5000 Bayview, Fisher Island: condominium rules, fees and closing points

• The association's estoppel. The declaration promises a certificate within fifteen (15) days of a written request by a purchaser, owner or mortgagee, and states no fee (§ 13.7). Chapter 718 now requires it sooner: "Within 10 business days after receiving a written or electronic request therefor … the association shall issue the estoppel certificate" (Fla. Stat. § 718.116(8)(a)). The fee caps are on our page about HOA approvals and estoppels. FICA's estoppel is ordered separately (master page).
• Enforcement charges on the estoppel. The 2004 amendment makes the association's enforcement costs and legal fees, including counsel's letters, recoverable from the owner and "collectible in the same manner as common expenses" (§ 18.4, OR 22532/2358). Ask that the estoppel show any such charge, and any fine pending under the amendment's grievance procedure (§ 18.3).
• No right of first refusal, and no approval of the buyer. The declaration has neither; its § 18 is "Compliance and Default". FICA approves no buyer either (master page).
• Notice of the sale. Each owner files with the association "a copy of the deed or other document showing his ownership" (By-Laws § 11).
• No fee to the association is set in the recorded documents: no transfer fee, capital contribution or approval fee.
• Entity buyers. Where a corporation owns a unit, the person who votes for it is designated by a certificate signed by an officer and filed with the association's Secretary (By-Laws § 3.6(c)).
• Parking, golf-cart and storage assignments. These are limited common elements assigned by writing that is "not recorded in the Public Records", with a copy kept by the association (§ 3.3(b)–(c)). Get the association's record of what goes with the unit. Each owner accepts that part of the parking and storage areas is below the federal flood plain (§ 3.3(b)–(c)).

Yes, on these terms (§ 17.8):

• the whole unit only, under a written lease that lets the association terminate it if the tenant breaks the declaration or the rules;
• "No Unit may be leased for a term of less than six (6) months and no Unit may be leased more than one (1) time, including any renewals, in any calendar year", counted by the date each lease or renewal commences;
• the owner "is obligated to notify the Association each and every time his Unit is to be occupied by a Tenant", and is jointly and severally liable for the tenant's violations;
• the association may require an escrow deposit of a reasonable sum, "not to exceed the equivalent of one month's rental";
• while the unit is leased, the tenant has the use of the common facilities and the owner does not, except as a guest.

The declaration requires no approval of a lease or tenant. FICA's rules let it refuse a tenant the ferry only where an association approval is required and was not obtained, but tenants still register with FICA (master page). No leasing amendment is in our set. An amendment "prohibiting unit owners from renting their units or altering the duration of the rental term or specifying or limiting the number of times unit owners are entitled to rent their units during a specified period 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)), so for an investor buyer the records need searching forward from 2005.

• The lien. Installments not paid within ten (10) days bear interest at "fifteen percent (15%) per annum" and an administrative late fee of up to "the greater of $25.00 or five percent (5%) of each delinquent installment". The lien relates back to the recording of the declaration, but "as to first mortgages of record, the lien is effective from and after recording of a claim of lien" (§ 13.3). A claim of lien lasts one year unless suit is filed within it, extended by any bankruptcy stay; each owner is deemed to have assigned the unit's rents to the association; and after thirty (30) days' written notice and a recorded claim of lien, the rest of the fiscal year's installments may be accelerated (§ 13.3).
• The buyer owes what the seller did not pay. A 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); § 13.1).
• Bank-owned resales. Under the declaration a first mortgagee that takes title is liable for the lesser of the assessments that came due in the six (6) months before it acquired title or one percent (1%) of the original mortgage debt, and only if it joined the association as a defendant in the foreclosure (§ 13.6). Chapter 718 now sets the limit at the lesser of the assessments "which accrued or came due during the 12 months immediately preceding the acquisition of title" or "One percent of the original mortgage debt" (§ 718.116(1)(b)1.). Which governs a sale is for underwriting.
• Fines. The By-Laws cap a fine at $100.00 per violation and $1,000.00 in the aggregate, and no fine is a lien (By-Laws § 5.1(m)). The 2004 amendment treats each day of a continuing violation as a separate offense and makes the owner jointly and severally liable with the violator (§ 18.3), while its fee clause makes enforcement costs collectible like common expenses (§ 18.4).
• The 2005 court order. It is an order in Case No. 04-6011 CA 20, a suit by the association against an entity defendant. The court found that nothing on the record showed the action had been prosecuted for a year, and ordered that it would stand dismissed without prejudice unless good cause was shown for a hearing on 25 May 2005 (OR 23418/2795). It does not say what the suit was about. Before insuring a unit, we search the docket and the Official Records for any lien, lis pendens or judgment it produced.
• No joinder by the association. The recorded declaration has no joinder page; the developer's execution is followed directly by the mortgagee's consent and Exhibit 1. Nothing we hold shows that this matters, and the association's articles were filed on 5 June 2001; we note it for underwriting.
• Amending the declaration takes "67% or more of the voting interests of all Unit Owners" (§ 6.1). An amendment on listed subjects, including restrictions on leasing and on selling or transferring title, also needs a Majority of Institutional First Mortgagees (§ 20.2). Special and capital-improvement assessments over $125,000.00 in a year, or raising the year's total above 115% of the year before, need a majority of the units at a meeting (§ 13.2(c)).
• The developer's mortgage. Bank of America, N.A. consented to the declaration as mortgagee. Its mortgage is not in our set; confirm a release of the unit in the chain.
• Cited but not in our set: the plat of Lindisfarne on Fisher Island Section 5 (PB 137/4), the Bank of America mortgage, the docket in Case No. 04-6011 CA 20, and anything recorded after 27 May 2005. The only rules in our set are the 2001 Schedule "A" attached to the By-Laws; ask for the current rules.