Bayside Village East, Fisher Island: lease approval, the first refusal and the shared pools

Owners belong to FICA, the island-wide master association, under its Master Covenants (§ 23), so every file needs FICA's estoppel and the four items below. Confirm which version of the Master Covenants, cited at Official Records Book 13008, Page 2052 (OR 13008/2052), governs.

• This association's estoppel. It certifies what the seller owes the association in assessments (§ 13.7).
• The first-refusal certificate (§ 18.5). An officer signs and acknowledges it before a notary to confirm the right was satisfied or waived. Anyone who relies on it in good faith may treat it as conclusive.
• The parking assignment. The Developer gave each unit at least one space when it sold, in writing and without recording (§ 3.3(c)(ii)). Ask the association for a copy.
• The occupant, if a company or trust is buying. Section 17.1 limits occupancy to approved tenants or to a corporation's officers, directors, stockholders, designees or employees, a partnership's partners, designees or employees, or a trust's fiduciary, designees or beneficiaries, with their families.

Ask the seller early for the condominium resale documents the buyer is owed.

Yes. Its right of first refusal means it may buy or rent the unit itself on the terms of any outside offer the owner wants to accept. Here the right reaches any owner's lease, but only sales by a "Unit Owner other than the Developer" (§§ 18, 18.1).

The association or its designee has 30 days to elect after the Board receives the bona fide offer by registered mail, then 45 days to close or sign. If it declines, the owner has 60 days to accept the outside offer (§ 18.1). The members must vote before the association buys or leases (§ 18.2). For that vote and the exemptions for relatives, gifts, inheritance and mortgages (§§ 18.7–18.9), see the common Island Developers form.

Without Board consent, nobody may modify, extend or assign a lease to the outside party, and the tenant may not sublet. The Board must keep the power to cancel it, or to evict, when the tenant defaults or the association's lien is foreclosed. Where an owner sells or leases without following § 18, the deal "shall be voidable at any time at the election of the Association". Its remedies are a suit to undo the sale or evict the tenant, with costs and attorneys' fees charged to the owner (§ 18).

A bank holding a first mortgage (an Institutional First Mortgagee) that takes a unit by foreclosure or deed in lieu may resell or lease it without the offer (§ 18.1).

The association does, since § 17.8 says "All leases shall be in writing, be approved by the Association". Only the whole unit may be rented, no more than once a calendar year. Every lease must reserve the association's power to terminate it if the tenant defaults.

The owner gives notice before each tenancy and answers, jointly and severally, for the tenant's violations. Against tenant damage, the association may require an escrow of up to a month's rent, repaying any balance within 15 days after the tenants vacate. A sublease or assignment needs the same approval, as does a renewal altering anything beyond rent and expiry. With no fee or interview set, ask the association for its procedure and fee.

The declaration's only deadline for a lease decision is a later sentence of § 18.1 (OR 13718/1034), at odds with the section's 30 days. It frees the owner if the association fails to "reject the proposed lease as permitted by Section 17.8 hereof" within "twenty (20) days".

Even the Developer's leases and tenants need approval (§ 17.12). Get the approval in writing before move-in, since FICA may keep an unapproved tenant off the ferry (FICA's tenant rules).

As in FICA's rules, § 17.1 keeps each unit residential for one family, two people per bedroom and one per den besides guests. Anyone staying over a month counts as a lessee, with or without a lease or rent. Children are permitted (§ 17.2). A later amendment that bans rentals, changes the rental term or limits how often a unit may be rented binds only owners who consented and anyone who took title after it took effect (Fla. Stat. § 718.110(13)).

Describe a unit by its unit number and the declaration's building number, 1 or 2. Check both against the Property Appraiser's record, the condominium plans (Condominium Plans Book 214, Page 13) and, for Unit 2022, the 2024 amendment.

Unit 2022 now takes in the former Unit 2032. A certificate of amendment, OR 34065/1482 recorded 24 January 2024, combined the two and rewrote § 3.1 and Exhibits 2 and 3 to match.

Owners at the adjoining Bayside Village, declared in 1986 on the same form, hold "a non-exclusive easement over the Condominium Property" for the pool here (§ 22, OR 13718/1038). Expect it as an exception on the title commitment.

Section 13.1 makes the buyer answer, jointly and severally with the seller, for "all unpaid Assessments". The association's lien reaches back to the declaration's recording on 15 June 1988 and is evidenced by a claim of lien. Sums unpaid for 15 days bear interest "at the highest lawful rate" (§ 13.2).

A bank-owned resale is an underwriting call. Section 13.5 spares an Institutional First Mortgagee the earlier assessments when it takes title by foreclosure or deed in lieu, unless a claim of lien was recorded before its mortgage. Chapter 718 sets its own limit on what such a lender owes.

A fine may not exceed $50.00 and needs notice and a hearing, and "No fine shall become a lien upon a Unit" (By-Laws § 5(m)). Amendments take the standard Island Developers votes (§ 6.1). The declaration lets the Developer change units it owns (§ 10) and gives it an irrevocable power of attorney for government consents (§ 25.11).

We searched the Miami-Dade Clerk's Official Records index, current through 9 October 2026, for the association's instruments recorded after the declaration. It shows one, the 2024 combination of Units 2022 and 2032, and no other amendment.