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DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO RENT YOUR UNIT?
DEFINITELY MAYBE
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
March 17, 2014
In
Woodside Village Condominium Association, Inc. v. Jahren
806 So.2d 452 (Fla. 2002)
The Florida Supreme Court heard the story of a unit owner
who owned 4 units in a condominium and who basically lost the
ability to rent those units because the unit owners voted to
amend their declaration of condominium to only allow a unit to
be rented for 9 months in a 12 month period.
Mr. Jahren sued the association alleging that the
amendment was illegal. The
Florida Supreme Court ruled however that the amendment was not
illegal. In fact,
The Supreme Court made it clear that there are very few
restrictions found in the Florida Condominium Act when it comes
to amending the declaration.
Moreover, The Florida Supreme Court found that Mr. Jahren
was always on notice that the declaration could be amended and
that this particular amendment does not violate public policy or
his constitutional rights.
Finally,
the court opined that these type of restrictions imposed by the
amendment to the declaration "simply
come with the unique territory of condominium ownership. Indeed,
it is restrictions such as these that distinguish condominium
living from rental apartments or single-family residences.
Hence, persons acquiring units in condominiums are on
constructive notice of the extensive restrictions that go with
this unique, and some would say, restrictive, form of
residential property ownership and living."
One
Florida Supreme Court Justice was upset however with the fact
that Mr. Jahren lost this valuable property right after so many
years, and she urged The Florida Legislature to fix the problem.
As a result, the following law was passed for
condominiums only:
An amendment prohibiting unit owners from
renting their units or altering the duration of the rental term
or specifying or limiting the number of times unit owners are
entitled to rent their units during a specified period applies
only to unit owners who consent to the amendment and unit owners
who acquire title to their units after the effective date of
that amendment.
So, since this law was enacted, you still retained
all the rights you ever had to rent your unit, as long as you
did not vote in favor of any amendment which takes away those
rights.
There is legislation pending now which would change this.
It would require you to affirmatively vote against the
amendment which would restrict your right to rent, and if not,
the amendment will apply to you too.
There is potential for disaster if this provision passes.
For example, suppose you claim you were never sent the
ballot to vote in the first place, and the amendment passes.
You're stuck with it anyway.
Forever. You
can no longer rent your unit.
Even if you were out of the state or the country when the
vote took place. Unless
you now sue the association.
People that actually do vote against the amendment will
also no doubt be defending their position one day when the
association tells them -- we have no vote from you against the
amendment in our files. Associations
and even management companies are known to lose or misplace
records every now and then.
For example, try and locate the original list of parking
assignments from the developer to all of the unit owners.
Good luck with that.
And that is why there are fights over parking spots
thirty years after the condo is built.
Sometimes you have to leave well enough alone.
Another way of saying it is…….if it ain't
broke….don't fix it.
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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 is currently entering his 20th year as a
Florida
lawyer practicing |
community association law and is the owner of
Glazer and Associates, P.A. an eight attorney law firm in
Orlando
and Hollywood. For the past two years Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and
HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show 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 7,000 Floridians. He is certified as a
Circuit Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has
mediated dozens of disputes between associations and unit
owners. Finally, he recently argued the Cohn v. Grand
Condominium case before The Florida Supreme Court, which is
perhaps the single most important association law case decided
by the court in a decade.
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