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SO WHAT’S IN STORE THIS YEAR AT THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE? PART 2
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published February 22, 2021
As we
said last week, The Florida Legislature is in session, and there
have been some community association bills filed, but nothing to
write home about. CCFJ and I have been working together to
hopefully get legislation passed this year that will help
communities. For example:
1.
Requiring HOAs to use the
same voting procedures as condos do. In order for an HOA
election to occur, there needs to be a quorum of owners in
attendance at the annual meeting either in person or by proxy.
Many times a quorum is not obtained and the board rolls
over……again. In a condo, the election counts as long as 20% of
the unit owners participate in the voting process. The condo
election process is also more detailed, does not allow for
nominating committees and is more reliable than the HOA system.
2.
Both the condominium
statute and the HOA statute allow the association to levy fines
for the failure of the owner of the unit or its occupant,
licensee, or invitee to comply with any provision of the
declaration, the association bylaws, or reasonable rules of the
association. Each require the Board to levy the fine and a
separate committee to impose the fine. There is however one
big difference between the two types of communities. In a
condo, the fine cannot become a lien on the unit. This means
that the Board cannot foreclose on the condominium unit for the
owner’s failure to pay the fine. However, the HOA statute says
that
A fine of less than
$1,000 may not become a lien against a parcel. So, in
an HOA, once an owner owes $1,000.00 in fines, the association
can file a lien against the unit and then file a foreclosure
action. You could literally lose your home because of a
violation.
The proposed legislation would remove the ability of an HOA to
foreclose on a fine. This is just another example where the
laws between condominiums and HOAs are different regarding the
same subject matter, for no apparent reason. Why should owners
in an HOA be at risk of foreclosure for failing to pay a fine
and condo owners not have the same risk? Then again, why does
the condo statute require a unit owner to ask for access to the
official records in writing, but the HOA statute requires HOA
owners to send their request by certified mail, return receipt
requested? What is the logic in having 2 different methods?
In any event, as I said last week, if you are in favor of last
week’s proposals or this week’s proposals, please contact:
Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez
District Office
8401 Northwest 53rd
Terrace
Suite 107
Doral, FL 33166
(305) 470-2552
Legislative
Assistants: Lia Duran and Luke Strominger
Secretaries: Mark
Caraher and Arian Monzon
Tallahassee Office
318 Senate Building
404 South Monroe
Street
Tallahassee, FL
32399-1100
(850) 487-5039
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from
the University of Miami School of Law in 1992 after
receiving a B.A. from NYU. He has practiced community
association law for more than 2
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decades and is the owner of Glazer
and Sachs, P.A. a seven attorney law firm with offices in
Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and satellite offices in Naples,
Fort Myers and Tampa.
Since 2009, Eric has been the host
of Condo Craze and HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show that airs
at noon each Sunday on 850 WFTL.
See:
www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the
State of Florida that designed a course that certifies
condominium residents as eligible to serve on a condominium
Board of Directors and has now certified more than 10,000
Floridians all across the state. He is certified as a Circuit
Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has mediated
dozens of disputes between associations and unit owners. Eric
also devotes significant time to advancing legislation in the
best interest of Florida community association members.
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