Articles Posted in Official Records

The firm’s latest Miami Herald “Real Estate Counselor” column is authored by Michael L. Hyman and appears in today’s edition of the newspaper. The article, which is titled “Florida HOA Communities Installing New License Plate Reader Cameras,” focuses on deployments by communities of new automated license plate reader cameras that automatically read and record the license plate of all passing vehicles. Michael’s article reads:

. . . For HOAs and even some condominium communities, especially those facing security and safety issues and concerns, deploying such cameras at key entrance/exit points with the accompanying signs alerting drivers of the monitoring could represent an effective prevention and investigative tool.

News reports over the last several years have chronicled ALPR installations by Florida HOAs locally in Coral Springs as well as in the areas surrounding Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Panama City and Naples. A recent article on the TapInto.net news site that also appeared on msn.com focused on the Kensington Glen community in Coral Springs and its deployment of ALPR cameras that are connected to the city police department’s Real Time Crime Center.

Gil Sternbach, the president of the HOA for the community with 258 homes and no security gates or guard house, describes the cameras as their “invisible gate.” The HOA installed four solar-powered ALPR cameras to read license plates and capture images of vehicles going in and out of the two roads leading into the community.

January 10, 2023

Resolutions Aren’t Just for the New Year: Association Board Resolutions Require Careful Consideration, Execution

Homeowners and condominium association boards of directors use official resolutions enacted and approved by the directors during board meetings as a key management and administrative tool. The elements that are involved in creating effective resolutions are universal, and they should be known and utilized by all board members for every resolution they put to a vote at an official board meeting.

Resolutions are formal statements created and enacted by an association’s board of directors on its official policies and decisions. They should cover the purpose for the resolution, the action(s) that will follow upon its ratification, and the basis for the board’s authority to make the decision.

Common association resolutions are those covering administrative matters and changes. Based on varying provisions of an association’s governing declaration and documents, these could focus on elections, meetings, amenities, special events, or other aspects of association operations that may require attention.

boardmeet-300x200 Other typical resolutions are those affecting association rules, policies and restrictions. These are meant to clarify the duties and rights of the owner members, such as the maintenance of the exterior appearance of homes, pet restrictions, vehicles/parking, and any other issues that may arise as communities evolve.

September 23, 2022

Effective Board Secretaries Help Community Associations Thrive

Florida community associations are required to keep certain records and make them available to all their members, so the position of secretary as the official record keeper of an association is of vital importance.

The most effective association secretaries are typically detail oriented, highly organized, efficient, and responsive. They must be able to coordinate records and communications with property management and the other members of the board, executive committee, and other association committees.

Strong writers and communicators often do well in the position. Secretaries are responsible for keeping the “meeting minutes” for all official association board meetings, so they must be able to listen closely to detailed discussions and distill them into clear and concise summaries. The best ones understand that these minutes must be accurate yet concise. They are not meant to document everything that everyone said at the meetings, but rather to list the topics and reports that were discussed, and all the actions taken.

Community association secretaries should understand that the focus of the meeting minutes must be on recording all votes and decisions. They need only include a summary of the discussions, with a complete and accurate listing of the motions made and the resulting votes.

July 8, 2022

Effective Association Record Keeping Begins with Concise, Complete Meeting Minutes

Community association board meetings are where the rubber meets the road for practically all association administrative matters. The agendas for these meetings and the minutes that ensue form a vital record of all the matters that have come before the directors of an association over the course of the entire lifespan of a community. Given the significance of the meetings, it is imperative for effective notes or “meeting minutes” to be kept to document all of the pertinent information from each and every official assembly.

As a general rule, meeting minutes should be thorough, but concise. They are not intended to be a transcript of everything said at a meeting.

Instead, the best approach is to start by listing the date, time and place of the meeting; listing the board members present/absent and additional participants such as the association property manager or attorney; and including the name of the individual taking the minutes. meet-300x166 A copy of the agenda and notice should be attached to the minutes.

Once all of that is out of the way, the minutes should include a list of all the issues and reports that were presented and discussed at the meeting. For each issue which resulted in a motion, the minutes should include the exact wording of the motion, the names of the directors who made the motion and seconded it, and whether the motion passed or failed.

March 27, 2022

Firm’s Miami Herald Real Estate Column: “What’s Next for Condo-Safety Reforms After Legislature Fails to Act?”

The firm’s latest Miami Herald “Real Estate Counselor” column authored by Gary M. Mars appears in today’s Neighbors section and is titled “What’s Next for Condo-Safety Reforms After Legislature Fails to Act?”. The article focuses on the very poor marks that the state legislature has received in newspaper editorials from the Herald and across the state for its failure to pass any condominium-safety reforms after the horrific Champlain Towers tragedy. It notes the editorials lament that the two chambers ultimately could not reach bicameral agreement on whether to require condominium associations to maintain financial reserves for major structural maintenance and repairs, and they are certainly correct to bemoan the legislative shortfall. Gary’s article continues:

. . . However, from the point of view of someone who has kept a finger on the pulse of the state’s condominium laws for the past 30 years, the failure of the legislators to pass reforms during the session that began just over six months after the collapse was not surprising. Lawmakers in Florida as well as other states have been grappling with the issues of high-rise structural inspections and condominium association financial reserves for decades, not-to-mention fire sprinkler and suppression systems that can be very difficult and expensive to retrofit into older buildings.

It was perhaps overly auspicious of lawmakers to propose sweeping reforms without having first ironed out many of the important aspects of the proposals in the pre-session legislative meetings. They put forth many of the recommendations from task forces from engineering/construction trade groups and The Florida Bar, but they ultimately could not agree on the details of inspection dates and reserve funding levels.

Even with no changes to the state’s laws, significant condo-safety reforms are being implemented by lenders after major changes in underwriting requirements from government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In fact, many associations have already been struggling to comply with the new requirement from these quasi government agencies for lenders to have the condominium associations for mortgage applicants complete an eight-page form. For towers in their teen years that have never conducted any kind of major engineering inspections, association directors are completely unequipped to attest to their buildings’ current structural integrity in these questionnaires, and the potential legal liabilities would preclude them from making such representations.

March 21, 2022

Gary Mars Quoted in Front-Page Article in Today’s Sun Sentinel: “Failed Condo Safety Bill Leaves Residents, Buyers in Limbo”

An article featuring insights from firm shareholder Gary M. Mars appears on the front page of today’s Sun Sentinel. The article, which is headlined “Failed Condo Safety Bill Leaves Residents, Buyers in Limbo,” focuses on what is in store for condominium safety reforms from lenders and insurers after the measures before the Florida Legislature failed to pass during the 2022 session that ended last week. The article reads:

. . . Some condo lawyers argue that it was too ambitious to expect that a sweeping safety bill could be passed in a short three-month legislative session.

“I know it was very, very ambitious legislation,” said Gary Mars, a condo lawyer at Siegfried Rivera in Coral Gables. “It would have taken a lot of effort to get it through all of the machinations developing legislation of this type.”

He noted that not every building is in dire structural straits, or even old enough to be required to follow inspection rules such as the ones in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, which mandate deep-dive studies after 40 years.

“I represent a lot of associations in buildings in their teenaged years,” he said.

“They’re getting sophisticated reports” from their engineers about deferred maintenance issues such as waterproofing, balcony restorations and painting, Mars said. But the reports don’t cover structural issues.

“They may have wonderful reports, but those reports don’t give the association the ability to check the box” about the building’s overall condition, he said. “There’s not a perfect solution to this problem.”. . .

March 7, 2022

New Miami-Dade Law Requires Public Filings of Financial, Structural Reports

by Nicole R. Kurtz

Nicole R. Kurtz

The demands for increased access to condominium financial records and structural reports in Florida after the horrific Champlain Towers tragedy are leading to possible changes at the state and local levels, and they just led to a new local ordinance in Miami-Dade County.

On March 1st, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance establishing a searchable database for financial statements and structural reports, among other information and documentation, for residential community associations located in Miami-Dade County. The new ordinance requires community associations in Miami-Dade County, including all condominium, cooperative, and homeowners’ associations, to upload certain documents and information to the county’s database, along with a written registration with the Miami-Dade County Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, by Feb. 1st of each year, beginning on February 1, 2023.

The ordinance provides that the documents uploaded to the database will be publicly accessible on the county’s website, and will also be searchable. Some of the documents to be attached to the annual registration submitted to the county include the following: the name of the community association; the name and contact information for the association’s property manager or other designated agent; a list of all officers and directors of the association, including their contact information; a link to the association’s website, if any; a legible copy of the association’s governing documents; a list containing the association’s planned capital projects from the date of registration through February 1st of the following year; a copy of the association’s current budget and financial statements, including any applicable current or approved special assessments; and all reports issued within the last 10 years on the structural status of the property governed by the association, including recertification reports, if applicable.

March 4, 2022

Condo-Safety Reform Bills Making Their Way Through Florida Legislature

The new condominium safety financing requirements from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have drawn a great deal of attention, but the Florida Legislature appears to be poised to go one step further in its response to the horrific Champlain Towers tragedy.

The Florida House and Senate are both moving forward with bills that would add new inspection requirements on condominium buildings. A bill that is now ready to go before the full Senate, SB 1702 would require condominiums that are three stories or taller and located within three miles of the coast to undergo initial inspections 20 years after completion and every seven years thereafter. Buildings in other areas would be required to be inspected after 30 years and every 10 years thereafter.

Flalegislature-300x169 The Florida House has taken up its own version of the bill (HB 7069). Its proposal would require initial inspections to occur 25 years after completion, and buildings further inland would have their first inspection at 30 years. Additional inspections would be required every 10 years.

The House and Senate bills also include differences over reserve studies, which are used to determine the level of funds a condominium community needs to maintain in reserve for future renovations and repairs. The differences between the two bills are likely to soon be consolidated into a final bill for bicameral consideration.

February 18, 2022

Access to Community Association Documents in Legislative Spotlight in Florida

The market for homes and condominiums throughout the South Florida region is now thriving, and many of the area’s community associations are seeing more document requests from prospective buyers than ever before. Florida law mandates associations provide certain documents to prospective buyers, and several bills are now being considered by the state’s lawmakers to increase access to association financial and engineering records.

Florida law dictates that associations must provide prospective buyers with the community’s declaration, articles of incorporation, bylaws and any related amendments, as well as the rules of the association. They must also provide them with a Q&A/fact sheet covering voting rights, use and leasing restrictions, fees and assessments, and outstanding litigation with liabilities in excess of $100,000.

Flalegislature-300x169 These documents may be provided in hardcopy or digital forms, but digital records are preferred and can be prepared for easy access via a shareable weblink. The records must also be made available for scanning, copying or photographing, so hardcopies should also be available for use as needed. Only the “actual cost” involved in preparing and providing the documents may be passed on to prospective buyers, so there should not be any costs for cases in which only digital access is requested and provided.

January 23, 2022

Firm’s New “Real Estate Counselor” Column in Miami Herald: All Eyes on Florida Legislature for High-Rise Condo Safety Reforms