Bayview No. One, Fisher Island: condominium rules, fees and closing points

• The association's estoppel. Bayview No. One levies its own assessments, secured by its own lien (§ 13). The declaration promises a certificate within fifteen (15) days of a request by an owner or mortgagee (§ 13.7). Chapter 718 now requires one 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)). FICA's estoppel is ordered separately (master page).
• The Certificate of Termination of Right of First Refusal. The association's officer executes and acknowledges it, and it "shall be conclusive with respect to all persons who rely on such certificate in good faith" (§ 18.5). We record it with the deed. The next section has the periods.
• Notice of the sale, by registered mail to the Board, with the buyer's name and address and the terms of the contract (§ 18.1).
• No fee to the association is set in the recorded documents: no transfer fee, capital contribution or approval fee. The certificate's fee may not exceed "the charges reasonably required", and in no case "the maximum amount allowed under the Act" (§ 18.5).
• Entity buyers. A unit owned by a corporation, partnership or trust may be occupied only by its officers, partners, beneficiaries or designees and their families (§ 17.1).
• Parking and storage assignments. Parking spaces and the storage space are Limited Common Elements assigned by a written assignment that is not recorded, with a copy held by the association. The space assigned when the developer sold the unit passes only with the unit; extra spaces can be reassigned (§ 3.3(c)(ii)–(iv)). Ask which spaces go with the unit.
• The deed. Accepting the deed is deemed an assumption of the declaration, By-Laws, Articles, rules and Master Covenants (§ 18.1), so no special deed language is needed.

Yes, on sales and on leases. "No Unit Owner other than the Developer may sell his Unit and no Unit Owner may lease his Unit except by complying with" § 18 (§ 18.1). It works like this:

1. An owner who has a bona fide offer to buy or lease, and intends to accept it, gives the Board notice by registered mail, with the buyer's name and address and the terms.
2. The association, or its designee, may elect by certified mail within "thirty (30) days after receipt of such notice, together with such further information as may have been requested", to buy or lease on the same terms. A purchase needs the approval of "Owners of a majority of the Units present in person or by proxy and voting at a meeting at which a quorum has been obtained" (§ 18.2).
3. If it elects to buy, title closes at the association's attorneys' office "within forty five (45) days after the giving of notice by the Association of its election". The seller conveys by statutory warranty deed, pays the documentary stamps and other taxes, and delivers an abstract or title binder at least thirty (30) days before closing; taxes, mortgage interest and common expenses are prorated.
4. If it does not, the owner may accept the outside offer "within sixty (60) days" after a notice of refusal or after the election period runs out. That paragraph speaks of the association failing to accept "within twenty (20) days after receipt of notice and all additional information requested", which conflicts with the thirty days in step 2. Allow thirty. If the sale is not then made on the terms offered within a reasonable time, the owner starts again.
5. A sale made in violation of § 18 "shall be voidable at any time at the election of the Association".
6. The association then gives the certificate described in the section above (§ 18.5). "No charge shall be made in connection with the consideration of the approval of an extension or renewal of a previously approved lease."

Exempt transfers (§ 18.7): a sale or lease to the owner's spouse, adult children, parents, parents-in-law or adult siblings, or to a trust, corporation or other entity of which they are and remain the sole beneficiaries or equity owners; sales by the developer or the association; a sale by an officer conducting a foreclosure sale; and a sale by an Institutional First Mortgagee that took title by foreclosure or deed in lieu. Institutional First Mortgagees may also sell and lease without first offering the unit to the association (§ 18.1). Gifts, devises and inheritance are free of the restriction, though each successor stays bound by § 18 (§ 18.8), and a unit may be mortgaged "without restriction" (§ 18.9).

Yes, with the association's approval. Under § 17.8:

• only a whole unit may be leased, and "All leases shall be in writing, be approved by the Association"; the association may terminate a lease if the tenant defaults;
• "A unit may be leased no more than one (1) time in any calendar year", and the owner must notify the association each time a tenant occupies;
• the owner is jointly and severally liable for the tenant, and the association may require "a reasonable sum, not to exceed the equivalent of one month's rental" in escrow, with the balance returned within fifteen (15) days after the tenant leaves;
• no minimum term is stated, but unless the Board decides otherwise a person occupying a unit "for more than one (1) month" is treated as a lessee, whether or not rent is paid (§ 17.1).

No approval period, fee or interview is stated, and every lease is also offered to the association first under § 18.1. The developer was exempt from § 17 except the pet rule and the approval of leases and tenants (§ 17.12).

FICA may refuse a tenant the ferry when a required approval was not obtained (master page), so the association's approval should be in hand before the tenant arrives.

No leasing amendment is in our set, and nothing recorded after April 1993 is. Under Chapter 718, "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)). A buyer acquires title after any amendment already in effect, so for an investor buyer the records need searching forward from 26 April 1993.

• The lien. It is effective "as of the date of the recording of this Declaration", 28 June 1990, and is evidenced by a recorded claim of lien (§ 13.2). Assessments unpaid fifteen (15) days after they fall due bear interest "at the highest lawful rate"; the declaration sets no late fee. After thirty (30) days' written notice, the association may accelerate "the next three (3) months'" installments (§ 13.2).
• The buyer owes what the seller did not pay. "In the case of a voluntary conveyance, the grantee shall be jointly and severally liable with the grantor for all unpaid Assessments" (§ 13.1), and "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)).
• Bank-owned resales. As recorded in 1990, an Institutional First Mortgagee that takes title by foreclosure or deed in lieu is not liable for assessments that fell due before its title, unless a claim of lien was recorded before its mortgage (§ 13.5). No amendment of § 13.5 is in our set. Chapter 718 now makes a first mortgagee that acquires title by foreclosure or deed in lieu liable for the lesser of the unpaid common expenses and regular periodic 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 applies to a particular sale is for underwriting; the estoppel shows what the association claims.
• Amending the declaration takes the owners of more than 50% of the units plus at least 66 2/3% of the Board, or the owners of more than 80% of the units, and is effective when a certificate is recorded (§§ 6.1, 6.3). A change to a unit's size, appurtenances or share needs the joinder of that owner and its mortgagees, and a change to the insurance, reconstruction or condemnation sections needs the Primary Institutional First Mortgagee's joinder (§ 6.4).
• One survey sheet was replaced in 1993. The developer's amendment replaced Sheet 9 of 20 of the survey, the third floor of Building 48 with Units 4832–4834, to add a note that the line between Unit 4833 and its neighbor, read as 4832, is a "theoretical division … No physical wall exists" (OR 15893/3348). For a unit on that floor we check the legal description against the replacement sheet.
• Exhibit 2 prints "TOTAL 20" under the unit types, but the types add up to 28 and the shares to 100.00% (Exh. 2; § 3.1). It does not change any unit's share.
• Rights for neighboring land. The owners of the adjacent property, and of units built there, have a perpetual easement of ingress and egress over the paved access portions of the condominium (§ 3.3(f)). Section 22 lets No. One's owners use the swimming pool of an adjacent condominium, if one is built and its declaration so provides, sharing its cost by unit count; the condominium is not named, and no other declaration we hold opens its pool to Bayview No. One's owners. Bayview No. Two's declaration opens its pool to an adjacent condominium, and Bayview No. Three's declaration names No. Two's pool for its own owners (Bayview No. Two).
• Developer rights. The developer's power to amend alone (§ 6.2) and its guarantee under § 13.6 depended on its controlling the Board or holding units. Nothing we hold shows when control passed to the owners.
• FICA. In a conflict, the Master Covenants take precedence over the declaration (§ 11.1), and FICA may require the association to collect FICA's assessments (§ 23). FICA's own lien, and which version of its master covenants governs, are on the master page.
• Cited but not in our set: the Master Covenants (OR 13008/2052); the condominium plans the Clerk's notes refer to; and the declaration of any adjacent condominium whose pool § 22 contemplates.