Fisher Island: FICA, the condominium associations and what matters at closing

The Master Covenants for Fisher Island were made by Island Developers, Ltd. and recorded at OR 13008/2052 on 5 September 1986. Thirteen amendments and supplemental declarations followed, and in 2009 they were amended and restated (OR 26838/4363).

In June 2022, before FICA's owners took control from the developer, Fisher Island Holdings, LLC signed a Second Amended and Restated Master Covenants and a First Amendment to it, both acknowledged on 10 June 2022. Each says it takes effect when recorded: the restatement "shall take effect when recorded" (2022 Master Covenants Art. XII § 7). The copies we hold carry no clerk's stamp. The only recording data inside them belong to earlier instruments: Exhibits "A" and "B" are copies of pages recorded at OR 16033/4581–4586 and OR 20249/3511–3513, and the Ferry Transportation Services Agreement attached as Exhibit "D" was recorded on 25 February 2022 (OR 33039/3783). And the Links Estates declaration, signed in January 2022 and recorded on 1 June 2022, still defines FICA's documents as the 2009 restatement.

The FICA sections below are taken from the 2022 text, cited "2022 Master Covenants". We do not hold the 2009 restatement, so we cannot say where the two differ. On a Fisher Island file we confirm which version is of record before relying on either.

Two: FICA's, and the association's for the building or enclave.

• FICA. "No owner may sell or convey his interest in a Lot unless all sums due the Association shall be paid in full and an estoppel certificate in recordable form to such effect shall have been received by the Owner. If all such sums shall have been paid, the Association shall deliver such certificate within ten (10) days of a written request therefor" (2022 Master Covenants Art. IX § 1). Article VI § 7 says the same: "no sale or other disposition of Lots shall be permitted until an estoppel letter is received from the Community Association acknowledging payment in full of all assessments and other sums due." Under the 2022 First Amendment, FICA, "not the Neighborhood Associations", collects its assessments directly from owners, so FICA's estoppel is ordered separately. The documents set no fee for it.
• The condominium or homeowners' association. Each levies its own assessments, secured by its own lien. The condominium declarations on the Island Developers form promise a certificate within 15 days; a condominium association must now issue one within 10 business days of a written or electronic request (Fla. Stat. § 718.116(8)). The fee caps, and what happens when an association is late, are on our page about HOA approvals and estoppels.
• The right-of-first-refusal certificate, where the association has one (see the next section).

FICA's documents name no management company. FICA's office is at One Fisher Island Drive, and its President, who is not a member of the board, "shall serve as the chief executive officer" (2022 By-Laws Art. II, Art. VI § 2). Each association has its own manager.

FICA does not. Its documents contain no approval of sales or buyers, no application, interview, background check or approval fee. The only condition FICA puts on a sale is its estoppel (2022 Master Covenants Art. IX § 1, Art. VI § 7).

No association's declaration we hold requires approval of a buyer either. But every condominium declared from 1986 to 1992 — the sixteen Island Developers, Ltd. condominiums — and Valencia Estates give the association a right of first refusal: the right to buy the unit on the same terms as the outside offer. The newer condominiums (7400 and 7600 Oceanside, 5000 and 5100 Bayview, and the two Palazzos) and Links Estates have none. In the sixteen Island Developers declarations it works the same way (for example Bayside Village East Decl. § 18.1, OR 13718/1001); Valencia Estates' is much the same but gives 30 days throughout — see its page:

1. The owner gives the association notice of the outside offer by registered mail, and any further information the association asks for.
2. The association has 30 days after that notice to elect to buy, and then closes within 45 days. But a later sentence of the same section gives the association twenty (20) days "after receipt of notice and all additional information requested" to accept or reject (OR 13718/1034). Every Island Developers declaration we hold has both periods; allow 30.
3. If the association does not buy, the owner may accept the outside offer within 60 days. A sale on other terms, or after that, needs a new notice.
4. A sale made without complying "shall be voidable" at the association's election (for example Oceanside No. Three Decl. § 18).
5. The association gives a certificate, executed and acknowledged, that the right was complied with or waived, which may be relied on in good faith and is conclusive (§ 18.5). Its fee may not exceed the charges reasonably required, within the limits of the Condominium Act.

In twelve of these declarations the right covers leases as well as sales, so a lease is offered to the association first (see the table).

The Fisher Island Club does not approve buyers under any document we hold. Nothing in FICA's documents makes Club membership a condition of owning, occupying or reaching a unit, and no association's declaration we hold requires it. Valencia Estates' declaration says that owning a lot gives no right to the Club. Club membership is a matter for the Club and the buyer.

From each association's recorded declaration and the amendments we hold; each name links to that association's page. "Building" is the island's building number, the first digits of the unit numbers.

The condominium declarations that require approval set no deadline, fee or interview for it, apart from the 20-day language in the right of first refusal; ask the association for its procedure and fee on each file.

No transfer fee, capital contribution or working-capital payment is set by FICA's documents, and none is set for a resale by any association's declaration we hold. Links Estates charges an "Initial Contribution" of "two times the quarterly assessment", but only to "The first purchaser of each Lot from the Declarant" (Links Estates Decl. § 15.11, OR 33216/2180). What a buyer does meet:

• Prorated assessments, FICA's and the association's. Under the 2022 text every residential unit is one "Assessment Unit", so every residential unit pays the same FICA assessment whatever its size (2022 Master Covenants Art. VI § 2).
• Estoppel fees, within the statutory caps. 5100 Bayview and both Palazzos also allow a fee of up to $150, plus copying and attorney's fees, for information given to a prospective buyer or lender beyond what the law requires (5100 Bayview By-Laws § 17; Palazzo del Mare By-Laws § 18; Palazzo del Sol / della Luna By-Laws § 19).
• Ferry charges. FICA may charge for the Transportation System per person or per ride, or put its cost in the assessments (2022 Master Covenants Art. XI § 2).
• Links Estates insurance. Owners must carry general liability insurance "in an amount not less than Two Million Dollars", naming the association, and before the Community Completion Date the developer, as additional insured (Links Estates Decl. § 13.2). Bind it at closing.

FICA leaves leasing to each association: "The leasing of a Lot and Unit shall be subject to the requirements of the applicable Neighborhood Association." Only a whole unit or lot may be leased, apart from a ground lease of 20 years or more (2022 Master Covenants Art. IX § 2). FICA's own rules on occupancy:

• no more than "two (2) persons per bedroom and one (1) person per den", except temporary guests, unless the board allows more;
• a guest is only someone whose principal residence is elsewhere, and "a person(s) occupying a Unit for more than one (1) month shall not be deemed a guest but, rather, shall be deemed a lessee … (regardless of whether a lease exists or rent is paid)" (Art. IX § 3).

Tenants register with FICA. Managers send FICA's Public Safety Department the lease, the tenant registration and the association's approval form, and Public Safety issues the tenant an identification card and a "T" number. FICA "may deny access to the Transportation System for a Tenant when the Unit Owner has failed to obtain Condominium or Homeowners' Association approval in advance, when such is required" (FICA Rules and Regulations § 6 ¶ 6, not recorded). So where an association approves leases, the approval decides whether the tenant can reach the island.

The associations' own rules are in the table above: twelve require approval of every lease; the newer condominiums that do not approve leases set a six-month minimum and one lease a calendar year; five of the older condominiums (the three Marina Village condominiums, Seaside Villas and Seaside) say "There shall be no restrictions on the frequency of the leasing of Units, on the duration of any tenancy thereof nor on the persons to whom a Unit may be leased" (for example Seaside Decl. § 17.8, OR 14165/2954).

Leasing amendments. A condominium amendment that prohibits rentals, changes the rental term or limits how often a unit may be rented "applies only to unit owners who consent to the amendment and unit owners who acquire title to their units after the effective date of that amendment" (Fla. Stat. § 718.110(13)). The leasing rules in the table are in the original declarations, but an association may have amended them since its newest instrument we hold, so for an investor buyer we search forward before saying what applies.

• The buyer owes what the seller did not pay — to FICA. "Except as provided in Section 8 of this Article, the personal obligation of the then owner to pay such Assessment shall be joint and several with any successors in interest and recourse may be had against either or both" (2022 Master Covenants Art. VI § 7). Except for the § 8 mortgagees and purchasers below, anyone who takes title to a delinquent unit, including "by operation of law and by judicial sale", "shall not be entitled to the occupancy of such Lot or the enjoyment of the Common Areas" until the seller's arrears are paid — and the Common Areas include the ferry.
• And to the association. A condominium unit owner "is jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for all unpaid assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title" (Fla. Stat. § 718.116(1)(a)), and the declarations say so too. The estoppels protect the buyer; the lien search does not show unrecorded assessments.
• FICA's lien. Unpaid assessments carry interest "at the annual rate of eighteen percent (18)%" and become "a continuing lien on the appropriate Lot". The lien's priority "shall relate back to the date of recording of the Original Declaration, except as to first mortgages, in which case the date of recording of the claim of lien for the Assessment shall establish its priority as it relates to such mortgage" (2022 Master Covenants Art. VI § 7). FICA's lien is superior to the associations' assessment liens (Art. VI § 8).
• Bank-owned resales. An institutional-type lender's first mortgage recorded before a claim of lien, and whoever takes title through its foreclosure or a deed in lieu, take subject only to FICA assessments "coming due after such foreclosure" (2022 Master Covenants Art. VI § 8). FICA's documents recite that FICA "is governed by Chapter 617, Florida Statutes and not Chapter 720", and they do not invoke Chapter 720's limits; a non-institutional lender is outside § 8. The condominium declarations differ among themselves — several of the older ones relieve a foreclosing first mortgagee of earlier assessments unless a claim of lien was recorded before its mortgage, while later ones cap them at six months' (Palazzo del Sol / della Luna, twelve months') assessments or 1% of the mortgage debt — while Chapter 718 now limits a first mortgagee to the lesser of 12 months' assessments or 1% of the original mortgage debt (§ 718.116(1)(b)). Which rule governs a particular sale is for underwriting; the estoppels show what each association is claiming.
• Fines. "No fine of less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) shall become a lien on any property" (2022 Master Covenants Art. VII § 3(e)), which implies a larger one can. FICA's rules say "No fine, however, shall result in a lien being placed upon an Owner's Unit" (Rules and Regulations § 1). Ask the estoppel to show any fine.
• Building-specific points that we check on a file in that building:
  • Harborview, Buildings 44–47: part of the declaration was re-recorded in OR Book 14385, apparently to supply the survey sheets for one of the four buildings; we hold only some of that instrument's pages, so a Harborview closing needs the whole of it.
  • Palazzo del Sol / della Luna: the declaration reserved a second phase of up to 47 units; we hold no amendment adding it or notice abandoning it.
  • 7600 Oceanside: the declaration says 26 units, but an amendment recorded in April 2001 (OR 19593/4594) replaced the share table with one for 27 units and changed every unit's share; the unit's share should be confirmed with the association.
  • Marina Village No. Three: a 2003 amendment (OR 21625/4696) lists 13 residential units with shares that match combined original units; we hold no instrument combining them, so the legal description of a combined unit needs that instrument.
  • Links Estates: the developer's lender consented to the declaration, but each lot needs a recorded partial release of the developer's mortgage.

• The ferry. Each owner, and each owner's permitted occupants, has "a permanent and perpetual non-exclusive easement for the use and enjoyment of all Common Areas", which "shall pass with the title to each Lot", and the Transportation System — the ferry landings, the mainland terminals and garage, the ferries and the roads within the Common Areas — is a Common Area (2022 Master Covenants Art. I(f)(vi), (r)–(s), Art. IV §§ 2–3). FICA may suspend the use of the Common Areas, "except for legal access", while assessments are unpaid.
• Renovation. Any change visible from the outside needs the written approval of FICA's Architectural Control Committee, and work on condominium common elements needs the condominium association's approval first; the Committee has 30 days after it has everything it needs, failing which the plans "shall be deemed approved" (2022 Master Covenants Art. VIII § 2). Under FICA's rules, FICA must have "at least sixty (60) days" notice of any work that needs a permit; no work is allowed during a two-week period in December and January whose dates FICA announces each year, on Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, or outside 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday; and contractors register with FICA for a fee of $250 to $1,000 a company (Rules and Regulations § 7 ¶¶ 7, 9, not recorded). Valencia Estates also charges "a non-refundable fee in the amount of $5,000.00" for each architectural submission (Valencia Estates Decl. § 7.11).
• Signs. FICA's rules bar any sign "inside a Unit if visible from the exterior of the Unit" or on outside walls, fences, entryways or vehicles, unless FICA approves it, "To the maximum extent permitted by law" (Rules and Regulations § 2 ¶ 2). That reaches For Sale and For Rent signs.
• Golf carts. A cart may be driven only by someone 15 or older with a learner's permit, 16 or older with a driver's license, or 18 or older with identification, and driving violations are referred to the Fisher Island Club for discipline (Rules and Regulations § 3, as amended in 2025).
• The developer's rights. Fisher Island Holdings, LLC's rights as Declarant under the 2022 text end on 31 December 2028, with exceptions for unsold homes on Parcels 7 and 9 (2022 Master Covenants Art. XII § 13).