Marina Village No. Three, Fisher Island: condominium rules, fees and closing points

• The unit's legal identity. For a residential unit, confirm from the records how the unit is described now, and whether it was combined with another (see below).
• The association's estoppel. "Within fifteen (15) days after request", the association must certify the assessments owed on the unit (§ 13.7). Chapter 718 now requires that "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 right-of-first-refusal certificate. The association's certificate that its right was satisfied or waived is the document that clears the sale (see below).
• Notice of the sale. The notice the declaration requires is the first-refusal notice: before accepting an outside offer, the seller sends it to the Board by registered mail (§ 18.1).
• No fee is set. The recorded documents have no transfer fee, capital contribution or working-capital charge.
• Entity buyers need no approval. A corporate owner may let its officers, directors, designees and employees use the unit without that being a lease (§ 17.8).
• Parking. Parking-space assignments are made in writing and are not recorded (§ 3.3(c)(ii)). Ask the association for the unit's assignment.
• The rules in force. The rules recorded with the By-Laws stop at rule 13 and are captioned for "Condominium No. Two", carried over from the earlier form. Ask the association for the rules it actually applies.

Yes, on sales. No owner other than the Developer may sell without following § 18:

1. A seller who receives a bona fide outside offer he intends to accept gives the Board notice of it by registered mail (§ 18.1).
2. The association or its designee may elect to buy "Not later than thirty (30) days" after the notice and any further information it asks for. Title then closes at the association's attorneys' office "within forty five (45) days" (§ 18.1).
3. A later sentence says that if the association fails to accept "within twenty (20) days", the owner may accept the outside offer "within sixty (60) days" (§ 18.1). The 30-day and 20-day periods conflict, as in the other Island Developers declarations; allow 30, and rely on the certificate rather than on either period running.
4. The association needs a majority of the units present and voting at a meeting to exercise the option (§ 18.2).
5. A sale made in breach of § 18 "shall be voidable at any time at the election of the Association" (§ 18.1).
6. The association's certificate under § 18.5 "shall be conclusive with respect to all persons who rely on such certificate in good faith". We record it with the deed.

The right does not reach leases. It does not apply to the Developer, or to an Institutional First Mortgagee acquiring title by foreclosure (§ 18.1). Section 18.7 also excepts transfers to a spouse, adult children, parents, parents-in-law or adult siblings, or to trusts and entities wholly owned by the owner or those relatives; transfers to the Developer or the association; foreclosure sales; and mortgagees taking title. Gifts and devises are free (§ 18.8), and mortgages are unrestricted (§ 18.9).

Yes, without limits. "There shall be no restrictions on the frequency of the leasing of Units, on the duration of any tenancy thereof nor on the persons to whom a Unit may be leased" (§ 17.8). The section sets no approval, minimum term, deposit or notice to the association, and says nothing of subleases; the first refusal does not reach leases. The owner is liable to the association for the tenant, and § 17.8 can be amended only by 90% of all unit owners.

FICA's rules apply on top. Tenants register with FICA, and FICA may refuse the ferry to a tenant when a required association approval was not obtained; this declaration requires none (master page).

No leasing amendment is in our set. One that limits rentals "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 it would bind a buyer. For an investor buyer we search the records first.

• Units appear to have been combined, by no instrument in our set. The 2003 amendment's revised schedule lists 13 residential units, not 18. It gives 42203 a share of 8.9316%, 42208 4.9744%, 42303 12.0834% and 42306 8.9316%, and omits 42204, 42209, 42304, 42305 and 42307 (OR 21625/4696). Three of the figures equal the sum of the original shares of adjoining units: 42208 and 42209; 42303, 42304 and 42305; 42306 and 42307. The fourth is 0.0001% more than the sum for 42203 and 42204, whose original shares were 3.1519% and 5.7796%, or 8.9315% together (Exhibit 2). The amendment mentions no combination, and no instrument combining units is in our set. Before insuring a residential unit, find the instrument that combined it, whether a Developer amendment under § 10 or an owner amendment with the joinders § 6.4 requires, and describe the unit as that instrument does.
• What the 2003 amendment did. Fisher Island Holdings, LLC, reciting that "effective July 31, 1998" it became "the fee simple owner of the condominium units described on Exhibit '1'", corrected two shares it said "were transposed": Unit 42206 becomes 3.1519% and Unit 42207 5.7797%. It certifies approval "pursuant to Sections 6.2 and 6.4" and is signed for the company and also by a person signing as "President of Marina Village at Fisher Island Condominium No. Three". It calls the schedule "Exhibit 5" (in the declaration the shares are Exhibit 2 and Exhibit 5 is the Articles), and mistypes two commercial unit numbers as "42012" and "42018".
• No joinder for the changed shares. Section 6.4 requires the owners and mortgagees of units whose shares change to join, unless they are the Developer, and the amendment shows no joinder for 42206 or 42207. Whether one was needed turns on who owned those units in 2003: a question for underwriting.
• The Developer's successor. No conveyance to Fisher Island Holdings, LLC and no assignment of Island Developers, Ltd.'s rights as Developer is in our set.
• The buyer owes what the seller did not pay. "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)).
• The lien. Assessments unpaid "fifteen (15) days" bear interest "at the highest lawful rate" (§ 13.2). The lien is effective from the recording of the declaration and is evidenced by a claim of lien. How it stands against a particular mortgage is for underwriting; rely on the estoppel.
• A foreclosing first mortgagee. Under § 13.5 an Institutional First Mortgagee taking title by foreclosure or deed in lieu is not liable for earlier assessments unless a claim of lien was recorded before its mortgage. Chapter 718 now makes such a first mortgagee liable for the lesser of the unpaid 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)). Which applies to a bank-owned resale is for underwriting.
• Fines are capped at $50.00, need notice and a hearing, and "No fine shall become a lien upon a Unit" (By-Laws § 5(m)).
• Amendments need owners of more than 50% of the units together with at least 66 2/3% of the Board, or owners of more than 80% of the units (§ 6.1); § 17.8 needs 90% of all unit owners.
• The commercial units. They "may be used for such retail, service or other commercial purposes as may be permitted by applicable zoning", and no pets may be kept in them (§§ 17.1, 17.3). The declaration may not be amended or enforced in a way that discriminates against commercial or residential units without the consent of a majority of the owners of that type (§ 24.1). The documents we hold do not say who owns the commercial units or what occupies them, and none mentions the Fisher Island Club.
• Developer exemption. The Developer and its units are exempt from § 17, apart from §§ 17.3 and 17.8, and from § 18 (§ 17.12).
• Cited but not in our set: any instrument combining units, the 1998 conveyance to Fisher Island Holdings, LLC and any assignment of Developer rights, the Commercial Subdivision of Harbor Terminal plat (Plat Book 23, Page 67), and the Master Covenants recorded at OR 13008/2052 (which version now governs is on the master page).