ROB SAMOUCE

Due to many changes in the Florida Statutes affecting condominium associations in recent years, now is probably a good time to review who is responsible for the cost of repairing and/or replacing condominium property damaged by water leaks.

Rob Samouce: Condo and HOA members and employees have more privacy rights

Laws needed to get delinquent properties back on market

Last month we looked at Part I of the new laws affecting condominium associations that came into being by House Bill 995. Because the bill was 87 pages long with so many changes, we had to break the review into ...

It was a busy legislative session in Tallahassee this year when it came to new laws affecting both condominium associations and homeowners’ associations.

A question often arises when condominium and homeowners’ associations (collectively: community associations) are having their annual meetings during season. When and how are the members allowed to speak at the association meetings?

On June 2, 2006, Gov. Bush signed House Bill 7121 entitled Disaster Preparedness Response and Recovery. The bill was passed by the Florida Legislature in response to the hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005. The bill places many mandates on ...

Its here again. Hurricane season officially started June 1 and will go on until Nov. 30. Most of the seasonal residents have gone back north, and those of us left behind have the pleasure of living in neighborhoods or condominium ...

Well, in Southwest Florida, it is usually the dad who moved here from away and he wants his son or daughter and family to come visit. However, because some owners overdo reasonable amounts of guest visits, many condominium and homeowner ...

With the enormous growth in recent years in Southwest Florida, most, but not all those folks moving down here, are good upstanding citizens. Once a bad apple moves into a condominium or neighborhood, it can be quite difficult and almost ...

Being that Naples is such a booming “resort community,” more and more full-time owners in local condominiums are realizing that their buildings are turning into what look and sound like hotels during season. The pool is packed. There is nowhere ...

The question often arises as to whether someone who is walking, driving or living around a golf course has any recourse for damages to their person or property that can result from them, or their property, being hit by a ...

Although we are all aware of the incredible amount of debris that was thrown about by Wilma and quite a bit of structural destruction in some areas, we should not assume that because everyone knows there was hurricane damage, there ...

Cannot one smoke in his own castle? A recent trial court case out of Broward County says no if you smoke "too much" in your castle. In the trial case of Merrill v. Bosser decided in June of this year, ...

With the recent proliferation of real estate investor speculators in Florida, many developers and post-turnover homeowner associations are putting provisions in their governing documents or sales contracts requiring lot purchasers to build within a set time period in order to ...

Boards of directors and officers of community associations (both condominium and homeowners' associations) run their communities by rules and regulations contained in their governing documents.

Most directors sitting on the board of well-run community associations, both condominium associations and homeowners' associations, understand that (although the associations they run are not-for-profit corporations under Florida law), the associations are businesses and must be run like any other ...

There are two types of community associations (whether they are condominium associations or homeowners' associations), those with updated governing documents and those with old, outdated documents.

It happens over and over; another "vacationer" from up north comes down, loves it here and quickly decides to buy a condominium in beautiful Southwest Florida. He signs the sales contract, believes everything told to him by sales agent and ...

Although selling personal property, such as a vehicle, "as is" should make a buyer beware, a buyer should not have to beware as much when purchasing real property and the seller better beware of what it discloses or fails to ...

In Southwest Florida, it's season, and because they are here, season is also the time for condominium and homeowners associations' annual members meetings. This is the time of year that most association members are in town and therefore the best ...

Many times condominium, cooperative or homeowner associations get into problems when they enter into contracts with service providers and do not run the contracts by their attorney prior to signing. In Florida, a bad contract is still a binding contract ...

Time and time again, the question arises as to rights of one condominium owner to smoke or cook out on his patio versus the rights of an owner above not to have to put up with the rising smoke when ...

After Collier County has dodged direct hits of four hurricanes this season, the last thing Neapolitans want to think about is preparing for any more or contemplate maybe not being so lucky next time. Thus, for peace of mind, many ...

Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Senate Bill 2984 on June 23. It is a 77-page bill containing some major changes to the laws affecting homeowners' associations and condominium associations. In the last two months, we discussed some of these ...

On June 23, Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Senate Bill 2984, which is a 77-page bill containing some major changes to the laws affecting homeowners' associations and condominium associations. While the new provisions affecting condominiums do not become effective ...

Assuming some of the new bills passed in the 2004 state legislative session are not vetoed by the governor by the end of the month, it looks like certain special interest groups were quite proficient this year in getting the ...

Just because you are protected by directors and officers liability insurance when you serve on a community association board of directors, and are therefore probably protected financially, does not mean you are protected physically. Once again the risk of physical ...

The statutory laws in Florida specifically provide to owners and members of condominium and homeowners' associations the right to peaceably assemble in the association's common areas or common elements. It appears, however, from a recent case out of Broward County, ...

Although it is widely understood under Federal Fair Housing Laws that community associations (including condominium and homeowners associations), cannot discriminate against prospective tenants and new owners based on race, religion or age (except for qualified 55 and over communities), many ...

When one buys a used car, it is usually understood that, absent any kind of warranty provided by the seller, the buyer takes the car "as is." This means that if there are defects in the car, not known to ...

When one party legally aggrieves another party, and the parties cannot work the matter out because usually the party who did wrong is not willing to make the damaged party sufficiently whole, the matter usually ends up in litigation. Automatically, ...

The following scenario is an example of what can happen if a condominium association does not update old governing documents. You are an association board of directors running a condominium that has been around for a few years. The developer ...

Association board duty can become hazardous and expensive, as illustrated by the Florida First District Court of Appeals case of Loomis v. Howell and One Seagrove Place Owner's Association Inc.