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A report that aired in late November on 7News (WSVN-Fox) in South Florida focused on a local renter in a dispute with her condominium association over her motorcycle. While the property’s rules ban motorcycles, the tenant had apparently been explicitly told she would be allowed to keep and park her motorcycle at the property prior to signing her lease. Three years later after she’d been using and parking her motorcycle at the property without complaint, she received a notice from the association indicating that it had to go or it would be towed.

It appears that the tenant’s response was to call or email the TV station’s tip-line, and the end result was another thoroughly investigated and highly informative “Help Me Howard” segment by its senior reporter Patrick Fraser and long-time legal expert Howard Finkelstein.

The report chronicles how Alexa Polcyn had been allowed to use and keep her motorcycle at the property for over three years until the association suddenly began “hassling our landlord about it.” She tells Fraser that she had noticed the restriction on her lease but was expressly told by the association that her motorcycle was not going to be an issue.

The association was apparently true to its word until three years later in late 2021 when it decided it would begin enforcing its motorcycle ban. It issued her a written notice that the motorcycle had to go, so the question for the station’s legal expert was whether the association could now change its mind on an exception to its rule that it had previously granted?

The firm’s Michael Toback authored an article that appeared as the featured “Board of Contributors” guest commentary column in today’s edition of the Daily Business Review, South Florida’s exclusive business daily and official court newspaper. The article, which is titled “Court Strikes Down HOA’s Rule Banning Personal Trainer From Fitness Center,” focuses on the takeaways from a recent appellate ruling involving association bans of guests from amenities and common areas. The article reads:

Is a personal trainer in a fitness center like a call girl sitting at a clubhouse bar? This comparison was drawn by the trial court in its decision to grant summary judgment in favor of a homeowner’s association as to whether a personal trainer is an invitee or a licensee. However, the Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed the decision, concluding that neither the analogy nor the analysis was properly applied to the facts of the case.

The Fourth DCA’s recent ruling in Charterhouse Associates v. Valencia Reserve Homeowners Association brings an added measure of clarity to the proper test for courts to apply when determining who may be classified as a licensee by associations.

The residents of a property owned by Charterhouse within the Boynton Beach, Florida community paid and authorized a personal trainer to lead their workouts in the community fitness center. The gym is one of the amenities available for use by owners, family members, guests, invitees and tenants according to Valencia Reserve’s declaration. When the association later entered into a contract with a different vendor to be the exclusive provider of personal training services in the fitness center, it banned the residents’ trainer from the facility.

Articles Tagged with community association rules

Important Takeaways for Community Associations from TV News Report on Rules Enforcement

Article by Michael Toback in Today’s Daily Business Review: “Court Strikes Down HOA’s Rule Banning Personal Trainer From Fitness Center”