Bayview No. Two, Fisher Island: first refusal, leases and a shared pool

• The association's estoppel. Bayview No. Two has its own assessments and lien (§ 13), so its statement of what the seller owes is ordered separately from FICA's, at the same time. The declaration allows 15 days (§ 13.7), but Chapter 718 now requires one within 10 business days of a written or electronic request.
• The certificate ending the first refusal. Signed and acknowledged by an officer, the Certificate of Termination of Right of First Refusal is conclusive in favor of anyone who relies on it in good faith (§ 18.5).
• Which spaces go with the unit. Parking, golf-cart and storage spaces count as Limited Common Elements, meaning common property reserved for one unit's use. The written assignments are not recorded (§ 3.3(b), (d)), so only the association can say which belong to the unit.

Officers, partners, beneficiaries or designees of a company or trust buyer, and their families, are the only people who may live in its unit (§ 17.1). Separately, the seller must hand the buyer the condominium resale documents.

Every sale except the Developer's does, and every lease too (§ 18.1). That is the association's right of first refusal, meaning it may buy or lease the unit itself, or through a designee, on the outside offer's terms.

Leases were out of it for a little over a year. A 1996 amendment (OR 17291/4804, recorded 29 July 1996) struck "or lease" from § 18.1. A 1997 amendment (OR 17859/4791, recorded 6 November 1997) put the words back. Section 18.1 again reads "No Unit Owner other than the Developer may sell his Unit and no Unit Owner may lease his Unit except by complying with the following provisions" (OR 17859/4792).

The owner, whether selling or leasing, sends the Board the bona fide offer (a genuine offer from an outsider) and its terms by registered mail. The association must elect by certified mail within 30 days. A later sentence of § 18.1 says 20, so our closing dates leave room for the full 30. If the association neither accepts a sale nor rejects a lease "as permitted by Section 17.8" within those 20 days, the owner may accept the outside offer within 60 days.

If the association buys, it closes at its attorneys' office "within forty five (45) days" of its election. A statutory warranty deed is the seller's to give, along with the documentary stamps and a title binder delivered at least 30 days before closing.

The association may set aside a sale made outside § 18, which "shall be voidable at any time at the election of the Association". The §§ 18.7–18.9 exemptions follow the standard Island Developers terms, shared with Bayview No. One and Bayview No. Three, and the 1997 amendment also changed § 18.2, the members' vote on buying. A gift or a devise (a transfer by will) is exempt, but the new owner still holds the unit subject to § 18 (§ 18.8).

Each lease needs the association's approval, and a unit may be leased once a calendar year at most. The 1996 amendment struck both rules from § 17.8, along with the owner's duty to report each tenant, and the 1997 amendment restored all three (OR 17859/4791, p. 1). Section 17.8 again reads "All leases shall be in writing, be approved by the Association and shall provide…".

It adds that "A unit may be leased no more than one (1) time in any calendar year". The owner is "obligated to notify the Association each and every time his Unit is to be occupied by a Tenant." Each lease must also "comply with and be subject to the provisions of Section 18" (p. 2), which gives the association its first refusal over leases.

The search reports no other change to the 1991 text of § 17.8. A lease takes in the whole unit and lets the association cancel it if the tenant defaults. The association may require a deposit of up to one month's rent, returning any balance within 15 days after move-out.

No minimum term is set, but anyone staying more than a month counts as a tenant. Occupancy stops at "two (2) persons per bedroom and one (1) person per den", not counting visiting guests (§ 17.1).

A tenant the association has not approved can be kept off the ferry by FICA (its tenant rules), so we raise this with an investor buyer before contract. If owners later vote to ban rentals, change the rental term or cap how often a unit may be rented, only consenting owners and those taking title afterwards are bound (Fla. Stat. § 718.110(13)). A buyer is bound by any such amendment already in effect, so for an investor we search for anything recorded since 23 February 2017.

Two buildings' owners do. Section 22 opens "the swimming pool, spa and related facilities located within the Condominium Property" to an adjacent condominium's owners, if that condominium's declaration provides for it. Bayview No. Three's later declaration claims that right over this pool. Each building pays by unit count, and Bayview No. Two's association sets the rules for its use (§ 22 of each). We have not seen a cost-sharing agreement between the associations, so ask how each bills.

Bayside Village also has a Unit 5302, so a legal description here should name the condominium as well as the number. Units 5311, 5313 and 5342 were reconfigured in 2010 (OR 27141/4328 and OR 27485/4662), so their descriptions and shares come from those amendments and the 2017 one. The consent of The Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, the Developer's lender, cites its mortgage without a book and page.

The association's lien dates from 17 May 1991, "the date of the recording of this Declaration" (§ 13.2). Installments 15 days overdue bear interest at "the highest lawful rate", with no late fee. Once 30 days' written notice has run, the association may demand "the next twelve (12) months'" installments at once (§ 13.2).

On a bank-owned resale, § 13.5 as recorded spares an Institutional First Mortgagee (a bank holding a first mortgage) that takes title any earlier assessments, unless a claim of lien preceded its mortgage. Chapter 718 now caps a first mortgagee at the lesser of 12 months' assessments before it took title and 1% of the original mortgage debt. That cap applies only if it joined the association as a defendant in the foreclosure, so underwriting decides which rule governs (the lender rules and FICA's lien).

Buyer and seller are each liable for all of the seller's unpaid assessments (§ 13.1). An amendment needs the owners of more than 50% of the units plus at least 66 2/3% of the Board, or of more than 80% of the units (§ 6.1). Fines top out at $50.00 and never attach to the unit as a lien (By-Laws § 5.1(m)). The Developer disclaimed its warranties, and the disclaimer binds later owners (§ 25).

Each unit carries membership in FICA (§ 23), and FICA's Master Covenants take precedence over the declaration (§ 11.1). We check which version is of record.

We searched the Clerk's Official Records index, current through 9 October 2026, for the association's instruments recorded after 17 May 1991. It listed the six amendments below.