The HOA Literacy Project: Recent Episodes
Charlie Judice
Basic review of what it means to live in a Florida community that is deed restricted by the "governing documents" of an HOA.
In this episode we talk about the State of Florida requirement that HOAs produce two documents each year. One is a Budget that is usually presented at the Annual Meeting; it determines what the homeowner fees will be for the coming year. The second document is a financial report, usually produced by a CPA, which is backward looking at the past year spending.
Within 30 days of the election of a new Board, that Board is required to appoint the officers of the HOA. That would include at a minimum the President, Secretary, and Treasurer. None of these positions need to be filled by the Directors and in fact, as far as Florida law is concerned, they need not be residents. However, they serve at the pleasure of the Board and can be removed without cause by that Board.
This episode reviews the packet that all the owners at Old Sebastian Point received last week. It includes a ballot and voting instructions. While an improvement over the procedures of previous years, there are still some oddities.
In Episode 5 I talk about my 30 year plus experience living in communities run by HOAs or COAs. That included one in New York State and three here in Florida. I ran for the Board several times and one a seat three times.
Here we review what Florida Statutes 617 and 720 say about electing the Board of Directors of your HOA.
Since HOAs in Florida are Not For Profit Corporations, they must abide by the regulations articulated in Chapter 617 of the Florida Statutes for corporations. In this episode our goal is to make you aware of this aspect of the laws affecting your participation in an HOA and hopefully give you a pointer on where to look when your "governing documents" do not seem to adequately deal with a particular situation you are concerned about.
Chapter 720 of Florida Statutes in some cases overrides what is written in your "governing documents" but in most case supplements those documents where information is either lacking, ambiguous, or contradictory.
A tutorial on the rights, privileges, and responsibilities associated with living in a deed restricted community - i.e. a Home Owners Association - HOA.