Bridgewood Villas, Boca West: 20 one-story villas, enclosed patios and sale approval

This association approves first; the master's Certificate of Compliance and the Country Club's approval of the buyer follow. A sale "except to another Unit owner" needs the association's consent, and so does a lease, a gift or any other transfer (Art. XVI.A, OR 2295/906, p. 14).

• Notice. The selling owner tells the association the buyer's name and address and gives what it "may reasonably require" (Art. XVI.B(1)(a), p. 15).
• 20 days. A decision is due within 20 days. The association's consent is a certificate in recordable form, handed to the buyer and placed on the public record (Art. XVI.B(2)(a), pp. 15–16).
• A substitute buyer. Only if the notice demanded one: the association must then offer the contract price in cash, closing within 30 days, or the sale is deemed approved (Art. XVI.C(1), pp. 16–17).
• Entity owners. A corporation, or a trustee for a beneficial owner, needs an approved Primary Occupant (Art. XVI.B(3), p. 16).
• Exempt. An institutional lender acquiring through its mortgage, its resale, and a buyer at a public foreclosure, judicial, execution or tax sale (Art. XVI.E, p. 17).
• Void. Without approval a sale, mortgage or lease "shall be void unless subsequently approved" (Art. XVI.F, p. 17).

An enclosed rear patio that has become part of the unit. In 1995 every owner and every lienholder joined in an amendment allowing it (OR 9002/1471, p. 1). The owner submits plans, which the Board must approve unanimously. No work may start until the government has approved them too (Art. XX.C, pp. 4–5).

When the work is done, the association signs and records a "Certificate of Completion and Addition" with a sketch of the extension as built. Exhibit D, the drawings that define the units, "shall automatically be deemed modified" to show the changed unit and common elements (Art. IV, p. 3). The owner pays for the work and the recording (p. 5). No patio may extend past the existing soffit or the side lines of the original patio. Shares of the common elements do not change (p. 5).

Extensions finished by 31 December 1994 were to receive certificates at the association's expense (p. 5). A linked instrument recorded on 19 March 1996 (OR 9170/1996) is indexed to several units and may hold some of them; we have not read it.

Membership, assessments and a say over building work. Every unit owner on the Village's plat is a member (Art. IV § 1, OR 2295/213, p. 2), and its assessments are a continuing lien on the unit (Art. V, pp. 2–3). The villa association may collect them for the Village (Art. XVIII.F, OR 2295/906, p. 19).

The Village declaration also bars any structure, wall or alteration anywhere in Bridgewood until the Village Board approves the plans in writing (Art. VII, OR 2295/213, p. 5). Whether a patio enclosure was also cleared by the Village is something we ask about.

Nothing in the villa declaration adds a capital contribution or transfer fee. The master's capital contribution, the Club's Joining Fee and the estoppel balances are paid at closing.

The master bills the villa association $20,676 for 2026/2027, up from $16,642 (master's adopted 2026/2027 budget, not recorded), plus the master's per-unit charges. Unpaid assessments follow the unit: a voluntary grantee answers for them jointly and severally with the grantor (Art. XVIII.M, p. 21).

"After approval by the Association", and only the whole unit (Art. XV.E, OR 2295/906, p. 14). The lease goes to the association, which decides within 20 days. No term or yearly limit is recorded for the villas. Under the master's rules, a villa cannot be let in its owner's first year, and no lease may run under four months.

• An enclosed patio without a recorded certificate leaves the unit's legal boundary at the original patio. The enclosed area would then be common element.
• Each unit has two outside parking spaces, marked with its number and a letter on Exhibit C (Art. V.C(1), p. 4). Ten units also have an open deck, terrace or porch as a limited common element (Art. V.C(4)).
• Since 2005 three Board members, rather than all of them, may approve other alterations to a unit (Art. XX.B, OR 18653/730, p. 1). Since 2003 a Board majority may remove the underground sanitary containers (OR 15239/71, p. 2).
• The 2016 certificate adopting the current Condominium Act is headed "Bridgewood Villas Condominium I Association, Inc." (OR 28201/30, p. 1). There is only one villa condominium; we note the heading for underwriting.
• A mortgage to a lender that is not an "Institutional Lender" needs the association's approval (Art. XVI.D, p. 17).
• Being one story, the villas fall outside the milestone inspection rule of Fla. Stat. § 553.899, which starts at three habitable stories.