HOA Condo Association Florida Laws

New Florida HOA Condo Laws

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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(00:20):
for choosing W FOURCY Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to the Ask the Experts Show on W four
CY Radio and Talkboard TV, where we bring you educational
information from top local experts in the fields of legal, health,
financial and home improvement. Now sit back and listen to
experts in family law, association, law, hearing laws, business brokers,

(00:47):
home care, along with many other topics. Now here are
your hosts, Stevo and Sophia.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, good afternoon, Orlando, the great great city of our Orlando.
Our offices are right out of South Florida. Orlando is
more central Florida, and we have got a great show.
Of course today it's Kay Bender Rimbaum. You know I

(01:16):
got to tell you We received so many letters from
you over the last I guess actually month. And one
thing I want to tell you is everybody was asking
where's Alan at and Alan, let me introduce him to you.
Board certified Attorney Alan swort Seed. Alan, you have been

(01:40):
a busy man the last three or three months.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Yeah, you could say that, and hopefully it doesn't show
in my eyes, but I'm here, like I said, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Eric, everybody listen when they're asking about you. You know
you're doing something good. Yeah. Really, Alan with us today
and people love your enthusiasm. You can tell you love
what you do. It's so obvious today. I forgot to
tell you on your schedule we're going to need to

(02:14):
start announcing it the first and second half. People are
upset that they miss it if they missed the first
half of the show. So I'm going to ask you
we'll be doing the schedule the first half of the
show of your coming dates coming up, and we'll do
it again a second time if that's okay. First of all, Alan,

(02:35):
tell everybody excuse me, let me say board certified a tyranny,
Alan swart Seed, you went through a lot to get
to that title.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
I did, but you know what now it's done. And
it's funny the timing that you mentioned it, because just
last week I was added to the group of people
that's now scheduling the class to teach people how to
take the exam. So from not being bored certif a
little over a year ago to now I'm helping people learn.
I've been part of that class for five years now,

(03:06):
teaching about an hour out of a two day class,
and it's really geared towards either a good refresher for
this entire area of law. And this is for attorneys,
so if you're not one, you'd be very bored, and
I don't recommend it, but for attorneys that want to
learn how to they want to learn the information that's
required to be board certified. I've been teaching part of

(03:28):
the class for five years now. I'm responsible for setting
it up once a year. So it was an incredible title.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
It's an incredible title that not a lot of attorneys
can say that. You're one of the few, and we
so appreciate you. Tell everybody about the most incredible when
it comes to community association law. Tell people about Cape
bender Rimbaum.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Sure, well, you know the firm was formed back in
the nineties. We've been around in the state of Florida,
I like to say forever, but for a very long time.
We've got twenty three attorneys, four in my office, eight
of whom overall are board certified specialists, including as Steve mentioned,
like me, one who's board certified in construction law. So

(04:17):
it's one of those. There's really not a whole lot
we don't do. If you're happy with your current attorney,
good for you. Stick with them. If one of the
things that we mentioned today your attorney doesn't know the
answer to, maybe it's time to find someone who does.
And you know, let's let's go ahead and ignore if
I say I don't know the answer to it, though,
but you know I always if you're not happy with

(04:37):
your counsel, you don't have counsel. We'd be happy to
hear from you. Those of those of you watching on video,
My email is right in the top right of my screen.
Those of you who are listening in today, it's as
at KBR legal dot com. That's going to be the
easiest way to reach me, because as Steve mentioned, I
am out of the office often. But the good news is,
just like every other nerd I have my email on

(04:59):
my f and so I can't promise a response within
twenty four minutes or twenty four seconds, but definitely within
twenty four business outs all.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I don't know, you probably know this, but because we
do so much due diligence, and I'm gonna tell you
some First of all, Cave Bender Rimbomb they strictly concentrate
in the area of community association. And I'm going to
tell you something that is not the norm. You look

(05:31):
at a lot of these law firms that have on
their shingle community association law, you'll also see bankruptcy, criminal law,
personal injury law, and it's like a total gamut of
different areas of law. This is what's so great about
Cave Bender Rimbomb. You totally concentrate in one area.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think that it allows us to
have the level of expertise that we have, have the
number of qualified attorneys that we have, because you know,
people kind of flock to the others that know what
they're doing in any aspect and area of law that
they want to practice. And as a result, our clients
also see that. You know, you might get a cheaper

(06:17):
rate somewhere else, but you're not going to get better
expertise pretty much anywhere else in the state. So yeah,
I appreciate you pointing that out. It really is something
that we do only focus on community association law. Even
when we go outside of that, it's because we're mediating
community association law issues instead. So it really is I'd

(06:39):
say at least ninety nine percent of everything we do
is representing condos and hoas and co ops.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
I just noticed, I don't know if you saw or not,
over in the comments section, someone's asking us if they're
allowed to ask questions. I want to bring something to
a lot of people's attention before we get started. We
know there's a a new bill out there. It hasn't
been even signed yet, so we're not going to go

(07:08):
into it. Once it's signed, we'll have plenty of time
to go into questions about that bill. But we've got
so many questions that people have written in. So if
you do have a question that doesn't involve about the
new bill, yes, we love getting your questions. We have Allan's.

(07:28):
I think it's been about three months since you've done
the show, maybe.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Too other events the last two Yes.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
You know there was no, it's okay.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
We just we just replay one of your shows. But
we got so many emails for you, and that's what
we do here. We take your emails and we're just
we're first of all, we're just so glad that we
have such a large audience. This is actually our twelfth

(08:02):
year with k bender Rimbaum, and this is, without a doubt,
the most listened to and watch show of all of
our fifty shows. So let's get to asking questions, all right.
The first question is from Fred in Orlando wants to

(08:24):
know do you need a permit to paint your condo building?

Speaker 4 (08:29):
Probably not, but you know you want to have either
your council or if you've got a property manager community manager,
have them check with the county to verify. I mean,
you know, that's the type of thing. It's not going
to be something that's in the Florida statutes. It's going
to be a county by county, possibly a city by
city analysis. So I would have both. You know, frankly,

(08:49):
your vendor should know unless you're physically and personally going
out there and buying paint, you know, getting up on
a bunch of pieces of wood instead of having a
professional do that, which, by the way, don't recommend it,
but you know, generally speaking, you probably don't. But I
would have your vendor verify that unless you're talking about

(09:12):
just painting a house, which still have your vendor verify.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Think you're painting a house and we've got, gosh, we've
got hurricane season right around the corner. Sure do. Somebody
asked me the other day to ask you, if the
hurricane shutters need to be taken down to do painting,

(09:39):
who pays for those shutters to be put back up?

Speaker 4 (09:45):
So generally, if it's the association taking them down, they'll
pay to put them back up. But the reality is
it's a deep statutory analysis that needs to be done.
The statute on this issue literally changed just last July,
so we haven't gon on through a hurricane season where
we really had to worry about it yet. Although the
change was made mid hurricane season last year, I haven't

(10:07):
seen it come into play where this was really a necessity. Fortunately,
being in Orlando makes life a little bit easier because
I don't even have hurricane shutters on my house. You know,
it really just comes down to that's one that you're
going to want to ask your attorney, because a lot
of it depends who's responsible for what pursuant to the declaration.

(10:28):
That determines based on what the statute says, who's responsible
for that replacement. So it's not an answer I can
give for everyone because it depends on who's responsible for
the painting and all of that.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Here's William in Winter Garden and he must have written
us for the Tampa show. You don't forget a question
like this, Allan, He said, I live in a condo.
The owner is also so called president. Oh that's not

(11:05):
good when they say so called owns twenty units. They're
all full of cats. No people, each unit has six cats.
Isn't that illegal?

Speaker 4 (11:20):
I don't know that it's illegal. There's nothing that says
you can't have a bunch of animals living in a
condo unit. But my concern would be whether it's sanitary
and whether someone needs to go in there and check
to c whether there are i'll call them biohazards all
over the place that might impact common elements, other units

(11:41):
and things like that. That might be a little more
difficult when it's the president and I hear so called
I don't know what the nature of that movement is.
But bottom line, it would be the board really that
is entering into the unit to make sure that it's safe. Now,
you might call animal control if you feel that the
board won't be receptive to your request to have that

(12:05):
checked out. If he's the president, that doesn't mean you
can't reach out to the secretary or any other director.
If you go on sunbiz dot org, usually that's going
to say who the directors are if you perform a search.
That's the Florida Division of Corporation's website. So if you
don't already know who your other directors of this community are,
you might want to find out who they are and

(12:27):
reach out to them. If they're not receptive, they don't
do anything about it, and you truly think there are
no humans but six cats living in each unit, you
might want to call animal control and the non emergency
police line and just see, frankly, if anyone is willing
to help you out on this.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
She's got that kind of money to have that many
units just for your cats.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
At a moment, I was gonna say, Steve, forget about
how many units to have that many cats?

Speaker 3 (12:55):
I mean six.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
Times nineteen, presuming she lives in one of them.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Good lord, unbelievable. Yes, we're going to go to LAN
in Orlando, And I got to tell everybody we've been
preaching this for years. Now make sure when you write
your questions, which we love, let us know if you're
an HOA or condo. I'm saying about now, about eighty

(13:20):
five percent of the emails we get now tell us
which one they are, and it does make a difference.
So we appreciate it, and you know.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
For now it makes a difference. In a couple of years,
it seems like the legislature is kind of moving towards
having similar statutes for both. I don't think that makes coense,
but it would make my job easier if I didn't
have to check which statute says what exactly. I don't
have it memorized by now, but for now, there are distinctions,

(13:50):
and they are enormous in some instances.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
So yeah, that's right.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
You got to.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Set of laws, don't you.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yeah, Oh, you know, condo and co op are very
similar as of now, but there are differences between even
those two. So you really got to clarify because otherwise
I might not even be able to respond beyond a
got to know if you're a condo cooper HOA.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Right, Well, here's line in Orlando. He is an HOA.
He wants to know can we use general proxy at
the annual meaning for voting.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
So what you'll want to do is take a look
at your bylaws. That'll probably clarify what kind of proxies
you can use. And this is where I get into
this distinction between condo and HOA. I think it's the
condo statute that says that you can't use a general
proxy at the election, but it might be the HOA
I don't recall off hand. So I would look at

(14:48):
your bylaws and see that might clarify. And if your
bylaws say you can only use a limited proxy, you
can only use a limited proxy. If your bylaws don't specify,
then you go to the statue.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Now, and here's a term I've never in all beers
we've been doing the show, I've never heard Jack on
Orlando wants to know what is a notice of commencement.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
So it's a construction term. In reality, it's basically a
document that says, hey, we're working here, but it's recorded
in the county public records. It lets everyone know that
there's work that's being done, and that until that work
is done, there's the possible right of that vendor to
have a lean against whatever property is described in the

(15:35):
notice of commencement. Those will generally expire a year after
they're recorded if there's no separate lean action filed. And
there's a lot of construction law that. Like I said,
we've got someone within the firm who's board certified in construction,
So I intentionally limit what goes into my brain to

(15:55):
make sure something else doesn't pop right out. When it
comes to construction law, I usually rely on but it
is a construction term, and I see there's another question here.
Barbara asks the president of our HOA has an association
credit card. Should the board be reviewing the credit card
expenses at every board meeting to expenditures need to be
approved by the board. Yes, you should be reviewing no

(16:18):
matter what delegation has happened regarding authority to use that
credit card. Do expenditures need to be approved by the board.
The answer to that one depends whether the board has
delegated the authority to use that credit card. Usually that'll
be by either a vote at a meeting meeting minutes
as a result of that or a board resolution in writing.

(16:40):
But if there's been no delegation, that person technically probably
shouldn't be using that credit card and having it paid
by the association. Now, keep in mind this is different
from the laws pertaining to debit cards. This is not
the automatic theft criminal prosecution blah blah blah. A credit
card is okay to use in the association name as

(17:02):
of now. Who knows when that loophole close. But the
thing to be aware of is make sure that if
someone is using that credit card, the board knows what
the charges are and that they're actually association charges and
not someone going out and getting dinner and putting it
on the credit card. And also make sure that the
person that's using it actually has the authority delegated by

(17:26):
the board to use that credit card. So thank you
for that question, Barbara.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Boy here's a great question just came in. Okay. It said,
first of all, Ann, I love the way you do
the show. Thank you so much. I'm glad you're back.
We missed you. That's got to be a cousin of yours. Anyway, Listen,
they want to know, They said, I understand you come
in and make presentations to associations. What are some of

(17:56):
the things you go over in your presentation.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
So I usually limit coming into a community and doing
that type of presentation, that type of kind of seminar
to current clients of the firm. I'm not saying I
wouldn't do it for other clients, but you know, that's
historically been the way that I've done it. The topics
are pretty wide ranging. I mean, we do the board
certification for HOA, for condo, you know I can do.

(18:24):
I'd rather not do the condo certification myself because it's
a four hour class, but I certainly you know, we
have classes pertaining to collection of assessments, Fair Housing Act issues,
covenant enforcement, updates to your governing documents is one that
I just did at two trade shows and we're very
well received. I mean, I think we've got roughly twenty

(18:49):
to twenty two classes that are approved for management credit. Now.
The DVPR just opened up. From what I understand, and
we've been talking about this all years, the DVPR finally
opened up for people to start being accredited to teach
the classes that hoas and condos the boards need to

(19:09):
have by the end of June. Now, I don't know
how we're going to get accredited by DVPR, meaning they
actually review our course and we teach it by the
end of June, because hoas have to technically have four
hours of credits or eight hours if they have twenty
five hundred lots or more. Condos need to have one
hour of credit. And it's one specific class that we

(19:32):
can teach. It's a legal update pertaining to condos. I
just don't see how anyone's going to do that this year.
But if those are the classes that the question was about,
I don't think anyone's authorized to teach those yet. But
we do have a list of twenty something classes that
we can come in and teach that are not necessarily
for credit yet, and that will be for credit if

(19:53):
you happen to be a licensed Community Association manager. So
those are the types of things that we do via
webinars all year long. And you'll hear later that Steve
mentioned it earlier what our schedule of events look like.
If you go to KDR legal dot com under the
calendar link towards the top, you'll see everything that's coming up.
We've got it looks like about eight in the month

(20:15):
of June, and I know my buddy Jeff Solomon mentioned
just the other day that he hadn't even updated it
for June yet. So we'll probably have closer to ten
fifteen classes next month, and I think I'm adding one
or two myself, which has also been dropping off lately,
and we'll start to pick up again. So if your
community needs that type of class, feel free to reach out.

(20:38):
I'm just not promising over the airwaves, so to speak,
that I'm going to drive to Tallahassee to teach a
class for free. I hope that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
How the certification glad this is now four hours where
it used to be two hours, isn't that right?

Speaker 4 (20:54):
So yes, it used to be roughly two to two
and a half hours. I know we did it in
two for Condo NHOA. Right now, it's taking because the
legislature added content that we didn't have in the class
before because it wasn't required and we didn't want to
waste anyone's time adding another half hour to an hour
to each class. Right now, the HOA one takes about

(21:17):
two and a half to three hours including Q and A,
and the condo one is required specifically pursuant to statute
to be four hours, so drastically increase the amount of
time that these classes take. And we still teach them
roughly once or twice a month, but they are a
bit more of a pain to teach now because it
takes up a lot more time.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Hey, and do you want to do Barber's got a
follow up before we go to the thank you schedule?

Speaker 4 (21:45):
Okay? Credit cards linked to the checking accountant's on auto pay?
Is this legal? There's nothing that says that's not legal.
And again, Barbara class on association credit card use by
a board member just taught that class. Have your board
watched this recording because in reality, there's not a whole
lot that I didn't mention just now that goes into

(22:08):
those statutes and goes into the decision making process.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
What about Bonnie heard?

Speaker 4 (22:17):
Is it legal for an HOA Hi Bonnie, By the way,
for an HOA board meeting agenda to list committee reports
without subjects to be discussed? There was no agenda that
had rewrite of governing documents. Well, if that committee is
going to report, then that should be sufficient to at
least have the committee give the report on literally anything

(22:39):
they might wish to give a report on when it
comes to there was no agenda on a rewrite of
the governing documents. That would only really matter from my perspective,
if there's going to be a vote on those documents
and it might have been included in that agenda as
a different item than what you're thinking. I would have
to take a look at the individual agenda to give

(23:00):
a formal opinion. But the reality is it can be
somewhat vague, it just can't be not there entirely.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Let's go to the schedule before we go to break.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
Sure, so coming up, and I mentioned we probably will
have a lot more coming up, but as of right
now June fourth in Weston, we've got our legislative session update.
June seventeenth, we've got another one in a webinar, and
that is basically the statutes that are potentially changing, and

(23:32):
Steve mentioned earlier, we're not getting into it yet because frankly,
we don't know what's going to change. Literally, just today
I was informed or reinformed that the governor hasn't even
seen these bills yet. So the reality is, if it's
not on his desk yet and he gets fifteen days
before he even has to vote on it or let
it just pass without vetoing. There's kind of no point

(23:54):
in discussing it right now, but there's a point in
discussing it three weeks from now, when it probably will
be on his desk.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Dejana has to be done by July first down.

Speaker 4 (24:04):
Generally, yes, but I think the legislative session was extended
specifically so that some of these issues could be addressed
in better detail. So good question, Steve, Thank you. June twentieth,
we have an HOA board member certification webinar June twenty fourth,
a condo board certification webinar the ones we just talked about.

(24:24):
June twenty sixth, the twenty twenty five legal update for managers.
That's a CEU, and that is basically being taught just
so that managers who haven't already taken it can take
it at the last minute and get their credits. It
will be when we say the twenty twenty five legual update.
Those are the twenty twenty four statues. So don't get
all excited that we've got a full class already approved

(24:47):
about the changes that came into place in twenty twenty five.
That one will probably come out in late July, maybe
mid August, depending on when the legislative session ends and
when the actual bills start being passed and adopted into
Florida law. It might even be late August before we
can get DVPR approval to teach that class. We will,

(25:09):
we'll schedule it, and you guys will get notified if
you're on our mailing list pretty much as soon as
those statutes are finalized.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Okay, we're going to go to a break now and
tell people how they You have a main number that's
actually good for any of the offices we do.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
It's nine five four nine two eight zero six eight zero,
and you can also call us. The one eight hundred
number is nine seven four zero six eight zero. Either
one of those will reach the front desk. The lovely
ladies will answer your call and put it through to
me if I'm available, So even if you're calling Orlando, Tampa,

(25:49):
Palm Beach Gardens, every call gets righted through.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Pompino, Bro. You haven't lost a beat yet. I gotta
tell you you're still right on. We're going to go
to break one and when we come back, we have
more with k bender Rembaum in your questions thanks see.

Speaker 5 (26:17):
Cave bend to Rembaum is a full service community association
law firm dedicated to the representation of community associations throughout Florida.
On KBR legal dot com, you can learn more about
their offices in Pompino Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Orlando, Tampa,
as well as throughout Miami Dade by appointment. Several k

(26:38):
Bender Rembam attorneys are board certified specialists in condominium and
plan development law and assist clients with all matters of
community association legal issues while keeping them up to date
on new developments that affect their associations. K Benda Rembaum
is also a well known provider of free legal education
for managers and board members. Cave been to Rembaum today

(27:02):
by calling eight hundred nine seven four zero six eight zero.
That's eight hundred nine seven four zero six eight zero
to reach any of their locations. You can also visit
them online at KBR legal dot com or write to
them at info at KBR legal dot com.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
And we are back with the Ask the Expert Show
on w Foorcy Radio and Talk for TV with your
hosts Steve O. Sophia and their expert guests.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
And we are back. I am your host, Steve O.
We're here, oh for about the next thirty minutes. This
is the last Thursday of the month and that means
cave been to Rembaum, Orlando. We have with us sports
certified attorney Alan Swartzheed and we have got so many

(27:56):
of your questions. And again, feel free if you have
a question that doesn't involve the new bill, that doesn't
even easist shit, feel free to just write us a
note and we'll try to answer for you. We're going
to go to Ronnie and winter Garden. He is an HOA.
He wants to know what is an architecture review committee

(28:20):
and whether they allowed to approve or disapprove.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
So that's a good question. It's essentially a group of
people that usually will be appointed by the board and
can be removed and replaced by the board. But their
primary role is to decide whether you're allowed to do
something on your property or not. Now it's going to
pertain mostly to improvements that you're trying to do. Whether
it's actually an improvement or makes your property look like crap,

(28:46):
it's still called an improvement. So any changes or major
revisions that you're making to your property, repainting, adding a shed,
adding another structure, changing the appearance of your property, adding
a sendoor, things of that nature. All of that might
be provided for in your governing documents. Now, the role

(29:07):
of this group is going to be to approve or
deny applications as to whether you can make those changes
or not. The statute changed last year to clarify if
they're going to deny it, they kind of got to
tell you why. So before it was just nope, you
can't do that, and a lot of people responded with
but the governing documents say I can Why are you
telling me no? And they didn't understand. Oh, but it's

(29:30):
pursued to a portion of the governing documents you didn't
look at. You can't do this, So the legislature. I
think it actually makes sense that the legislature added a
requirement in an HOA last year in Statute seven to
twenty point three ZHO three five that if you're going
to deny one of these applications, you actually need to
give the citation to the portion of the declaration, the covenants,

(29:54):
the other governing documents, which may be your rules and
regulations or your architectural criteria that says this person can't
do this, so that actually has to go right into
the denial letter. But the purpose of that group, again
is just to approve or deny architectural modification requests.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
Carry in Orlando as a condo, she's a president of
our board. Hold more than one officer position.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
So the bylaws will generally specify whether the answer to
that is yes or no. Usually it's you can't be
the vice president and something else, or you can't be
the president and something else. But if your bylaws don't
specify the president, I don't think there's anything in Chapter
six seventeen, which has the Not for Profit Act, that specifies.

(30:42):
I think you can probably hold as many of those
positions as you'd like. So preferably you're going to have
as many people as you have on the board holding
officer positions. If not, you know as many people in
officer positions as you can. So if you have at
least four people on the board, and hopefully you have
five at that point, but each one of them, in

(31:04):
my opinion, should really be an officer of the association.
You should have a president, VP, treasurer, and secretary. If
you only have three people on the board. The answer is,
obviously you have to have one person doing more than
one job. The question is do the bylaws say you
can't have the president also be the secretary or can't
also be the treasurer. So, long story short, check your

(31:27):
bylaws is the answer.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
When in doubt, always go It's amazing. So see Chuck
and Claremont wants to know if our condo owner refuses
access to a six year certification, what can be done
about that?

Speaker 4 (31:49):
Well, the association has a statutory right of access to
each unit to make sure that there's nothing going on
in the unit that damages the common elements or so
you've got that right to get in if the owner's refusing. Frankly,
I've had some communities that had the manager or someone
else come with a locksmith and the police after giving

(32:11):
notice to the owner that you're just going to go
in and you know, you change the locks, You give
them copies of the key, and you come with the
police and a video camera to make sure that there's
no false allegations that you stole something while you were
in the unit or you damage something while you're in
the unit. But if this is required and none of
that works, you might have to file a lawsuit to

(32:33):
get what's called an injunction, which is basically a court
order that mandates someone to do something, which in this
case would be to allow you into the unit to
perform the necessary inspection or repairs. So the short answer
to that one is you might have to file a lawsuit,
but there are things you can do between, you know,
send a nice email and actually file that lawsuit.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
It looks like we got another question the Chad about
governing docs and Barber's back.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
Thank you for all these questions today, Barbara. Thanks makes
the show go really quick. Earning documents state that checks
must be signed by the president and treasurer most of
the expenses for the association or on autopay. Is this legal? Probably?
It really would depend whether there's a resolution by the
treasurer and the president that adopts this practice of putting

(33:28):
it on auto pay and allowing it, and candidly, if
that's not there, all that president and treasurer would need
to do is adopt a resolution or have a vote
at a board meeting later ratifying the decision to allow
this autopay. So, I mean, you know, it's on auto
pay to benefit the association for the purpose of not

(33:48):
screwing up and not making a payment and losing services
or breaching a contract. So you know, I can understand
the earlier questions about using credit cards making sure that
it's truly and properly authorized, but this one, it just
makes sense to me to use auto pay. Frankly, anything
you can do to automate the operation of the association
makes everyone's lives easier, including the board and the members.

(34:12):
So I'm in favor of it. But again, it should
be documented properly, even if that's after the fact.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Here's Rick and Orlando. He said, I've also have a
condo in Tampa, so I get to watch both of
your shows. He said, thank you for all your great information.
We had a special assessment passed and then we got
another special assessment on the second one. I checked the

(34:44):
company out and the construction company doesn't exist. What can
I do to find out this company is for real?

Speaker 4 (34:54):
Well, you might find out who the contract is with,
whether that's an individual, a corporation, or but look them
up on sunbiz, look up their license on the DVPR
website and any other licensure website they might have, whether
that's a general contractor's license or some other licensure that
they're required to have in order to do the work properly.

(35:14):
Other than that, you know, you might even just ask
the association. If you're not on the board, ask the board,
where did you find these people and what do you
know about whether or not they are authorized to do
the work that they're being contracted to do. Now, the
board doesn't necessarily have the obligation to respond to that,
but at least you've then put them on notice. They

(35:35):
might they might be contracting with an entity that has
no authority to actually perform the work that they're contracted
to do. The other thing is, you know, they may
be subting out all of the work, which is not ideal.
Even then, my understanding is they should have a general
contractor's license to be able to sub it out. But

(35:55):
those are some of the things that I would look into.
Is not just while I looked online at one place
or I Google them and I can't find them. I
would look at the actual state records and the licenser
records to see can you find them there. I'd also
look under sunbiz to see if they're using a DBA
meaning doing business as name and you're just not able

(36:18):
to find the corporation because they're operating from a corporation
under a separate business name. So there are a lot
of things you can do. If none of that helps,
I would run it by your attorney if you're on
the board. If not, there might not be anything you
can do other than ask the association what the heck
they're thinking.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
I just got a text from a friend of mine
who's with one of the companies that your platform is on,
and it said, we have over twenty three thousand people
listening to your show right now. Now we're on seventy platforms.
That's a lot of This is one else to do,

(36:58):
but I appreciate it. Yeah, no, Hey, isn't that amazing one?
That is really cool?

Speaker 4 (37:04):
Now.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
He's a very good friend of mine and he knows
we've done a lot of work together, and he said,
I thought you might want to know this because they're
not real good about giving out numbers like this. But
that's pretty amazing for just one platform. It's one of
our bigger platforms. But anyhow, let's go to Lori and Orlando.

(37:27):
She's a condo. She's one hundred and forty five units.
Do we need a suers reserve fund. And Alan, this
is a question. We get a lot with the levels
because it's supposed to be I think three levels, and
but people want to know who have garages, who have

(37:47):
the first level isn't really a level because they go upstairs.
But she says, our building is two levels. Do they
still need a certain reserve fund?

Speaker 4 (38:00):
So if your two stories, I don't care how many
units you have, you won't need to get a structural
integrity reserve study, which is what Steve's talking about. You
won't need a milestone inspection report. You won't need to
serve you because you're only two stories. Now, Steve, you
mentioned the three stories and what does that actually mean
as it right now? It's stories under the Florida Building

(38:22):
Code the good news and I said, we wouldn't talk
about what statutes are coming down the pike, but this
is one of the ones I expect to pass. And
it's I think it's house built nine point thirteen that
basically would make it so that only condos and co
ops with three habitable stories above ground you need to

(38:44):
have these things done. So it is it is one
word that's being changed in several portions of the statute
that finally would clear this issue up as to who
needs it and who doesn't.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
Now it's is a garage considered a garage.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
I don't know anyone that lives in a garage, But
if you think it's habitable, have at it and make
it an argument. I don't know of anyone. And when
we're talking about a garage, keep in mind, generally speaking,
when we get this question, it's a parking garage for
multiple vehicles. It's not what I have at my house
that is supposed to fit too. But because my wife

(39:23):
and I both drive SUVs, fits one and there's you know,
nothing above it, we're talking about a major you know,
fits fifty to one hundred or more vehicles in that
underground so to speak, garage, or that first level garage.
So again, it's not habitable yet, but the expectation is
that in the next few months the statute will say

(39:45):
that it needs to be a habitable story above ground
in order for that to count. So if you've got
your parking garage with no way of living in that area,
and then you've got two stories above it, right now,
you're technically required to have serves. You're required to have
your milestones. If all that timing of when you're required
to have one has hit as of two three months

(40:09):
from now, you might not be required to have one.
So I'm not suggesting anyone hold off because technically some
issues you're already supposed to have by the end of
last year. But if you haven't done it yet and
you're not really sure what to do, I would suggest
you talk to your counsel about whether or not it's
a good idea to find someone to do that work

(40:29):
now if you haven't already contracted for.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
It, Okay, risk go to Marsha and Samford. What can
we do to stop investors from taking over? Can we
put a limit?

Speaker 4 (40:48):
So the answer is yes, but if you've already got
a bunch of investors, it may be difficult to get
that vote, depending on what your governing documents require. Because
what we're talking about here when you say can we
put a limit, we're really talking about an amendment to
the declaration to limit the amount of people who do
not live in the community, And it's you can't really

(41:10):
say you can't own the property unless you live in
the community. The way around this is generally gonna be
you can't rent your property for the first three years
after you match. So what you and you know you
have only long term rentals, no rentals for the first
x amount of years after you buy into the community,

(41:30):
So you're really disincentivizing rather than completely restricting. The other
one that I've seen that can be successful here is
you can only have a certain percentage of the units
in the community that are rented at any given time.
And then finally, the last one that I was it
was just on the tip of my tongue, but I
was still talking. It was that you can Nope, it'll

(41:54):
come back to me. I'm not gonna wait for your
time waiting on me to remember. But there are things
you can do that are the equivalent of saying you
can't invest here, but in reality, what you're saying. Oh.
The other one was you can't own more than a
certain amount of units. So a lot of times we
talked about the twenty twenty units that are inhabited by cats.

(42:18):
That might be because they can't rent them out right now,
presumed to the documents. That's the other one that you
can use it right, you can only you can only
own two units in the condo, for example, and that
includes all affiliated entities. So it's not well, you know,
Alan Schwartz side PA owns or or Incorporated owns these

(42:41):
two units, and Alan schwartzide llc owns these other two,
and my wife's llc owns another two. That's you know,
you put it in the governing documents so that anything
affiliated with the same people you can't own multiples. So
those are the really the four ways that I see
people trying to work around this. But you can't just
say no investor, how do you define it?

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Just go to your schedule one more time.

Speaker 4 (43:08):
So there is again quite a lot going on, but
the list is June fourth in Weston in person. That's
Mike Bender, my partner that's going to be doing a
legislative session update. June seventeenth. He'll be doing a similar
show but as a webinar June twentieth. We've got the
HOA board member certification class June twenty fourth, the condo

(43:33):
that one might be me, I honestly don't remember. June
twenty sixth, Legal update for managers that CEU. That again
is the twenty twenty four changes, which means it's the
twenty twenty five laws. And again my guess is by
August we will probably have, if not very early September,
we will have the legal update for the changes that

(43:56):
are going to take place in July or shortly after
of this year twenty twenty five, which will be called
the twenty twenty six legal update, even though it won't
be twenty twenty six yet. So that's what we've got
going on again. My guess is we'll add several to
that list. There are already more on the list, including
our Tampa show and our South Florida show with you Steve,

(44:19):
and it would surprise me if there's not five or
six more that get added within the next few days.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
I always compliment senior partner Robert Kay, how important education
is to your firm, and you guys sure do prove it.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
I appreciate it. We really think it's important, primarily because
an educated client usually won't make the mistakes that an
uneducated client will make. And if frankly, they can get
some I can't call it free legal advice because that's
not what we provide on these shows or seminars, but
if they can get a statutory answer, or they can

(44:59):
get the direct without having to pay for it, it
saves a lot of people a lot of time and money,
and they'll get the right answer rather than chat gpt
ing it and inevitably having some hallucination of case law
tell them that they should do something that's totally illegal.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
We just got a question in I guess someone who
has an electric car, how do we get more electric
fueling stations in our community?

Speaker 4 (45:28):
Ask for them.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
It's pretty much it. There is a statute that's directly
on point in a condo. I don't think there's one
in Hoa Land, but the statute pretty much dictates what
needs to be done in order to get another one
and have the association obligated to put another one in.
I would just request it. I mean it might be
at your expense, but generally speaking, if I remember what

(45:54):
the statute says correctly, because I haven't been asking about
five years, it generally says if you ask for one,
you're willing to pay for the cost of installing that
charging station in a location, even if it's common areas
or common elements. Since it's a condo, they might have
to put it in. So I would just look up
the provision in seven eighteen and I candidly don't remember

(46:14):
what it is, because again it's been a couple of years,
but it's.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
In there, Okay, Jill and Altamonte Springs. Is the insurance
companies going to ensure you if you haven't done your serves.

Speaker 4 (46:28):
So there are some that will not. I know that
there was, and I candidly don't remember where it landed.
There was a proposed change to the statue pertaining to
Citizens insurance that if you hadn't done your milestone inspection
and you were required to have done it, you might
not be insured by Citizens or the rate was going
to drastically increase. But it wouldn't surprise me if a

(46:52):
lot of condos that are required to have these reports
done are being told, well, you need to do it
ten years early before you should be required to do it,
because we want that report to know that the building
is safe in order to be willing to ensure you
and put that risk in our hands. Not that they're
actually going to pay out if something happens anyway, because

(47:13):
insurance companies will take your money happily and then tell you, well,
that's not covered. But that's generally the way that it works.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
Okay, Lucy and Longwood. We love your show. Our entire
board never misses your show. We are in hoa annual
budget meeting. When should I when should advance notices be
made annual meeting? How much notice?

Speaker 4 (47:40):
So some governing documents. And by the way, if you're
in HOA and you watch every show, I really hope
you're already a client of our firm. But anyway, the
annual board that notice will generally be whatever your governing
documents say. Some say thirty days notice, some say less. Generally,
my opinion, if you're providing at least fourteen days notice,

(48:01):
just like you would for a special assessment, that's really
all that's required under Florida law. Some people will say
it's a forty eight hour notice of a board meeting.
I would just rather have people not have the opportunity
to claim you didn't give enough notice for them to
actually evaluate what's in the budget. They might be wrong,
but again, forty eight hours is generally what the statute requires,

(48:24):
just like any other board meeting. But your bylaws, your declaration,
they might say you got to give thirty days notice.
So I wouldn't just presume that you're safe. I would
ask either your manager, your attorney or do your own investigation,
or your governing documents, and there's going to be a
portion that specifically says how to adopt a budget in

(48:45):
your governing documents. That's where you're going to want to look.
It might also be in the meeting notices portion. And
for the love of God, I hope that you don't
have to have a member meeting to adopt the budget.
But anyway, so that's again would say at least fourteen days,
possibly more if your governing documents say more.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
Let me get this final question in. I cannot believe
the show is already over. She has written me so
many times, Tricia and Orlando. Is an hoa. We received
notice that we are faced with special assessment to replace
our clubhouse and reserves. Is there anything in Florida statues
on how much the amount can go up?

Speaker 4 (49:29):
Not in an hoa, to be in your governing documents.
In a condo, there is a statue that limits the
increases in your assessments, and it's in very limited circumstances
that it even applies. In an HOA. There's no statue
that limits how much the assessments can increase. What special
assessments can be levied against the members. That's all going

(49:51):
to be based on what's in your governing documents. And
if your governing documents don't say anything about that maximum increase,
there really is none. When it comes to special assessments
if the board has a legal obligation to maintain or
repair or replace something. Generally speaking, there's Florida case law
that says not only are they allowed, but they're obligated

(50:11):
to levy a special assessment in order to be able
to fund the work that needs to be done. So,
if those reserves that you mentioned are real reserves, because
hias don't have statutory reserves, but if they're required pursuant
to your governing documents, your developer established them or the
members voted to establish reserves, those funds should be used

(50:32):
for the asset that the reserves are for, and then
replenished over time. Whether that requires a special assessment on
top of using the reserves, that I can't tell you
without knowing your community, but I appreciate the question either way.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
Well, I've got to tell you this show all always
goes by so fast. Tell people how they can reach
your office and give them your website.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
Also, Yeah, so the website is KBR as in Kbendermbaum
KBR legal dot com. Again, the calendar is right at
the link at the top, so if you want to
sign up for classes, you can do it right there.
The number to reach any of our offices is one
eight hundred nine seven four zero six eight zero, and

(51:17):
if you'd like some breach me directly, it's as at
KBR legal dot com.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Thanks for tuning in today to the Ask the Expert
show on W FOURCY Radio and talk forre TV tue
in next week and every week to hear more from
our experts on personal injury, insurance, air condition repairs, estate planning, medicare,
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(51:44):
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