What started with a loud bang, ended on March 11, without so much as a fizzle.
The 2016 legislative session which ended on March 11, started out 60 days earlier with a flurry of activity insofar as Florida’s community associations are concerned. This year’s proposed legislation included such measures as capping estoppel fees, strict requirements as to when estoppels must be issued and how they were to be paid for, mandatory websites for condominium associations with greater than 500 units and homeowners’ associations with greater than 7,500 parcels, requirements for delinquent assessment agreements that served to only protect the deadbeat owner who failed to pay their fair share of assessments, new requirements for director and officer conflicts of interest, requirements for homeowners’ associations to notice all of its committee meetings, requirements that would have prohibited associations from enforcing speed limits on association property, new requirements that would have made it significantly more difficult for homeowners’ associations to regulate leasing of parcels, strict requirements for the time of day in which a homeowners’ association election could take place, requirements that all future legislative amendments to Chapter 718 would apply to all condominiums throughout the state, new certified written inquiry requirements for condominium associations, prohibitions against a condominium association’s approval of transfer of title unless there was evidence of a significant security interest, and finally, a massive bill which would have revamped all of the community association legislation presently in existence to mirror one another and which would have required homeowners’ associations to come under the jurisdiction of a Florida agency to be retitled the Division of Florida Condominiums, Homeowners’ Associations, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes.
Lawyers and lobbyists on both sides of the aisle worked to have these measures passed into law, to temper many of these unreasonable proposed legislative initiatives, and in many instances, to defeat these initiatives, too. Yet, during this year’s legislative session it seemed as though many of the aforesaid proposals were destined to become law. Surprisingly, Florida’s legislators, to the significant benefit of association members everywhere, got bogged down in other more pressing matters, such as the Governor’s proposed tax cuts, and none of the these community association initiatives were passed into law.
Yes, I’ll say it again, NONE OF THESE INITIATIVES WERE PASSED INTO LAW!
Of possible interest to condominium associations is a new law set out in House Bill 535 which provides that “the local fire official can consider low-cost reasonable alternatives” but it is debatable whether it is applicable to the already existing requirement that by December 31, 2016, a residential condominium association that is not in compliance with the requirements for a fire sprinkler system and that has not voted to forego retrofitting of such a system must initiate an application for a building permit for the required fire sprinkler system retrofit installation with their local government demonstrating that the association will become compliant by December 31, 2019. Associations should contact their legal counsel to discuss whether your association is required to address the fire sprinkler retrofit by December 31, 2016 because it likely will require a vote of the membership by December 31, 2016 to opt out of the retrofit requirement.
Your chance to make a difference: As to the 2017 Legislative Session, it is time to revisit a condominium association’s ability to require hurricane protection and the process governing such procedures. Please provide me with any comments you may have regarding the requirements legislating a condominium association’s ability to require hurricane shutters such as, for example, whether an owner can install different protection, whether an owner should be forced to pay for new protection if they already have code compliant protection where the association opts to install different code compliant protection, etc. Most especially, if your condominium association installed hurricane protection throughout the condominium, please provide me with any comments that you may have as to what would have made the process a better experience. Please direct all of your comments and suggestions directly to me at jrembaum@kbrlegal.com.