Florida ROC : Florida Mobile Home & RV Lawyer & Attorney : Scott Gordon : Lutz Bobo Telfair Eastman Gabel & Lee Law Firm : FL Condo & Homeowners Associations

ROC managers and board members that have asked me to help create or amend rules governing their communities know that I stress the importance of a unit owner obtaining the written approval of the board before that unit owner can take certain actions, including the following:

• making additions to his unit
• bringing in another occupant
• having a pet
• leasing or subleasing his unit  

My colleague Michael J. Gelfand, a partner in the Gelfand & Arpe, P.A. law firm in West Palm Beach,  reported in the August 2009 edition of the Florida Community Association Journal on a recent decision from one of Florida's appellate courts.  It's the case of Curci Village Condominium Association, Inc. v. Maria, and the opinion of Florida's 4th District Court of Appeals focuses on a  provision in the condominium association's documents requiring prior written approval.

The unit owner in the Curci Village case defended the landscaping changes he had made by claiming that the association's president, who was also the manager for the developer who controlled the association, told him that he "didn't have a problem with" those landscaping changes when the unit owner first proposed them.  However, because the association's declaration of condominium required written approval for landscaping changes, a dispute between the unit owner and the association arose and resulted in this lawsuit.

The appellate court noted that Florida Statute Section 718.303 requires unit owners to comply with the condominium's declaration of condominium and viewed that the declaration of condominium was a written contract between the association and the unit owner.    Because that written contract (the declaration of condominium) required prior written approval for an alteration to the unit, the unit owner could not reasonably rely on the oral permission of the association's officer or director.

The Curci Village decision should be very helpful to ROC boards and managers in communities with rules requiring prior written approval when a unit owner who did not obtain such approval argues that the manager or a board member gave him verbal permission to perform the disputed action.  However, while it's always preferable to have rules requiring prior written approval, ROC managers and board members must remain vigilant and make sure that those rules are consistently and faithfully followed.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Several weeks ago I mentioned the educational opportunities offered at the upcoming annual convention of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association at the Saddlebrook Resort just north of Tampa on October 7 and 8.  

I received a memo earlier this week from the FMHA about a "Round Table Discussion" that will be held at the convention at approximately 3:15 p.m. on October 8.   This discussion is entitled "What Works to Fill Homesite Vacancies?" and will cover a variety of methods and ideas that can be used to help communities find prospective residents.

Given today's economic climate, this is a very timely and important subject for ROC managers and board members.   Please note that this "Round Table Discussion" is open to all FMHA members and if you have questions and want to attend the convention please contact the FMHA at info@fmha.org.

Speaking of "Roundtables," I am in the process of  scheduling our first set of seminars for the "season" to be held in November and December.    We try to have several "roundtable" seminars each year in communities that are located in the geographical areas that we serve and if your community would be interested in hosting one of these events, please contact me.  

As always, we welcome your input in helping us plan the topics for these educational seminars--so if you have any subjects, questions, or issues that you'd like us to cover, please let me know. 

I'll post the dates, times, and locations of our November and December seminars in the near future.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

"Civility" is a new "buzz word" as a result of the outburst of the South Carolina congressman who yelled "you lie" during President Obama's address to the members of the Senate and House of Representatives last week.   Regardless of how one feels about the health care reform debate, this interruption of the President's speech by a member of the U.S. Congress was a shocking breach of decorum and left me feeling less than confident that our current elected officials would be able to reach any constructive resolutions to the important issues and challenges that we face.

I've had similar feelings recently after leaving several board or membership meetings in resident owned communities.   The past few years have seen a pronounced decrease in courtesy and respect and an increase in volume and vitriol.   I'm sure that almost every resident reading this has had at least one unpleasant experience with a board or membership meeting that deteriorated into a shouting match or name-calling contest.   

While no one should have to be told that his or her neighbor should be treated with respect and courtesy, the unfortunate reality is that ROC boards and managers must occasionally deal with residents that refuse to behave in a civil manner at board or membership meetings.

Florida Statutes governing board meetings in resident owned communities provide some assistance to ROC managers and board members:

• F.S. Sections 718.112(2)(c) and  719.106(1)(c), which apply to condominium associations and cooperative associations respectively, give unit owners the right to speak at board meetings on "all designated agenda items" but also allow ROCs to "adopt written reasonable rules governing the frequency, duration, and manner of unit owner statements" to be made at board meetings. 
• F.S. Section 720.303(2)(b), which applies to meetings of mandatory homeowners associations,  specifies that members can "speak on any matter placed on the agenda by petition of the voting interests for at least 3 minutes" but again allows the association to adopt written reasonable rules "expanding the right of members to speak and governing the frequency, duration, and other manner of member statements" and also allows for the inclusion of "a sign-in sheet for members wishing to speak".

Note that all three statutes require that the rules governing members speaking at board meetings be written.

It's always helpful for the person chairing the meeting to be able to remind the membership at the beginning of the meeting or prior to the time for membership comments that the community does have these written rules and that each member will be expected to follow those rules.

We've helped numerous communities prepare written rules governing the behavior of residents at board and general membership meetings and have found that  these rules do help to discourage "gadflies" and other residents that attempt to engage in disruptive, discourteous, or uncivil behavior.  

If your community does not have written rules for these situations, you may be missing an important tool to help ensure that your members treat each other with the courtesy and respect that each resident in your community deserves.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

ROC managers and board members in "55 and over" communities know that the Fair Housing Laws and the Housing for Older Persons Act  require that at least 80 per cent of the homes in the community must be occupied by at least one person 55 years of age or older.  This requirement is often referred to as the "80/20 rule". 

Communities that qualify for the "55 and over" exemption do not violate Fair Housing Laws by denying occupancy to underage individuals. 

Every so often, a ROC manager or board of directors is confronted by one of the following situations:

• A prospective resident who is under the age of 55 claims that the 20 percent referred to in that "80/20 rule" must be reserved for underage persons--in other words, individuals under the age of 55 years.
• A prospective resident who is under the age of 55 but is disabled claims that he cannot be denied housing in the community because he is protected under the disability provisions of the Fair Housing Laws.

The rules governing the "55 and over" exemption clearly state that "at least" 80 per cent of the homes in a "55 and over" community must be occupied by at least one person 55 years of age or older.  It's the ROC and not a prospective resident that determines how the "20" in the "80/20" rule is to be used.   I've always advised ROC managers and board members to be very careful in allowing any portion of that 20 per cent to be considered "underage" housing in order to protect against the loss of the "55 and over" exemption.

A community that qualifies for the "55 and over" exemption can deny housing to an underage person who has a disability as long as the community can establish that the basis for the denial was not the disability but rather the fact that the applicant was not 55 years of age or older.    Again, the community and not the applicant determines how the 20 per cent is used and as long as the denial is based on the applicant's inability to meet the requirement that he be at least 55 years of age, the discrimination--which is based on age and not the disability--would not violate Fair Housing Laws.

Of course, every situation is different and several other factors are involved in the determination of whether a community is qualified to be protected under the "55 and over" exemption.   I would strongly advise any ROC to contact its attorney when faced with any question about Fair Housing Laws and the "55 and over" exemption..

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link