Article
Courtesy of Florida Politics
By
Kelly Hayes
Published April 28, 2021
A bill that revises state regulations and governance
rules for homeowner and community associations cleared the House in a
unanimous vote Tuesday.
The House heard the Senate version of the legislation (SB 630), filed by
Sen. Dennis Baxley, which also passed the Senate unanimously. The bill,
presented by House sponsor Rep. Jason Shoaf, seeks to address statewide
standards around community associations.
In a sign of the times, the legislation updates the emergency powers of
community association boards during a state health emergency. Specifically,
the bill allows board members to attend meetings remotely and implement
emergency plans.
The legislation also seeks to improve transparency among associations by
allowing them to post documents not only to their websites, but also on
mobile apps. Similar to other public meetings, the bill mandates timely
notices be posted for all community association member meetings, not just
the annual one.
Voting records would also be added to the list of official documents that
must be maintained by the association. Associations would also be required
to provide a due date for homeowners to pay fines.
The legislation may also reduce costs for Florida homeowners by allowing
associations to better recoup actual costs related to background checks in
connection with sale, lease or mortgage of a unit, preventing those costs
from being passed onto current unit owners.
The bill was praised by the Chief Executive Officers of Management Companies
(CEOMC), which represents more than 18,000 licensed, professional community
association managers who manage more than 14,000 community associations.
“We are very thankful to Reps. Jason Shoaf and Anthony Rodriguez and their
Senate counterparts, Sens. Dennis Baxley and Travis Hutson, for successfully
carrying this important bill across the finish line today,” CEOMC executive
director and lobbyist Mark Anderson said in a statement. “Once signed by
Governor (Ron) DeSantis, this critical and time-sensitive legislation will
ensure Florida’s community associations are pandemic-safe, more transparent,
streamlined, modern and affordable.”
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