Boca West: the master association, the Country Club and what matters at closing

Three:

• The master, Boca West Master Association, Inc. It certifies the Initial Capital Contribution and any master fine or charge against the home, and issues the Certificate of Compliance that has to be recorded with the deed. Its by-laws oblige the Board to issue, "upon demand by any Lot owner, a certificate setting forth whether any assessment has been paid" (By-Laws § 5.2(d), OR 31471/759, p. 43). As of 5 October 2026 the master had not published how it takes estoppel or Certificate of Compliance requests, how long they take, or what it charges for them; we ask when we order.
• The Village association. Master assessments are billed to the Villages, which collect them with their own assessments and pay the master monthly; the owner and the Village are each liable for them (Declaration Art. V §§ 2, 12, OR 31471/759, pp. 8, 12). A Village may take a "forbearance" on a delinquent home and stop paying the master's share, after which the two share any later payment, including one made at a sale (Art. V § 12(f), (i), pp. 12–15). The Village estoppel should show the master's assessments as well as its own, and the master's should confirm there is no forbearance on the home. The master's website lists each Village's management company (checked 5 October 2026):

A Village can change managers without recording anything, so we confirm the manager when we order the estoppel.

• The Country Club, for the seller's Club account and the buyer's Joining Fee. The Club's rules make the buyer liable for the seller's Club balance (see the Club section).

A homeowners' association must issue an estoppel certificate within 10 business days of a written or electronic request (Fla. Stat. § 720.30851); the fee caps, and what happens when an association is late, are on our page about HOA approvals and estoppels.

What the master bills for 2026/2027. The master's adopted budget (not recorded) raises its assessment rolls 6.38%, to $8,600,455, spread among the Villages by assessed value as By-Laws § 7.2(b) provides (OR 31471/759, pp. 46–47). On top of a Village's share, every residential unit pays $22.12 a month for the on-site ambulance service and $135.92 a month for bulk cable and internet, the cable rising 4% for August and September 2027. Averaged per unit, the three together run from $207.02 to $1,541.13 a month depending on the Village. What a particular home owes depends on how its Village spreads the charge; the Village estoppel governs.

Two approvals stand between a contract and a closing.

The master's Certificate of Compliance. Since 29 April 2003, "no instrument purporting to transfer an interest in, or title to, a residential Lot shall be effective unless Master Association shall certify compliance", which it does "only by recordation of a Certificate of Compliance in the Public Records of Palm Beach County, Florida, executed by an officer of Master Association" (Declaration Art. V § 1, OR 15135/486, p. 5; Art. I(e), OR 31471/759, p. 5). The master's review is "ministerial only": it checks that the home's charges to the master are paid, that the home is not otherwise in violation, and that the buyer will not violate the declaration, "including without limitation the restrictions found in Article VIII, Section 7" — the Country Club requirement (OR 15135/486, p. 5). No certificate is needed for a transfer to a surviving spouse by operation of law, to a former spouse under a divorce decree, or to a spouse, child, son-in-law or daughter-in-law by a bona fide estate planning device (Declaration Art. I(e)1, OR 20974/1925, p. 3).

The Country Club's Board of Governors. The Club's rules require the selling member, before closing, to notify the Membership Department, to obtain "a written affirmation from the Chairperson of the Membership Committee confirming that the buyer's nomination for membership has been approved by the Board of Governors", and to make sure the contract "includes a clause which expressly provides that obtaining such written affirmation … will be a condition precedent to closing"; a contract without it "shall be deemed a non-bona fide offer" (Club Rules III.A.1.b, not recorded). The Club's Board has "absolute and complete discretion" apart from race, color, religion, gender or national origin, after credit, criminal and litigation checks, and its rules give it up to 45 days for a United States resident and 60 days otherwise from complete nomination forms and fees (Club Rules III.A.1, III.A.4, not recorded). Members must also tell the Membership Department before listing a home on the MLS (Club Rules III.M, not recorded).

If the Club rejects the buyer, the recorded declaration sets out what happens (Declaration Art. VIII § 7 E, OR 15135/486, pp. 6–7):

1. the seller notifies the master in writing;
2. within 30 days the master delivers an agreement to buy the home, signed by a purchaser it chooses — which "may be Country Club or Master Association itself" — and the seller "must sell" to it;
3. the price is the bona fide price in the rejected buyer's contract, paid in cash or on that contract's terms, and a dispute over whether the price is bona fide goes to three appraisers;
4. closing is on the later of 45 days after the agreement is delivered (or 30 days after an appraised price) and the original contract's closing date;
5. if the master provides no purchaser, or its purchaser defaults, the sale to the rejected buyer "may close and the transaction will be deemed to be in compliance".

A Boca West contract should provide for both approvals and for this substitution.

Yes. "A person or a corporation, partnership, trust or other entity obtaining title to a residential Lot is required, as a use restriction incident to ownership in the Boca West community, to become a member of the Country Club" (Declaration Art. VIII § 7, OR 15135/486, pp. 5–6). The terms of membership are in the Club's own documents, which are not recorded.

• Who is exempt. Owners of record on 29 April 2003 who were not members need not join, but anyone they sell to must. The master, a Village association or the Club taking a home by foreclosure or deed in lieu need not join; whoever buys from them must, and so must a buyer at a clerk's, sheriff's or tax sale (Art. VIII § 7 A–B, OR 15135/486, p. 6).
• Lenders. For mortgages recorded after 3 May 2017, an institutional lender that takes title is exempt only if its loan was first made at least 18 months before it became the owner, and the exemption does not pass to anyone who buys from it (Art. VIII § 7 B, OR 29061/1072, p. 4). A bank-owned resale buyer must join. A private lender that forecloses does not qualify as a "Mortgagee" under the declaration and is not exempt (Art. I(i), OR 31471/759, p. 6).
• The Joining Fee. The Club gives its Joining Fee for new members as $150,000 — "Equity $100.00 / Non-refundable Joining Fee $149,900.00" — "collected at the closing along with Membership Dues", and says it "does not include the Master Association or HOA requirements" (Club letter dated October 2024, not recorded). Children and grandchildren of members pay $135,000, with $27,000 at closing and the rest over four years. These are the latest figures the Club has published: as of 5 October 2026 it had published no later ones, and neither its public website nor Boca West Realty's gives a figure. We confirm the fee with the Club on every file.
• Dues. Social membership, the base every owner holds, was $24,454.85 a year for 2025/2026, with golf and racquet sports as add-ons, all including sales tax; the buyer pays Social dues from the date of closing (Club 2025/2026 Schedule of Annual Dues and FAQ, not recorded). As of 5 October 2026 the Club had not published its dues for 2026/2027, the membership year that began on 1 October 2026.
• The buyer owes the seller's Club balance. "The nominee is liable for any Club related outstanding fees/balances that are associated with and due from the owner of the property that the nominee is purchasing" (Club Rules III.A.7, not recorded). Order the Club's payoff with the estoppels.
• The seller's refund. On receipt of the buyer's Joining Fees the Club repays the seller 80% of the seller's own Equity Payment within 30 days, less anything the seller owes the Club; the seller owes the full year's dues for the membership year of the closing, except one month's for an October closing (Club Rules III.A.5, III.N, not recorded). On the current terms a new member's Equity Payment is $100, so the refund can be small; members who joined earlier may have paid more.
• Entity buyers. An LLC, corporation, partnership, trust or tenancy in common must qualify for membership, identify the people behind it and designate one person or family a year to use the Club, and it and the designee are jointly and severally liable under a guaranty "signed or not" (Club Rules III.K, not recorded).
• A second home within 75 miles. An owner since 1 October 2000 who owns or lives in another home within 75 miles of Boca West is limited to Social privileges unless the Club grants more under a "75 Mile Agreement" — and then may not lease the Boca West home at all (Club Rules III.J, not recorded).

To the master, an Initial Capital Contribution, paid by "Each Lot purchaser or transferee … including all Lots purchased by resale or other transfer of record title" into a capital fund that "is not a reserve account" (Declaration Art. V § 13, OR 36464/632, p. 2):

The 2026 amendment then says: "Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Association presently intends to initially maintain the Capital Contribution at Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000.00)" (OR 36464/632, p. 2), and the Board may set the amount by resolution within the cap. The master's 28 January 2026 minutes record that the Board "requested an increase of $25,000 but with the commitment not to use more than $20,000 for the immediate future", and its adopted 2026/2027 capital budget counts each sale at $20,000 (neither recorded). As of 5 October 2026 the master had not published a resolution setting the amount, and the Board minutes on its website stop at 9 June 2026 apart from the budget meeting's, so on every file we take the figure from the master in writing.

If it is not collected at closing it can be assessed against the owner, with a claim of lien (OR 36464/632, p. 3). No contribution is charged on a transfer to the master, a Village or the Club, or to an institutional lender, by foreclosure, deed in lieu or otherwise (a buyer from any of them pays); to an approved Club "Renovator" while it stays approved; to a parent, spouse, child, sibling or grandchild, or to a family trust for them or for bona fide estate planning; between spouses under a divorce judgment; to an owner buying an adjacent unit under the Club's combining program; or to an owner buying another home in Boca West within 12 months of selling their existing one (OR 36464/632, pp. 2–3; OR 34731/1849, p. 3).

To the Country Club, the Joining Fee and prorated dues described above.

To the Village, whatever its own documents charge. We hold only one Village's: Baywood (Bay Wood Townhomes) recorded an amendment on 25 August 2026, adopted by written consent of its members, that makes a Working Capital Contribution "payable by the Owner who acquires ti[tle]" on "the sale of each Lot, including on any r[esale]", with exceptions for foreclosure by the association or a mortgagee, transfers to immediate family, estate planning and divorce (OR 36743/601–602). Our copy of the recorded page is cut off at the right, so it does not show the amount; on a Baywood closing we take it from the association's estoppel and pull a complete copy.

Yes, within the master's limits, adopted in the 2020 restatement (Declaration Art. VIII § 9, OR 31471/759, pp. 20–22):

• No lease in the first 12 months. "No Lot Owner other than the Master Association, a Member Village Association, the Country Club, or the owner of the Commercial Parcel may lease his or her Lot or any portion of his, her, or its Lot within the first twelve (12) months of ownership." The master may evict a tenant in violation, at the owner's cost.
• Nothing shorter than four months, and no advertising for shorter terms.
• Long-stay guests count as tenants. A guest who stays more than 30 days in a calendar year while the owner is away needs the master's approval to stay longer; close family are excepted.
• Background checks and a master veto. A Village that approves leases must run a criminal background check on every tenant 18 or older, through a provider the master approves, and send the results to the master. A tenant convicted of certain felonies whose civil rights have not been restored for at least five years may not live in Boca West, and the master has ten days to "intervene and disapprove the tenancy", on criteria that "may be different and more restrictive" than the Village's.
• The Village's own approval, minimum term and fees come on top, and so do the Club's rules for tenants who want Club privileges: a lease of at least 120 days, no more than two membership years in total per unit, screening, a $2,000 escrow deposit and a year's lessee dues (Club Rules V, not recorded). An owner granted extra privileges under a 75 Mile Agreement may not lease at all.

Leasing rules adopted after 1 July 2021. A rental amendment enacted after that date generally binds only owners who take title after it, or who consent to it (Fla. Stat. § 720.306(1)(h)). The master's rules were recorded on 4 June 2020 and bind every owner. A rule recorded after 5 October 2026 would not be on this page, so for an investor buyer we search forward from that date before saying what applies.

• The buyer owes what the seller did not pay. "The current Lot Owner shall be jointly and severally liable with any previous Owner(s) of the Lot for all unpaid assessments, interest, costs and attorneys' fees that came due prior to the time the current Lot Owner acquired title" (Declaration Art. V § 3, OR 31471/759, p. 9), and Chapter 720 says the same (Fla. Stat. § 720.3085(2)(b)). The estoppels protect the buyer, not the lien search.
• Master fines over $1,000 are a lien with nothing recorded. "Any fines exceeding $1,000.00 in aggregate, when levied against a Lot Owner, shall automatically become a lien against the Owner's Lot whether or not a claim of lien is recorded" (Declaration Art. VIII § 11(a), OR 31471/759, pp. 22–23). Ask the master's estoppel about fines. A fine under $1,000 may not become a lien (Fla. Stat. § 720.305(2)).
• Other charges the master's lien secures: the cost of the ambulance service, exterior maintenance the master performs on a home, the cost of evicting a tenant in violation, and an unpaid Initial Capital Contribution (Declaration Art. V § 3, Art. VI § 2, Art. VIII § 9(a), OR 31471/759, pp. 9, 16, 20; OR 36464/632, p. 3).
• Bank-owned resales. For first mortgages made after 3 June 2020 the master's lien is subordinate to a qualifying institutional lender's, but only for assessments due before the foreclosure sale or deed in lieu, and the master's written opinion on subordination "shall be dispositive"; for mortgages recorded after 16 December 2013, Chapter 720 governs the lender's liability for earlier assessments (Declaration Art. V § 9, OR 31471/759, p. 11). Which rule governs a particular sale is for underwriting; the estoppel shows what the master is claiming.
• Club liens. The Club's rules say an account unpaid for more than 60 days "will be subject to a lien, which will be recorded in the official records of Palm Beach County" (Club Rules VI.C.2, not recorded); its 2003 By-Laws describe a lien on the Membership, not the home. We search for Club liens against the seller anyway.
• Courtside Units 1102 and 1104 are bound together. In 2025 the Club unified the two units "in consideration of the issuance of a permit"; neither may be sold separately until the County releases the unity of title in writing (OR 35471/744, pp. 1, 3).
• A Boca Raton address, but county land. Boca West homes have Boca Raton mailing addresses, but Boca West lies in unincorporated Palm Beach County, not within the City of Boca Raton; its master plat was approved by the County Commission (PB 64/196). Code enforcement and other government liens on a Boca West home are therefore the County's, and we run the municipal lien search with Palm Beach County, not the City.
• The declaration has been preserved. The master recorded a preservation notice under the Marketable Record Title Act on 6 August 2002 (OR 13998/879), which keeps the covenants it lists for 30 years, to 6 August 2032 (Fla. Stat. § 712.05).
• The declaration can change without a vote of owners. The voters are the Villages, the Club and the commercial parcel's owner, and recent amendments were adopted by two-thirds of their voting interests by written consent (for example OR 36464/632, pp. 1–2). A search on 5 October 2026 found no master instrument recorded after 21 April 2026, and we search forward again on every file.
• An amendment we do not hold. The January 2002 amendment that first made a buyer liable for a seller's assessments (OR 13298/1165) is in our set only as a copy inside the 2002 preservation notice. Its rule was carried into the 2020 restatement, which is what this page relies on.

• Gate devices. Every resident staying more than four weeks a year must buy a gate device for each vehicle kept in Boca West that long (Declaration Art. VIII § 10, OR 31471/759, p. 22); the master's booklet gives the fee as $59 a device (not recorded).
• Exterior changes need two approvals. The owner first obtains the Village's approval, then the master's; the master may deny work a Village approved but, since December 2023, may not overrule a Village's refusal (Declaration Art. VII, OR 34731/1849, pp. 4–5). The master's minutes record a $50 fee for every petition from 1 January 2026, completion within 180 days with one 90-day extension, and a fine of $100 a day after that (Board minutes of 8 December 2025 and 6 May 2026, not recorded). Ask about any open petition on the home.
• The golf courses are not common area. The developer conveyed the roads and lake bottoms "exclusive of golf courses" (Declaration Art. III § 1, OR 31471/759, p. 6); owners use the courses only through Club membership.
• Bulk cable and internet are billed by the master to every unit through the Village (Declaration Art. V § 11, OR 31471/759, pp. 11–12).
• Board rules that are not recorded. The master's rules and minutes add vehicle fines and transponder suspensions, a conduct resolution with fines of $100 to $500, limits on closing hurricane shutters outside the season, no new accordion shutters, and helmets for cyclists and scooter riders (master's rules packet revised 6 May 2026 and Board minutes, not recorded). They bind owners as Board rules under the declaration (Art. III § 2(e), Art. VIII § 11, OR 31471/759, pp. 7, 22–23).

• The 56 Villages. Every home is also in a Village with its own homeowners' or condominium association — the master's booklet counts 56 residential Villages with 3,492 residences. We hold no Village's declaration, rules or estoppel — only one Village amendment, Baywood's of August 2026 — so this page covers only the layers every home shares. On a closing we identify the Village from the legal description, order its estoppel from the manager in the table under the estoppels, and read its documents.