excitement continue to build as we watch this year’s legislative session unfold. One of the pending bills that affects condominiums, cooperatives and homeowners associations HB 1075. The bill is over 100 pages so we cannot address all aspects of it in this article, but let’s look at some of the highlights. The bill
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
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
With another legislative session in the books, we are taking a closer look at the new laws to analyze how they will change association life as we know it. One important change impacts the retention of meeting minutes and electronic voting records.
In the past, most association records were maintained for seven (7) years, but
In this year’s legislative session, the Florida legislature passed two main community association related bills that will become law in 2018. The first, House Bill 841, provides extensive changes to the statutes governing Homeowner Associations, Condominium Associations, and Cooperative Associations. The second bill of major importance is House Bill 617, which establishes significant changes preserving
