Q&A of the Day – Florida’s Proposal to Eliminate HOA’s

There’s little doubt that if there is a hard proposal that gains traction in the upcoming session, there’s a lot to sort out about the transitioning specifically, which would no doubt be particularly messy in many communities.  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Have a question or topic you want to have addressed,
Just ask. This is the Brian Mud Show. Yeah. Today's
qa's we dive in on Hoa's. It's Florida's proposal to
eliminate them. This is brought to you by Wulstenes check
Mark Collections. Each day a future A listener question sent
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(00:25):
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A Today's note. One that was actually given to me
by at the Forum Club event for Governor de Santis

(00:47):
last week, had it on an index card and I
saw it a couple of days ago. I'm like, that's right,
I need to address this and the question is what
are your thoughts about the proposal to end Hoa's. So. Yeah,
Florida has led the country in population growth this decade,
which has also led to our state leading the country
and the growth of hoas. Approximately forty five percent of

(01:10):
Floridians live in a community that is governed by an HIA,
a number that jumps to over fifty percent for those
who own their home, and that's also a number that's rising.
Florida's booming population has also come with loads of regular
home construction to account for it. Eighty two percent of
all new home construction that's been taking place within communities

(01:31):
governed by hoas. So in total, our state now has
approximately forty nine thousand homeowners associations, and at the current
pace of change, it is likely that at some point
this decade, most residents will live in a community that
is governed by an HOA. That is, on the less
Republican Representative Juan Carlos Pores of Miami has his way,

(01:53):
so the state legislature has moved towards restricting the power
that could be exerted by the quasi government inies, in
addition to adding greater accountability measures for board members and
property members property managers. I should say it was only
last year that the Homeowners' Association law did just that.
With the most significant HOA reforms in the state's history

(02:16):
taking effect now this year for the upcoming state legislative
session that gets underway in January. The conversation centering around
the idea of going all the way with the elimination
of homeowners' associations. So about that, Representative Porus recently said this.
He said, I think homeowners' associations are a failed experiment.

(02:37):
It's just empowering a group of neighbors to have some
sort of control over everyone else. We don't want authoritarian
forms of government to come in and tell us how
to live our days. I frankly don't mind if somebody
wants to paint their house purple. Joel, how do you
come down the purple issue looking at the barney purple

(02:58):
or the other purple. I once had a purple minivan,
so I probably would not have it. I know, wow,
years ago I didn't realize it's going to come with
a confession anyway, so I'd probably be okay with it.
I guess when you have like kind of the Key
West five going on, purple houses can actually be just fine.

(03:18):
We've got lots of colorful homes around us, and it
works that way now in certain settings, maybe not as much.
And then to the purple minivan that will never be advisable. Yeah,
that would be like the Barney bus at that point.
But here is what Pores has yet to do, actually
propose a bill that matches his words. This is the

(03:41):
big thing in this conversation right now. He's said a
lot here, He's been saying a lot for a couple
of months now. But it remains to be seen if
he actually is going to produce a proposal for the
elimination of hoas or if he's just a lot of
talk and some of it might be how difficult it
would be to craft the specificity of that policy to
make this happen might be why we don't have a

(04:03):
bill yet. So for that reason, the conversation is strictly hypothetical,
and not just hypothetical as in, Okay, here's a bill,
and we'll see if it even gains any attraction the legislature,
let alone if DeSantis was signed into law. We're hypothetical
into what would the bill even be, And so I
obviously cannot analyze something that doesn't exist at this point

(04:24):
to tell you what it would mean. In addressing this question. Therefore,
I just have to start with some high level themes
just as as thought starters from an analysis standpoint, So
I have three perceived pros, three perceived cons, and three
neutral outcomes that I think in some instances will challenge

(04:44):
traditional lines of thinking in this process. Starting with the
perceived pros, you would have immediate savings of three hundred
and ninety dollars per month. That is the average HOA
DO in Florida, but non southward, it'd be much bigger
in South Florida. The average South Florida at HOA DO

(05:05):
is over six hundred a month. Now, you would also
have increased homeowner autonomy and property use, and you'd have
fewer neighbor disputes. I'm gonna some people are like, really,
that would probably challenge the thought process of some people.
I'm going to come back around to that one. In
terms of the preceived cons associated with this, you would

(05:27):
have less control over community infrastructure. It would shift from
hoa's to local government. The service transitioning uncertainties and challenges
would probably be many trying to figure out how we
go from what has been agreed to and what we're
currently using over to whatever is being used by a
municipal or if you're in an unincorporated area, not that

(05:49):
you have a lot of h's and unincorporated areas, but
that it could. There's just a lot that comes in
play there. And then legal uncertainty pertaining two voluntary contracts
tied to property through associations. In terms of neutral outcomes,
you're gonna have potential relocations, You're going to have fewer

(06:10):
traditional TV packages and services that are used. You want
to talk about the final death nail in the traditional
TV provider. If you got rid of homeowners' associations to
bundle all this stuff in, it's over. I mean, if
you take a look at people when they have their
own choice, how many actually go with traditional TV packages
and services? I mean it's negligible. It's associations that keep

(06:31):
those things going. And then if you take a look
at property values, this is also in the neutral category
and that will probably surprise them as well. So let's
go through a couple of these just real quickly, Oh
my gosh, quickly. There's obviously okay, So just getting down
to the legal disputes, if you are in a nature way,

(06:56):
you are twice as likely to be involved in a
lawsuit by a neighbor than if you're not, and the
reason is a lot of the HOA rules are used
as the basis for neighbor challenges. I also think sometimes
you just it attracts certain people that are wired that way,
and then you take a look at the property value thing.

(07:17):
There are some communities that have higher property values because
of the HOA and it being well run. You have
others that are not well run, have high do special
assessments that end up reducing property values. So there's no
inherent benefit or negativity associated with that piece of it.
So there you go. More to come