Earlier today, I received an email from the Community Association Institute’s Florida Legislative Alliance ("FLA") alerting me to bills to be introduced in the upcoming legislative session in Tallahassee.

According to the email, Senate Bill 286 and House Bill 575 "will have a serious negative impact on community associations and other consumers of design professional services."

The email from the FLA continues:

"As presently designed, these bills will permit surveyors, engineers, landscape architects, architects and interior designers ("design professionals") to eliminate all personal liability for economic damages caused by the negligent performance of their design professional services pursuant to a contract with the consumer.  This is done by them simply placing a ‘prominent statement (in their form contract), in uppercase font that is at least 5 point sizes larger than the rest of the text’, and, pursuant to this legislation, an individual employee or agent may not be held individually liable for negligence."

According to the FLA, supporters of these bills argue that consumers will take steps to re-impose liability on a "design professional" upon seeing that "prominent statement" in the contract.  However, this argument–according to the FLA–"completely ignores human nature" and the fact that many, if not most, consumers (including ROC boards) sign form contracts without even reading those contracts.

In addition, while these bills do not protect design professional companies, the FLA contends that design professional companies can easily "hide" assets by placing them in other entities–thus eliminating any realistic chance of a consumer or community association recovering any amounts when suffering damages as a result of the negligence of a "design professional".

The FLA’s email summarizes SB 286 and HB 575 as "an unfortunate attempt to shift the ultimate negligence liability burden from the design professionals to the consumers."

If you agree with the FLA’s analysis of these bills, the FLA urges you to contact your state senator and state representative as well as the members of Florida’s Senate Judiciary Committee and House Civil Justice Subcommittee to request that they oppose any attempt to reduce liability for these "design professionals".   The FLA asks that you include a reference to SB 286 in your correspondence to Florida’s Senators and refer to HB 575 when contacting Florida’s Representatives.

Just a reminder–if you’re a ROC manager or board member and haven’t already sent in your reservation for the Third Annual Community Association Festival at the Venice Community Center on Wednesday,  February 20, there’s still time!  Just send an email to deanna@sleuthpt.com or call 941-809-2031.  Remember, the event’s free, and that includes a continental breakfast, a barbecue lunch, and a lot of information and networking opportunities.  I hope to see you there–just wear your favorite Hawaiian shirt!
 

 

The first month of 2013 has been very busy and February promises more of the same:

As mentioned in one of my recent blog entries, we’ll be presenting a seminar for board members of community associations on Friday morning, February 8th at Oakwood Manor in Sarasota.  If you’re interested in attending and haven’t already reserved your seat, please contact either Karen Midlam at kmidlam@lutzbobo.com or Kathy Sawdo at ksawdo@lutzbobo.com.

If you are a director or manager of a resident owned community in west central or southwest Florida, you will not want to miss the the 3rd Annual Community Association Festival.  This year’s event is scheduled for Wednesday, February 20th, at the Venice Community Center.     Registration starts at 8:30 in the morning, with the presentations to begin at 9 a.m.   Continental Breakfast and a great barbecue lunch will be provided free of charge before the program ends at 1:30 p.m.  Everyone is encouraged to wear "wacky tacky" Hawaiian attire.  You’ll have the opportunity to learn about insurance issues, get the perspective from the lender’s side of the table, gain some insight about reserve studies, and spend some time with an attorney who will focus on topics that affect the particular type of community in which you reside, whether that’s a condominium, cooperative, or subdivision. 

Again, there’s no admission fee for this fun and informative event–and it’s a great opportunity for managers and board members to network with their peers from neighboring communities.

If you’re interested in attending the Festival, please call 941-809-2031 or email deanna@sleuthpt.com to register.

On a more sobering note, I’ve been following the stories about the residents of Paradise Park, a manufactured housing community in New Jersey that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy.   Let’s keep the displaced residents of Paradise Park and all of the others affected by that storm in our thoughts as we thank our lucky stars for escaping the 2012 hurricane system with little or no damage.

I hope to see you in February!

The last few weeks of 2012 were extremely busy and the beginning of 2013 promises more of the same.

Here is a list of the speaking engagements and seminars that we’ve scheduled for the next few weeks:

  • I’ll be speaking at the monthly meeting of EPROC this Friday morning, January 11 at Emerald Pointe in Zephyrhills.  That meeting starts at 9 a.m.
  • On Monday morning, January 21, we’ll be presenting one of our resident owned community seminars at Old Bridge Village in North Fort Myers for board members and managers of associations in Lee, Collier, and Charlotte Counties.
  • We’ll be offering the same seminar for board members and managers of associations in the Sarasota County area at Oakwood Manor on Friday, February 8.

Our ROC seminars start at 10 a.m. and end between noon and 12:30.  There’s no charge for the refreshments, information, and the opportunity to meet board members from other communities in your "neck of the woods."   Included in our seminar topics is a presentation called "What I learned in 2012" that promises to be both educational and very entertaining.  Of course, we’ll save time for our traditional "open forum" to discuss topics of immediate concern to the seminar attendees.   Please contact Karen Midlam at kmidlam@lutzbobo.com or Kathy Sawdo at ksawdo@lutzbobo.com to rsvp for the January 21 or February 8 seminars.

In my next entry, I’ll be posting information about a "must attend" event scheduled for February 20 at the Venice Community Center.

I hope your New Year is off to a great start!

 

 

Here’s yet another example of how the statutes governing condominium associations differ from those governing cooperative associations:

The members of a community association have just approved an amendment to the association’s bylaws.  Exactly when does the amendment to the bylaws become effective?

Florida Statute Section 718.112(1)(b) provides that no amendment to the bylaws of a condominium association is valid unless properly recorded in the public records of the county where the declaration of condominium is recorded.  

No similar provision exists in Chapter 719 of the Florida Statutes, which governs cooperative associations.  Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation correctly notes that the question of when an amendment to the bylaws of a cooperative association becomes effective is not addressed in Chapter 719.

However, F.S. Section 719.106(1)(h) requires that the bylaws of a cooperative association provide for the method for amendment "consistent with the provisions" of Chapter 719 and if the bylaws do not provide a method for amendment, this section contains the "default" method to be used.

Most of the bylaws of cooperative associations that I’ve either prepared or reviewed do provide for a method of amendment and also provide for an effective date, which is quite often the date that a copy of the amendment and a properly signed certificate which confirms that the bylaw amendment was adopted by the members at a membership meeting is recorded in the public records of the county where the community is located.   This process is consistent with Chapter 719 and gives both unit owners and title examiners certainty as to the effective date of the bylaw amendment.

Thanks to the members of Mid-Florida ROC for their questions, comments and hospitality during my presentation at their meeting earlier this week at Country Club Manor in Eustis.

Our next community association seminar is scheduled for Tuesday morning, December 5, at Paradise Bay Estates in Bradenton.  If your community is located in the area and you’d like to attend, please send an email to kmidlam@lutzbobo.com or ksawdo@lutzbobo.com.    As always, there’s no charge for the event and you”ll have the chance to network and have some refreshments. 

I’ll be posting the dates and locations of other upcoming seminars and presentations in my next blog entry.

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and look forward to seeing you soon!

Marty Pozgay, the President of Florida Community Services Group, recently emailed me with the exciting news that his company has helped another manufactured housing community join the ROC family.

On October 15, the residents of Orange Harbor in Fort Myers purchased their park.   Orange Harbor has 364 mobile home sites and 130 recreational vehicle sites and is located on the Intracoastal Waterway and the Orange River.  The purchase price was $36 million and the blanket mortgage financing was provided by Bank of America.

The unit owners’ cooperative association that purchased the park is Orange Harbor Co-op, Inc. and the association’s President is Sidney Toll.

Congratulations to the residents of Orange Harbor and welcome to the world of resident owned communities!

I just finished reading a blog entry by Bryan Norcross, who some of you may remember from his incredible reporting in Miami during Hurricane Andrew.   He’s now one of the tropical weather experts with the Weather Channel and I hope you’ll find this entry from his blog at The Weather Underground as entertaining and educational as I did–and that you’ll pay close attention to his thoughts on hurricanes and insurance companies.

I’ll be speaking at the Mid-Florida ROC meeting at Country Club Manor in Eustis on November 27 and then we’ll get into our community association seminar schedule.  I promise to post information on our first set of seminars in the next week or so.  Please let me know if you have any topics you’d like us to cover during our seminar season.

Thanks and I’ll look forward to seeing you during the next few months.

 

I always enjoy sharing positive stories about resident owned communities and the August 22 column by Eric Ernst in the Sarasota Herald Tribune is a great example of cooperative living at its best.

Country Club Estates in Venice is in the midst of a very exciting project that will enhance and increase its value and desirability both on a short term and long term basis.   The unit owners’ commitment to the future of Country Club Estates is indeed "good news for affordable housing in Venice."   Kudos to the board, the manager and all of the members of Country Club Estates!

So much for the good news.

Here’s an incredible story from a recent edition of the New York Post, entitled "Co-op Brawl":

Apparently, the president of an apartment cooperative located on Fifth Avenue in New York was upset because the representatives of the estate that owned a penthouse apartment in the building did not accept her "low ball" offer to purchase the unit.  The president and her board then allegedly decided to sabotage an existing agreement to sell the penthouse for 27 million dollars by unilaterally deciding that the apartment’s "prime selling point"–a private wrap-around terrace with city and Central Park views–can be used by everyone in the building to get onto a newly proposed roof deck.

Of course, a lawsuit has been filed by the sellers seeking 5 million dollars in damages and a court order declaring that the terrace (which is larger than the unit’s interior living space) is private.

Not surprisingly, none of the lawyers involved in this ugly legal battle returned calls from the newspaper seeking comments.

Members of Florida cooperative or condominium associations should rest assured that neither the size nor the configuration of a condominium unit or a cooperative unit can be changed in any material way without the approval of the affected unit owner.

Now that we’re well into the month of October, preparations for this season’s set of seminars are under way and I’ll be posting information within the next few weeks. 

I hope everyone had a safe and restful "off season" and look forward to seeing you soon!

This morning’s local edition of the Sarasota Herald Tribune featured a column by Eric Ernst with the headline "Tenants Will Pay for Higher Tax Bills".

Owners of real estate interests in Florida received their annual TRIM ("Truth in Millage") notices last month.  While a TRIM notice is not the actual real estate tax bill,  the notice lets an owner know what value the county appraiser places on his or her property.

In Sarasota County, there was an overall decrease of approximately one per cent in property values and most owners of real estate in Sarasota County may not see much of an increase (if any) in their tax bills this year.

However, mobile home owners who rent lots in Sarasota County’s investor-owned manufactured housing communities may have to bear the brunt of real estate tax bills to be sent to their park owners that may be over sixty per cent more than last year’s.

Here are the increases as shown in the TRIM notices for several of the investor-owned parks mentioned in the story:

  • One park in Venice showed an increase in estimated land value of almost 22 per cent per lot
  • Two others in Venice showed per lot increases of almost 55 and 66 per cent
  • The TRIM notice for a park in Sarasota increased the value for real estate tax purposes by almost 67 per cent

The article describes the rationale for the substantial increases in value of these parks and briefly discusses the difficulties that any park owner or home owner will face in appealing the property appraiser’s decisions.

Members of resident-owned communities can take comfort in the following paragraph from this story:

"We’re not talking about the parks in which residents own home and the land under them.  The value of these properties has mirrored that of single-family home in the eyes of the county appraiser."

My understanding is that at least one other county in our state has taken an approach with its TRIM notices this year similar to Sarasota County’s.

Just one more reason for ROC members to be happy with their decision to be part of their community’s "ownership group"!

I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend and that you and you escaped our brush with Isaac with little or no damage.

 

 

As all Floridians know, our hurricane season doesn’t really get under way until August and we’re currently watching a very large system—Tropical Storm Isaac–slowly develop.  

At this point, it’s anyone’s guess whether and to what extent our communities will be impacted by this system.

ROC managers (and board members that remain in Florida during the "off season") should be familiar with the drill but nonetheless, here are a few reminders:

  • Pay attention to broadcast media and in particular the updates issued by the National Hurricane Center.   During these situations, rumors run rampant–particularly on the internet–but the NHC’s website is an invaluable asset when the tropics begin to churn.
  • As I have preached in past years, unless the clubhouse in your community is a Red Cross certified shelter, your residents should not be congregating in that clubhouse when threatened by a hurricane.  Do not allow your residents to use the clubhouse to as a shelter or have a "hurricane party" when tropical systems threaten.
  • A mandatory evacuation order means just that–and if you are in a community in which a mandatory evacuation order has been issued, your refusal to evacuate is a violation of Florida law.   Residents that choose to remain in their communities after being ordered to evacuate do so at their own peril–and they should realize that if they require assistance during or after the storm, emergency personnel may not be able to assist them.
  •  Now is the time for residents with pets to locate "pet friendly" shelters.  Don’t wait until the evacuation order is issued.
  • Make sure that any item on your property that could become a "missile" during a storm is brought inside.
  • Please let a relative or friend know where you are "riding out the storm" and let that friend or relative know how to contact the authorities if he or she is unable to locate you once the storm passes.
  • Be extremely careful when returning to your home after the storm.  Many injuries and deaths occur as a result of post-storm accidents.

One of the recent issues of the Florida Community Association Journal has some very good articles on preparing for and dealing with hurricanes and you can find other useful information at a number of other sites, such as the one for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Hopefully, Isaac will be more "bark" than "bite" and the rest of our hurricane season will be safe and uneventful.   Better to be prepared for the storm that doesn’t come our way than to be unprepared for the one that does!

Regular followers of my blog recall that I’ve discussed the challenges resident owned communities face when dealing with animals such as feral cats, muscovy ducks and black bears.

Many of our ROCs in South Sarasota County (and several in Pasco County) have struggled with the problem of another type of unwanted visitor–in this case, wild hogs.

Full-time residents of Florida know that living here requires accepting that our climate and sunshine is shared by all types of wildlife–in most cases, man and beast get along fairly well.   This "live and let live" attitude was displayed in a very entertaining article about a hive of "local" honey bees in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune.

But what happens when the opposite occurs–and a landlord is sued when a tenant dies as a result of a reaction to fire ant bites occurring on the landlord’s property?

A recent case from Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals provides an answer.

A resident in a mobile home park was bitten by fire ants while walking his dog within the park and died from those bites less than two days later.

His estate sued the owner of the mobile home park for wrongful death and alleged that the park owner should have been on notice of a fire ant infestation in the area where the resident was allegedly bitten.  The park owner’s community manager testified that she was unaware of any other resident ever having been attacked by fire ants at the park and was also unaware of any fire ant infestation at the area of the park where the attack allegedly occurred.

The park owner did have an exterminator spray insecticide every other month in order to kill ants and an employee of that exterminator testified that he had no knowledge of any ant activity or reason to recommend treating the area where the alleged incident took place.

The exterminator confirmed that red fire ants are "wild animals" and that their natural habitat is outdoors in South Florida and further stated that permanently eradicating fire ants from a property would be impossible.

Other employees of the park owner testified that any visible ant mounds would be treated with granules, that several members of the parks maintenance staff would occasionally be bitten by ants and that the exterminator would be called if park residents reported "something out of the ordinary with too many red ants or anything like that."

The trial court granted the park owner’s motion for summary judgment, holding that the park owner was not on notice of a fire ant infestation at the location of the alleged attack and thus did not have a duty to guard against red fire ants.

The Fourth District Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in favor of the park owner and cited "ferae naturae," which is a doctrine which relates back to the Roman Empire and is based on the fact that wild animals are unpredictable and cannot be controlled.

The Court stated:

"Generally speaking, in Florida, the law does not require the owner or possessor of land to anticipate or guard against harm from animals Ferae naturae unless such owner or possessor has reduced the animals to possession, harbors such animals, or has introduced onto his premises wild animals not indigenous to the locality."

Because the park owner did not harbor, introduce, or take possession of the fire ants, and attempted to treat any mounds or other infestations of fire ants, the park owner could not be held liable for the resident’s death.

The Court did warn that landowners could be responsible in regards to wild animals found in artificial structures or places where they are not normally found if the landowner knows or should know of the unreasonable risk of harm posed by an animal on its premises and if the landowner cannot expect others to realize the danger or guard against it.

So much for living in "Paradise"!

I was just asked to speak on Reasonable Accommodations Under the Fair Housing Act at two Community Association Workshops scheduled for this month in Southwest Florida.

Both events are free to all community association managers and board members and CAMs can receive CEU credits for both my presentation and other presentations.

The first workshop will be held on the morning of July 12 at the DiamondHead Beach Resort & Spa, which is located at 2000 Estero Boulevard on Fort Myers Beach.  Check-in is at 7:30, followed by breakfast at 8, and two CEU sessions beginning at 8:30.  In addition to my presentation,  Rose Bechard-Butman and Wendy Shaw from Allstate Resource Management will be speaking about Stormwater Systems–a timely topic given our recent experience with Debby.

The second workshop is set for July 17 on Marco Island at the Marco Presbyterian Church, located at 875 West Elkam Circle.   Check-in begins at 11:30, followed by lunch catered by Mango’s Dockside Bistro at noon.  The CEU sessions will start at 12:30.   Florida Shores Bank will be instructing CAMs and board members on how associations can be financially prepared for hurricanes (again, always an important topic in Florida).   I’ll speak on Fair Housing and one more CEU session may be added to this workshop. I’ll let you know if and when that occurs.

If you live in or near Lee or Collier Counties, and you’re a manager of board member in a resident owned community, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to join us at one of these workshops. 

Please RSVP by contacting Mary Danitz at Florida Shores Bank by emailing her at mdanitz@FloridaShoresBank.com or calling her at (239) 265-9053.  Seating is limited so don’t delay!

Have a safe and happy July 4th!