So, what happens when your Association doesn’t submit it’s filed annual report on time? Short answer: nothing good. As you likely know, filing a corporate report each year with the Florida Department of Corporations is a statutory requirement – regardless of what type of Association you are.

Does your association’s Governing Documents (e.g., its Declaration) require future purchasers of Lots and/or Units within your community, upon closing, to pay the association a capital contribution? If not, you’re losing out on free money.

Many of our Fourth of July festivities will include friends and family, barbecues, and fireworks. Although many attend fireworks celebrations hosted in the community, many of us also love smaller-scale fireworks events in our neighborhoods and driveways. This begs, the question: what can and can't our Homeowners' Association restrict regarding fireworks this upcoming Fourth of July?

Given their age, many Florida community associations are (often unknowingly) allowing their covenants to expire. Unfortunately not all such communities choose to use an attorney, or at least one whose procedures include notifying associations in advance that their covenants will expire under the Florida Marketable Record Title Act (“MRTA”). That expiration customarily (but not necessarily) occurs 30 years after the date the Declaration of Covenants was first recorded in the County Public Records. Avoiding this expiration is crucial; covenants cease to be enforceable once they expire, and remain unenforceable until they are “revitalized” through a fairly costly and time-consuming process. Essentially, the association has no covenants to enforce once they expire.

The recent Florida Supreme Court ruling in Hayslip v. U.S. Home Corporation, Case No. SC19-1371 (January 22, 2022) should make property owners seriously consider using counsel who is well-versed in title issues, to review the original deed transferring their property from the builder to the original owner, and all subsequent deeds in the chain of title, as part of their property purchase. Specifically, this recent case held that if any of those deeds contain provisions that bind the property, they remain effective against new owners, even if those new owners were unaware or these “covenants running with the land,” and even if the covenant is not mentioned in the last several deeds. This also impacts our firm’s Community Association clientele, insofar as the Association could otherwise unwittingly take title to a property through foreclosure or deed in lieu thereof, without knowing it is subject to these covenants and must comply with them or seek to eliminate them.

The holidays can bring out the best in a community: parties, lights, statues, and festive adornments throughout the neighborhood are common and largely welcomed in community associations. However, there is certainly disparity between what some members adore as tasteful, festive, and appropriate holiday décor, versus the Griswoldian “floodlights” that plague some neighborhoods at all hours of the night.

In June, we notified readers that beginning July 1, 2021, the Florida Statutes would begin requiring a Notice of Late Assessment (“NLA”) as the new “first step” in the community association assessment collection process.

Anyone seeking to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of a Florida Community Association will need to determine their eligibility to run for the Board, or to be appointed as a member of the Board of Directors.

Of all the violations a community association must deal with, nuisances are perhaps the most troublesome because of their inherent uncertainty. Unfortunately, determining what constitutes a nuisance and determining when to take action with respect to a nuisance is somewhat troublesome. While it is not difficult to provide community association managers, associations, boards and developers with multiple definitions of the word “nuisance”, listing all the activities which constitute a nuisance or affording a black and white guideline for determining when a particular condition rises to the level of a nuisance is far more difficult, if not impossible. Nevertheless, the following definitions may be of some help, especially when combined with the discussion which follows: