Links Estates, Fisher Island: resales, rentals and the developer's mortgage

No one approves the buyer, and the association has no right of first refusal (a right to buy on the outside offer's terms). FICA, the master association every owner belongs to, approves no buyer either and issues its own estoppel.

• The association's estoppel. It states what the seller owes, and § 15.12 bars a sale until all sums due are paid and the owner holds it. Chapter 720 allows the association 10 business days, against the declaration's 14 (Fla. Stat. § 720.30851). The owner pays "a reasonable sum" within the statutory caps. It is conclusive for anyone but an owner relying on it without knowing of an error.
• The disclosure summary. The buyer must get it before signing, and cannot waive the right to void a contract signed without it (§ 720.401).
• An entity buyer's occupants. An owner that is not a natural person must name and register the Villa's occupants with the association "prior to occupancy" (§ 7.4).
• The architectural file. Ask for the Architectural Review Board's approvals and any certificate of compliance (§ 17.15). Search for a certificate of non-compliance, which the association or the board may record (§ 17.14). Unapproved work must be removed at the owner's cost, charged as an Individual Assessment (§ 17.12). Under § 17.1 as given in the 2023 Second Amendment (p. 2), the Declarant may resize the Architectural Review Board and appoint, remove and replace all its members until the Community Completion Date, unless it waives that right sooner.
• Rules since 2022. We have seen no rules, so ask for every rule adopted since 1 June 2022. With 12 lots the association has 15 or fewer parcel owners, so it may enforce against an owner only deed restrictions "established prior to the purchase of each parcel" (§ 720.303(1)).

Under § 12.9, leases need no approval. A Villa is let, licensed or occupied only in its entirety, under a written lease or occupancy agreement, and a copy of every lease goes to the association. Six months is the minimum, unless the association approves less "in the case of hardship". The tenant agrees to the declaration, the rules, the association's policies and "the FICA Documents" (§§ 3.2, 12.9). The owner collects the security deposit the association sets and remits it.

The declaration sets no limit on how often a Villa is let. Tenants register with FICA, which can refuse the ferry only where a required approval is missing. A leasing amendment adopted after 1 July 2021 would be read against § 720.306(1)(h), which keeps the § 720.303(1) small-association rule.

Since the July 2022 First Amendment, assessments "shall commence as to each Lot on the day that a temporary certificate of occupancy is issued for the first Villa within the Community" (§ 15.7, OR 33282/3206). They are collected quarterly unless the Board decides otherwise (§ 15.10.1). Only "The first purchaser of each Lot from the Declarant", the developer Fisher Island Holdings, LLC, pays the Initial Contribution of "two times the quarterly assessment" (§ 15.11). No section creates or sets the "Resale Contributions" that § 15.8 lists as income, so ask the association to confirm on its estoppel that none has been adopted.

An installment 10 days late carries interest at the highest lawful rate and a late fee of $500.00 per quarter, "or such greater amount established by the Board" (§ 15.17). Chapter 720 caps a late fee at the greater of $25 or 5% of the installment (§ 720.3085(3)(a)). That puts $500 over the cap on any quarterly installment under $10,000.

Section 15.17 applies payments to fines first and the oldest assessment last. That order does not control, since Chapter 720 applies them to interest, the late fee, and collection costs and attorney fees before the assessment, whatever the payer says (§ 720.3085(3)(b)).

Fines are $100.00 a violation, each day counting separately, with "no cap on the aggregate amount". Any fine over $1,000.00 is a lien on the lot (§ 18.6.4).

Each lot needs a partial release of the developer's mortgage. FI Properties Limited joined the declaration as owner and holder of the Declarant's "Loan Documents". They began with a mortgage recorded 22 December 2004 at Official Records Book 22930, Page 4585 (OR 22930/4585). It was consolidated, assigned and restated through the Third Amended and Restated Mortgage recorded 8 August 2016 (OR 30183/816), with UCC filings. The Joinder and Consent of Mortgage Holder covers only the declaration "and the recordation thereof" and "makes no warranty".

A buyer is "jointly and severally liable" with the seller "for all unpaid Assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title" (§ 15.7). The seller stays liable too (§ 7.2). The lien takes effect when a Claim of Lien is recorded but relates back to the declaration's recording on 1 June 2022 (§ 15.14). It yields to a Lender's bona fide first mortgage recorded before the Claim of Lien. A buyer through its foreclosure or a deed in lieu owes earlier assessments only "to the extent provided in Section 720.3085", and the rest may be reallocated to all owners (§ 15.15).

The declaration applies Chapter 720 by name to turnover, the budget, deficit funding and lenders' liability. Until Turnover, when the owners take over the association, the Declarant may amend alone, needing no one's "joinder or consent" (§ 4.3). It may also fund the deficit instead of paying assessments on its lots, on terms the 2023 Second Amendment revised, and it gives no "GUARANTEE OF THE LEVEL OF ASSESSMENTS" (§ 15.8). Turnover comes three months after 90% of the lots are conveyed, on the Declarant's election, or when Chapter 720 requires (§ 7.3.2). Afterwards an amendment takes a Board majority and 51% of the Voting Interests present at a meeting with a 30% quorum (§ 4.4). Provisions benefiting Lenders need their approval to change (§ 4.1), and the use restrictions exempt the Declarant's lots (§ 12).

The declaration defines the "FICA Documents" by the Amended and Restated Master Covenants recorded 23 April 2009 (OR 26838/4363), as amended and supplemented, with FICA's articles, by-laws and rules, not the 2022 restatement.

We searched the Miami-Dade Clerk's Official Records index, current through 9 October 2026, for Links Estates' instruments recorded after the declaration. It shows the two amendments and the 2023 deed of the common tracts below, and no other amendment.