Effective July 1, 2017, Florida’s condominium, cooperative and mandatory homeowners’ associations (and the management companies hired by those associations) will have some certainty and guidance when dealing with requests for estoppel certificates.

Florida Statute Sections 718.116, 719.108, and 720.30851 have all been amended.

Here are just a few highlights of those amendments:

As

 Florida’s lawmakers "tweaked" the provisions relating to ROC "fining committees" during the recent legislative session in Tallahassee.  In summary, condominium associations, cooperative associations, and mandatory homeowners’ associations now follow a similar process:

  • The revisions now clarify that it is the "board of administration" (which most ROC’s refer to as the Board of Directors) that

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

Followers of this blog know that I frequently caution that almost all board meetings in resident owned communities must be properly noticed and open to association members.  There are specific provisions prohibiting board members from meeting "behind closed doors" in the statutes governing condominium associations, cooperative associations, and mandatory homeowners associations.

While

I’m posting the links to three recent articles for my blog readers:

  • The first story involves the efforts of a condominium association in Jupiter, Florida to use a dog’s individual DNA to help identify canine offenders (and their owners) of the community’s "pooper scooper" rules.
  •  The aggressive approach taken by a  homeowners’ association in

Those of you that have attended our seminars for resident owned communities know that I stress the importance of all board meetings being properly noticed and open to all association members.

I’m asked at least several times every year whether a ROC board can meet in "emergency" session and thus dispense with the requirements to

I’ve been spending a good deal of time recently attending the annual membership meetings of a number of the ROCs we represent and helping many of our communities prepare for these meetings.

I thought I’d list a few reminders for board members and managers of condominium and cooperative associations preparing for annual meetings:

  • The annual

Most ROC managers and board members know that Florida statutes governing condominium associations and cooperative associations allow directors to attend a board meeting by phone.  

While the statutes governing mandatory homeowners associations don’t provide for an HOA board member to appear by phone at a board meeting, if the HOA is a not-for-profit corporation

The headline of Sunday’s edition of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reads "Condo Groups in Financial Pain".  The story accompanying that headline details the severe economic problems many condominium associations face as a result of the ongoing foreclosure crisis.   The article is well worth reading and contains examples of how several associations are attempting to survive a