Yesterday’s edition of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel featured a column by Donna DiMaggio Berger, the executive director of the Community Advocacy Network and a partner in the Katzman, Garfinkel and Berger law firm.

In what Ms. Berger calls an "unprecedented move,"  The Federal Emergency Management Agency  recently announced that it would end

Carol Grondzik,one of my colleagues in our firm’s Tallahassee office, just forwarded a link that answers many frequently asked questions about the pool accessibility requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.   As I mentioned in one of my earlier blog entries this year, those requirements were set to go into effect in March but have

I wanted to post two recent  articles related to the death of Trayvon Martin.

The first discusses the potential liability facing the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners’ Association as Trayvon was apparently shot and killed by a member of that  association’s "neighborhood watch" group.

The second release was published by the Community Associations Institute

Florida’s state senators and representatives have concluded their 2012 legislative session in Tallahassee.

While House Bill 319 was overwhelmingly approved, Senate Bill 680–the companion to HB 319–never came before the Senate for a vote, thus effectively preventing either of these bills from becoming law.

Whether the failure of either bill to make

Last night’s blog entry focused on the most recent version of House Bill 319 and specifically on two revisions–the addition of the "safe harbor" provisions found in Chapters 718 and 720 of the Florida Statutes to F.S. Section 719.108 and the removal of the "certification/education" requirement for newly elected or appointed board members in

As most of the followers of this blog know, Florida’s legislature is currently in session in Tallahassee.

The bill that may be of most interest to community association managers, homeowners, and those of us that provide legal assistance and advice to ROCs-House Bill 319–has been making its way through the various legislative

Based on the responses I’ve received from my recent blog entries and presentations on  fines and suspensions of use rights, it’s clear that these topics are "hot issues" in resident owned communities throughout Florida.

Although the Florida Statutes governing condominium, cooperative and mandatory homeowners associations all recognize an association’s power to fine or suspend

We’ve got a very busy five or six weeks ahead of us with several chances for managers and board members in resident owned communities to hear from us:

  • I’ll be speaking about fines and suspending privileges as well as pet issues at the Mid-Florida ROC meeting at the Molokai community in Leesburg on Tuesday morning,

My last blog entry discussed the rights of an association to assess fines and suspend rights to use facilities in a resident owned cooperative as provided in Florida Statute Section 719.303(3).   Both condominium associations (under F.S. Section 718.303(3)) and mandatory homeowners’ associations (under F.S. Section 720.305(2)) have similar enforcement tools where a unit owner or