By Donie Vanitzian

April 24, 2016

Question: Last holiday season our board voted to hand out money to vendors, employees, management and anyone else they felt deserved a “tip” or “bonus.” Several owners in attendance at that board meeting objected, stating “association funds should not be given away in this manner.” The association’s accountant told the board that gifts and bonuses of association funds violate IRS Revenue Code 70-604. The board said they consulted with the association’s attorney, who assured the board that such tips and bonuses were fine because courts give deference to board decisions.Many owners here have lost their jobs and others do not make enough money to pay their bills, let alone their monthly assessments. There have been bank foreclosures and the board has foreclosed on owners who couldn’t pay their association dues. Rather than give owners’ money away, shouldn’t it go back to titleholders who paid it? Is the association’s attorney right? Is it true that the board alone can make decisions to hand out bonuses of association funds to third parties?

Answer: While this question arises from a holiday season circumstance, it is an issue that has year-round implications for any bonus or tip giving. The association attorney is correct that courts tend to give deference to board decisions, but the same is not true of the IRS and adherence to the tax code. The simple irrefutable rule is: Follow the money. From where did the tips and bonus money originate? Paying monthly homeowner association payments is not a donative act; it is mandated by law, the failure of which results in foreclosure of one’s property. Titleholders pay that money to fund association operations.

The board’s so-called deference also is a “qualified” action predicated on using sound business judgment in matters directly related to the common interest development that it has been elected to oversee. Deference does not mean that a board’s actions are beyond reproach.  Read more:

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-associations-20160424-story.html

Florida foreclosure attorney Dillon Graham shared support for the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s March 30 ruling in Alexandre v. Scribner Village Homeowners Association Inc., counting it a win for homeowners’ rights.

MIAMI (PRWEB) April 23, 2016

According to Florida foreclosure attorney Dillon Graham, managing partner at Miami law firm Graham Legal, P.A., the Fourth District Court of Appeal served justice in its recent ruling against a Wellington homeowner association.

The case in question involved a homeowner, Marie Alexandre, who had been denied a request for overruling the final foreclosure judgement on her home by the Palm Beach Circuit Court. The Daily Business Review reported on March 31 that the Fourth District Court of Appeal sided with Alexandre, holding that her community’s homeowners association was wrong in proceeding with a foreclosure.

“Defending the rights of homeowners has always been my main objective, so I appreciate when courts stand up for those rights,” Graham said.  Read more:
http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/16/04/p7875704/florida-foreclosure-attorney-weighs-in-on-recent-appellate-court-ruling

By Gary Kaleita, Peter Simmons – Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P.A.

April 21, 2016

It is sometimes said that law is what separates humans from wild animals. While humans have been developing laws since the Code of Hammurabi, they have also been developing land, so much so that both commercial and residential projects increasingly encroach into wild animal habitats. Since 1990, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (“FWC”) has received over 50,000 telephone calls reporting black bear sightings signicant enough to prompt concerns. Since 2013, there have been several instances of bears attacking humans in Florida. As human populations grow and natural habitats shrink, it is increasingly likely that bears may injure people and/or damage their property.

Ordinary Care –

Generally, an owner of land does not have an obligation to warn others about the dangers of animals in their natural habitat, or protect others from wild animal attacks. Yet the law is well settled that an owner or occupier of land must exercise ordinary care in the management of their property, and the breach of this duty gives rise to a cause of action for negligence. Read more:

Article Courtesy of NewsChannel 5

By Charlie Keegan  

Published April 22, 2016

 

You’ve probably seen blue lights lit up all over South Florida. It’s part of Autism Awareness Month. A West Boca Raton man said supporting the cause isn’t as easy as switching a light bulb.

 

Stuart Tolman said couldn’t believe the letter he received from his Home Owners Association. “In bold letters, replace blue light bulbs,” Tolman said. The father of two lives in Boca Winds. He said he has a close connection to autism and he wants to help raise awareness. “I’ve noticed most people don’t know how to handle autistic people and they need to be aware,” Tolman explained. He bought blue lights through a promotion that’s raising money for the cause. He installed two of them on either side of his garage outside his house. Read more:

Article Courtesy of The Pelican

By Judy Wilson 

Published April 19, 2016

Deerfield Beach – Eleven years after fire destroyed her condominium in Century Village and Faye Adam became the face of her dozen homeless neighbors, she may go home again to Ventnor B, Unit 36.

Permits to repair the 10 homes damaged in 2005 by the fire are being reviewed by the city. Contractor Joe Marone is hopeful he can begin work later this month.

But nothing is certain. The delay in restoring the condominium units has been the result of a “perfect storm” of disasters. First, a fire roared through holes left by cable TV installers in the attic firewalls. Then, three months later, Hurricane Wilma wrecked havoc resulting in construction delays, insurance company failures and stringent new building codes. And finally, seeking reimbursement, Ventnor B homeowners filed lawsuits which moved slowly through the courts. Adam, now 85, president of the Ventnor B condo board, along with board treasurer Ross Gilson, has been involved every step of the way .  Read more:

5. Some home buyers simply refuse to consider homes governed by an HOA, limiting your market

By Bob Niedt

April 20, 2016

When you rent, it’s understood you’re playing by the landlord’s rules.

But when you buy your own home, you expect to be in charge, deciding what to plant, what color to paint, where to walk the dog. Unless, that is, you live in a “common-interest community” governed by the most local form of government you can imagine — a homeowners association (HOA).

A primer for the uninitiated: HOAs, generally led by an elected board of directors and supported by property management firms, oversee much of what goes on in planned communities of detached homes, townhomes and condominiums, from suburban America to cities where residential housing is being built in skyscrapers.

When you purchase property governed by an association, you are obligated to sign paperwork that gives that association say over much of what goes on in your new neighborhood and even on your property. You can’t say “no” or not sign on; it’s a private community and signing the long HOA agreement will be part of your ritual at closing, agreeing to pay the dues and abide by the corresponding covenants, conditions and restrictions. And for the most part, experts say, people don’t research or understand all of what they’re signing.  Read more:

http://www.kiplinger.com/article/real-estate/T010-C011-S001-5-reasons-you-hate-your-hoa.html#

By Brenda Medina

April 16, 2016

More than 250 South Florida condo residents marched Saturday through the streets of Doral to demand that authorities take steps to stop a wave of fraud hitting their neighborhoods.With posters, flags and whistles, the group of protesters marched through downtown Doral shouting about alleged abuses by their board of directors and the private companies hired to manage the condominiums.

“We want our demands heard in Tallahassee,” said William Mendieta, one of the organizers of the march and resident of the Las Vistas condos in Doral. “We have left behind apathy and indifference to unite with other condos so that together we can make one request: Justice!”

It was the fifth public protest since an investigation by el Nuevo Herald and Univision 23 in March revealed the systematic frauds facing condos in Miami-Dade County — including at least 84  fraudulent votes in November election for the board of directors at The Beach Club condos in Fontainebleau Park, and a fraudulent bidding process in which a company won a $5.2 million contract in a competition against two front companies.The protest involved residents of condos in several municipalities in the county, including Aventura, North Miami Beach, Kendall and Homestead. Condo owners from Broward County also participated in the march.  Read more:

By Jaclyn Allen

March 25, 2016

By Tom Lyons

April 18, 2016

When Nicole Onorato bought a house in Lakewood Ranch in 2012, she barely noticed one feature.

A thin, black, curvy metal decoration hung in the V-shaped space over the garage door, where it was visible from the street but easy not to see.

Onorato says she didn’t notice when she supposedly got a letter about it in August of 2013, from her homeowner association. The letter said the decoration would have to be removed.

She did see the follow-up letter in December of that year. It included a threat of a fine if she didn’t comply.

Onorato was not at all attached to the ornament. She had to look to see what the heck they were even talking about. She was fine with getting rid of it.

But she had a new baby at the time and was recovering from a C-section, and wasn’t yet married, and didn’t really know who to call for such a small and silly task. So she didn’t jump right on it. She couldn’t climb a ladder just then.  Read more:

By Ryan Poliakoff

April 16, 2016

One of the cornerstone rights of unit owners in condominiums, homeowners’ associations and cooperatives is the right to inspect the association’s records.

Some owners mistakenly believe that this right is related to the state’s “government in the sunshine” laws, but those laws only apply to government entities. Instead, the state statutes governing community associations (the Condo Act, HOA Act and Cooperative Act) provide that any owner has a right to inspect the vast majority of the association’s records, save for a few specific categories of documents (such as those protected by the lawyer-client privilege, or personnel files).

Under these state laws, an owner may make a written request to inspect official records (most must be kept for seven years), and the association must make those records available for inspection and copying within five working days in a condominium, and within 10 working days in an HOA.

If the request is sent by certified mail, and the association does not allow inspection, there is a rebuttable presumption that the failure to allow inspection was willful, and the owner may be entitled to damages (either actual damages, or statutory damages of $50 per day, up to $500).

In my experience, most attorneys have assumed that, once the written request is made, it is then the association’s responsibility to contact the owner and schedule times when the documents may be inspected. As it turns out, that may not be the case.  Read more: