HEY HOA OWNERS – YOU NEED TO MEET MRTA

By Eric Glazer, Esq.

Published June 20, 2016 

HOA owners who never heard of Florida’s Marketable Record Title Act, better known as MRTA, better get to know this topic well. To simplify what the Act stands for, it basically means that your governing documents in your homeowner’s association can literally expire and disappear after they have been recorded for thirty years. The intent of the statute was that title examiners can ignore stale documents that are 30 years of age or older when doing their title examinations. The problem with the law however, is that it is clear that homeowner association covenants are never meant to expire. There should be an exception to the law carved out for HOA documents but there isn’t. So for now, just know that before you do anything else in your HOA, stop and take a look as to when your governing documents were recorded. If they were recorded twenty five years ago or more, I would suggest immediately instructing the association’s counsel to start taking steps to preserve the association’s governing documents.

Before the 30 year expiration period the covenants can be preserved. After the 30 year period, the documents expire, lot by lot, and they would then need to be revitalized. There is no need to go into the technical or “how to” aspects of the statute. Suffice to say, it’s easier to preserve the documents than to revitalize them. Make sure it doesn’t happen. If the documents do expire, there is no longer an ability to enforce the governing documents, no longer the ability to collect assessments, enforce architectural control in your community or file lawsuits or arbitration actions against anyone who would otherwise be in violation of the governing documents.

Condominium owners are generally worry free when it comes to MRTA. The technical reason is that deeds that transfer ownership of condominium units always state the Official Book and Page where the original declaration of condominium is recorded. Deeds on homes in homeowner associations normally never contain the book and page where the declaration of covenants is recorded.

I truly dummied down this article to make it simple and clear. I could have written a much more technical blog. I didn’t because I don’t want to get away from the fact that if you have any concerns whatsoever that your community is approaching the 30 year mark, don’t wait too long to check, or you might fight yourself living in a community that no longer has a set of governing documents.

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About HOA & Condo Blog

Eric Glazer 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

decades and is the owner of Glazer and Associates, 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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In all my years of practice, I can tell you that the debate over whether emotional support animals should be entitled to occupy a no-pet condominium ranks as high as any other issue in terms of how hard people are willing to fight for their beliefs. I also learned that some dog owners would spend more litigating their right to keep their dog than perhaps they would to keep their spouse.

Let me state the obvious for a moment. If someone is obviously disabled and presents the association with proof that they have a dog that is trained to help them with their disability, the association better not stand in the way of the unit owner keeping that dog. If they do, it may cost them big.

Despite the popularity of the topic, many people, and even news agencies are simply using the wrong terminology to refer to emotional support animals as opposed to service animals. The other day CNN’s website told a story of a gentleman who was hired by Loews Hardware, who allowed him to keep his dog with him on the job. The employee claimed that his dog has no training whatsoever, but because of a prior brain injury, simply being around his dog calms him down and allows him to better communicate with the customers. The CNN article incorrectly labeled the animal as a service animal. The dog is certainly not a service animal inasmuch as admittedly the dog has no training whatsoever. So let’s review some basic terms:

SERVICE ANIMAL: means an animal that is trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. (Most common – seeing eye dog for a blind person)

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL: The pet needs no training whatsoever. It is simply prescribed or recommended to the patient. The owner must show that the pet is necessary to afford the owner an equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling due to his or her psychological disability.

I don’t think any rational person would opine that a service animal shouldn’t be allowed to live in a no-pet community. Service animals are quiet, well trained, well behaved and rarely if ever create a nuisance within the community. Emotional support animals on the other hand……..

 

 

Another difference….. under Florida law a service animal is limited to a dog or a small horse. Yes, it’s now a matter of time before someone asks to keep a small horse in unit 403, believe me. An emotional support animal on the other hand can be any animal at all it seems. That’s why you keep seeing crazy stories on TV about people bringing their emotional support pig or hedgehog or snake on an airline.

In fact, despite the fact that Miami-Dade County completely outlaws pit bull dogs, a judge ruled not too long ago that a pit bull that is prescribed to the owner as an emotional support pit bull gets to stay in the condo. The fears of the other owners as well as the County’s belief that pit bulls are inherently dangerous meant nothing.

Regardless of whether the animal is a service animal or an emotional support animal, the animal must be under control and on a leash, harness or other tether unless it would prevent the animal from performing its service. Furthermore, if the animal becomes a nuisance to the community because it barks, or defecates on the common elements, or bites someone, the association can sue to have the animal removed.

Here’s a new law that I’m a big fan of. A person who misrepresents that the animal is a “service animal” commits a misdemeanor and must perform 30 hours of community service for an organization that serves individuals with disabilities. So think twice before you wrap Fido in a cute little vest that says he’s a service animal if the animal was never trained.

We’re just getting warmed up. In our next blog, we’ll discuss what not to do when presented with a request to keep a service animal when the applicant is clearly disabled and the dog is clearly trained. We’ll also discuss what laws apply and if no pet communities are simply a thing of the past.

In all my years of practice, I can tell you that the debate over whether emotional support animals should be entitled to occupy a no-pet condominium ranks as high as any other issue in terms of how hard people are willing to fight for their beliefs. I also learned that some dog owners would spend more litigating their right to keep their dog than perhaps they would to keep their spouse.

Let me state the obvious for a moment. If someone is obviously disabled and presents the association with proof that they have a dog that is trained to help them with their disability, the association better not stand in the way of the unit owner keeping that dog. If they do, it may cost them big.

Despite the popularity of the topic, many people, and even news agencies are simply using the wrong terminology to refer to emotional support animals as opposed to service animals. The other day CNN’s website told a story of a gentleman who was hired by Loews Hardware, who allowed him to keep his dog with him on the job. The employee claimed that his dog has no training whatsoever, but because of a prior brain injury, simply being around his dog calms him down and allows him to better communicate with the customers. The CNN article incorrectly labeled the animal as a service animal. The dog is certainly not a service animal inasmuch as admittedly the dog has no training whatsoever. So let’s review some basic terms:

SERVICE ANIMAL: means an animal that is trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. (Most common – seeing eye dog for a blind person)

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL: The pet needs no training whatsoever. It is simply prescribed or recommended to the patient. The owner must show that the pet is necessary to afford the owner an equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling due to his or her psychological disability.

I don’t think any rational person would opine that a service animal shouldn’t be allowed to live in a no-pet community. Service animals are quiet, well trained, well behaved and rarely if ever create a nuisance within the community. Emotional support animals on the other hand……..

 

 

Another difference….. under Florida law a service animal is limited to a dog or a small horse. Yes, it’s now a matter of time before someone asks to keep a small horse in unit 403, believe me. An emotional support animal on the other hand can be any animal at all it seems. That’s why you keep seeing crazy stories on TV about people bringing their emotional support pig or hedgehog or snake on an airline.

In fact, despite the fact that Miami-Dade County completely outlaws pit bull dogs, a judge ruled not too long ago that a pit bull that is prescribed to the owner as an emotional support pit bull gets to stay in the condo. The fears of the other owners as well as the County’s belief that pit bulls are inherently dangerous meant nothing.

Regardless of whether the animal is a service animal or an emotional support animal, the animal must be under control and on a leash, harness or other tether unless it would prevent the animal from performing its service. Furthermore, if the animal becomes a nuisance to the community because it barks, or defecates on the common elements, or bites someone, the association can sue to have the animal removed.

Here’s a new law that I’m a big fan of. A person who misrepresents that the animal is a “service animal” commits a misdemeanor and must perform 30 hours of community service for an organization that serves individuals with disabilities. So think twice before you wrap Fido in a cute little vest that says he’s a service animal if the animal was never trained.

We’re just getting warmed up. In our next blog, we’ll discuss what not to do when presented with a request to keep a service animal when the applicant is clearly disabled and the dog is clearly trained. We’ll also discuss what laws apply and if no pet communities are simply a thing of the past.