Month: March 2008

Except for the rare occasions of remodeling or repairs, common areas such as clubhouse, pool and recreational facilities should be made available for owners and their guess. Owners also have a right to peacefully assemble. This means, if arranged for in a peaceful manner, residents have an irrevocable right to invite public speakers or candidates for public office to speak in assigned common areas. See, “The Right of Owners to Peacefully Assemble”.

Beyond recall by the association, homeowners may display a United States flag in a respectful manner. However, if the flag is obtrusively too big, the board may deem a nuisance. See, “Displaying an American Flag in a Planned Development, Condominium or Homeowner”.

If an owner, resident or occupant has a disability which requires wheelchair access, may install a ramp under these conditions:

Design, plans or specifications are submitted to the association in advance. This should be part of the application process.

The access ramp should be designed to aesthetically blend with walkways. The board can make reasonable chances to architecturally fuse or fit with existing surfaces and structures.

The parcel owner must submit to the association an affidavit from a physician attesting to the medical necessity or disability of the resident or occupant of the parcel requiring the access ramp. Certification used for s. 320.0848 shall be sufficient to meet the affidavit requirement.

Most governing documents prohibits signs posted in the community. However, a security sign of reasonable size cannot be revoked if placed ten feet from the front entrance of a home.

A Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit cannot with merit be brought against a parcel owner for any of the above actions. Nor, can a homeowner association use association funds to bring such actions to court. For more fun facts see, “What you should know about Hurricane Shutter Installations in Condominiums and Cooperatives”. To review supporting documents, click here. (more…)

Ok lets get this straight, since Florida is notorious for fouling up presidential elections, and now that Charlie Crist is our elected governor to make a difference (as promised) an attempt was made to go back to a “paper trail” in hopes of verifying true votes, as apposed to electronic, where the governor can simply add or delete votes on command with little or no detection.

In order to pass the “paper trail” bill, a number of amendments were added to satisfy the greedy legislators. One of the attached amendments was to move state primary back to January 29, 2008, which blatantly undermines the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  For a chance to regain compliance, the DNC gave a thirty day period or window by allowing florida state legislation to move democratic primary dates forward. The Florida legislation decided to argue with the DNC instead. Since Florida legislation pissed off the DNC, us floridians lost all votes for the presidential democratic nomination.

In the first place, if goveneror Charlie Crist made a consious decision to fight for the removal of moving the earily primary date, we would have had a vote. Now that the presumptuous mistake is in place, Charlie Crist is bickering with the DNC to allow our votes to count. This is one out of many screw ups which costs floridians. But this mistake doesn’t compare to the promise made by Charlie Crist if elected, he would lower our homeowners insurance. Incase you haven’t noticed, our homeower insurance rates were never lowered, in fact Charlie Crist stepped down and agreed with the greedy legislators to freeze Citizen’s insurance rates for three years. (more…)

Notices of annual meeting are stipulated in the governing documents. The minimum requirement for the second notice is 14 days prior to the meeting. It’s a good idea to start the first notice two months out. In this way, the association would have time to prepare for an annual election if necessary.

The second notice should have an agenda as described in the community documents. Since all agenda items are open for membership discussion, written description or purposes of the meeting would not be necessary.

Although rules and regulation adopted by the board can govern the duration, frequency and manner of statements given, as long as written request was given prior of the meeting, a member can speak for a minimum of three minutes on each subject.

In the event there is not a quorum at the annual meeting, the board may reconvene and continue the meeting on a later date. The opted date should be announced at the meeting and then the adjournment. For those members who were not registered at the original annual meeting, a notice should be sent and posted with the date in which the meeting will reconvened.

Proxies must state the date, time, place of annual meeting, signed and dated by the registered owner of record. Addresses are helpful for the administration. A proxy is executed for a specific meeting as the meeting may lawfully be adjourned and reconvened from time to time. Although intended to assign a proxy holder or substitute to act in place of the executioner, the proxy is revocable and expirers after ninety days after originally given.

Election of directors must be conducted as set fourth in the governing bylaws of the association. Even if a formal election is in process prior of annual meeting, a register member may nominate him or herself as a candidate for the board. Any election disputes between members and the association are subject to mandatory arbitration see, “Alternative Dispute Resolution for both Condominium & Homeowner Associations”. To review supporting documents, click here. (more…)

There are only two mandatory meetings the associations are required to hold. The annual members meeting and a budget meeting of the board of directors. The Annual is a meeting for the members while the budget meeting is a board meeting intended to validate a fiscal budget.

Annual meetings are held for the purpose of any business that comes before the members and for the election of directors, if necessary. If there were a lack of interest to run for the board, there would be no election at the annual meeting. The remaining officers at the time of the annual meeting will automatically return or shift to directors and would appoint  volunteers to fill board vacancies. If there were no interest to fill board vacancies to constitute a quorum, beware. See, “The Consequences of not having a Board Sufficient to Constitute a Quorum”.

If not provided for in the governing bylaws, the minimun Florida Statute quorum requirement of members at an annual meeting is 30% of the voting interest. Many homeowner documents require a 33% to constitute a quorum. A lower number of quorum requirement in the community documents, supersedes the Florida Statute, see 720.306 on the next page.

A quorum of an annual meeting can be in person or by proxy. Decisions requiring a members vote, such as a roll over or a waiver of financial reporting are carried by a majority vote of members present. Unless otherwise stated in the governing articles of incorporation’s or bylaws, amendment of governing documents requires a 2/3% vote of the total voting interest.

Unless otherwise provided for in the governing documents, changes of the total voting interest due to appurtenances or addition of property, requires a 100% members vote. For more fun facts see, “Sale and Lease Transfer Fee’s for Condominium and Homeowner Associations”. To review supporting documents, click here. (more…)

In October 2004, a new Florida statute had passed through the legislation that requires associations to seek competitive bids for services rendered if over 10% of the total budget. Also, if not fully performed in one year, all contracts should be in writing. Competitive bids are not required if a renewal of a contract has a thirty day cause.

Like most laws, there are special provisions and exceptions. For example, if there is only one vendor in the local county who performs unique services, such as elevator pit cleaning, foam roof installation and even chickee hut replacement, would not be subject to this law. Competitive bids are not required in emergency situations. Pipe break/s, sewer overflow, roof leak/s, irrigation pump repair (which may cause massive plant lost), and ever after a hurricane where services and materials are limited, are all examples of emergencies.

Services that do not required competitive bids:

• Employees
• Attorneys
• Accountants
• Architects
• Engineers
• Property managers
• Landscape architects

As in most cases, if standards are not less stringent than those in these statutes, then communities may operate under provisions provided for in their governing document.  For more fun facts see, “What to know about Association Late Charges“. To review supporting documents, click here. (more…)

In every new planned development it never fails, a homeowner without any notification to the board will take it upon themselves to renovate their property. They will add fountains, paved walkways, decorative driveways, sprinkler additions, electrical lighting, benches, statues, lawn ornaments and ever appurtenances to their property. In one instant, we even witnessed an Arabia tent installed replacing a lanai. All improvements made to property are subject to approval either by the Architectural Control Committee (ACC) or the Architectural Review Committee (ARC). 

As soon as a new improvement are made within a community, for some reason residents will duplicate improvements without realizing they are now in violation of the governing documents. We recommend upon signing a title deed that the new homeowner or owners read and sign a release stating the repercussions of any improvements made without board approval. In this way there would be less of a chance of document violation or violations. Also, may prevent the homeowner from making a costly mistake of adding enhancements and have the burden of paying for restoration.

For more fun facts see, “Displaying an American Flag in a Planned Development, Condominium or Homeowner”. To review supporting documents, click here. (more…)

It seems for every one out of ten associations, there is one director who had been sitting on the board for decades. Community lack-of-interest by the members is usually the cause of this natural phenomenon. Like wearing an old pair of shoes, the same director year-after-year is familiar and members are comfortable with him calling the shots.

Ideally, director membership should be rotated among members. Each member of a community should volunteer their time to serve on the board for one term, even if they know nothing about directorship. By equal participation, the members can pay their contribution while learning how their community is run.  

Any or all directors can be recalled or impeached with or without cause. The best way to impeach a director or directors is by petition. Attached with the petition should be a ballot of the new member willing to serve on the board. A majority of the voting membership interest will automatically remove a director or directors subject to the provisions of statute 720.307.

Within five days of certified written recall by the majority voting interest, the association shall call a board meeting to honor the impeachment. The meeting minutes should show the date and time, decision of the board and the vote count taken on each board member subject to the recall. After majority of vote by the board, the member who had been recalled shall immediately step down and return all association property and records. If the board so elects not to certify the recall, within five days can file for binding arbitration.

Recall of a board member is enforceable in a circuit court in the same county of the association. For more fun facts see, “The Consequences of not having a Board Sufficient to Constitute a Quorum”. To review supporting document, click here. (more…)