Oceanside (Building 80), Fisher Island: condominium rules, fees and closing points

• The association's estoppel. The association levies its own assessments, secured by its own lien (§§ 13.1–13.2). The declaration promises a certificate "Within fifteen (15) days after request by a Unit Owner or mortgagee", and a third party who relies on it "shall be protected thereby" (§ 13.7). Chapter 718 is now stricter: "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. Every sale and every lease is first offered to the association (below). Its certificate, signed and acknowledged by an officer, "shall be conclusive with respect to all persons who rely on such certificate in good faith" (§ 18.5). Recording it with the deed is the safer course.
• Notice of the sale. The owner's notice of the outside offer goes "by registered mail to the Board of Directors" and starts the association's time to decide (§ 18.1).
• Any lease. If the unit is let at closing, check that the lease was approved (§ 17.8). A buyer who means to rent needs approval for each lease (below).
• No fee is set. The declaration has no transfer fee, capital contribution or working-capital payment. The first-refusal certificate may carry only "the charges reasonably required", within the Act's maximum (§ 18.5).
• Entity buyers. A unit owned by a corporation, partnership, trust or other fiduciary may be occupied only by its officer, director, stockholder, designee or employee (a corporation), its partner, designee or employee (a partnership), or its fiduciary, designee or beneficiary (a trust), with their families (§ 17.1). Identify who will live in the unit.
• Parking. Each unit has "the exclusive use of one or more parking spaces to be assigned by the Developer at the closing of the purchase of the Unit from the Developer", by assignments "in writing (but not recorded in the Public Records of the County)", with a copy kept by or given to the association (§ 3.3(c)(ii)). That space "shall not be assignable except together with the applicable Unit"; extra spaces assigned under § 3.3(c)(iii) can be moved to another unit by unrecorded assignment (§ 3.3(c)(iii)–(iv)). Get the unit's assignments from the association.

Yes, on sales and 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.

1. Notice. The owner sends the board notice by registered mail of a bona fide outside offer, with the offeror's name and address and the terms, and any further information the board asks for (§ 18.1).
2. Thirty days. The association or its designee may elect, by certified mail, within 30 days after the notice and that information, to buy or lease on the same terms. Closing is "at the office of the attorneys for the Association … within forty five (45) days" after the election; the seller conveys by statutory warranty deed, pays the documentary stamps and "all other taxes arising out of such sale", and delivers title evidence 30 days before closing.
3. Twenty days, and sixty. The owner is free to sell if the association fails to accept "or, in the case of a lease, … to reject the proposed lease … within twenty (20) days after receipt of notice and all additional information", and may then accept the outside offer within 60 days. The 20 days conflict with the 30 (master page). Allow 30, and rely on the certificate rather than on either period running.
4. A members' vote. The association may exercise the option only with the approval of a majority of the units present at a meeting (§ 18.2), and may finance a purchase or assess the other owners if funds are short (§ 18.6).
5. Voidable sales and leases. A sale or lease in violation "shall be voidable at any time at the election of the Association" (§ 18.1).

Exempt (§§ 18.7–18.9): transfers by the owner to a spouse, adult children, parents, parents-in-law or adult siblings, or to a trustee, corporation or other entity whose sole beneficiaries or equity owners are the owner or those relatives; the Developer; the association; a foreclosure-sale officer or a deed in lieu; an Institutional First Mortgagee taking by foreclosure or deed in lieu; gifts, devises and intestacy. Mortgages are unrestricted. Each later owner remains bound.

Yes, with the association's approval, once a calendar year (§ 17.8):

• "No portion of a Unit (other than an entire Unit) may be rented." Leases must be written and "be approved by the Association", and must let the association terminate the lease on the tenant's default.
• "A unit may be leased no more than one (1) time in any calendar year." The owner must notify the association every time a tenant will occupy the unit, and is jointly and severally liable for the tenant.
• The association may require an escrow of up to "one month's rental", returned within 15 days after the tenant leaves.
• The section also covers subleases, assignments, and any renewal that changes more than the expiration date and rent, and every lease also goes through the right of first refusal.

No minimum term, form, fee, interview or time limit for the approval is stated, apart from the 20-day language in § 18.1. A person staying "for more than one (1) month shall not be deemed a guest but … a lessee" (§ 17.1). Because every lease needs the association's approval, FICA may refuse the ferry to a tenant whose lease was not approved in advance (master page).

No leasing amendment is in our set. One made later would be limited by Chapter 718: an amendment that prohibits renting, changes the rental term or limits how often a unit may be rented "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)).

• The lien. The association's lien is effective "as of the date of the recording of this Declaration", evidenced by a recorded claim of lien, and unpaid assessments bear interest "at the highest lawful rate" after 15 days (§ 13.2). "No fine shall exceed $50.00 … No fine shall become a lien upon a Unit" (By-Laws).
• The buyer owes the seller's arrears. The grantee is "jointly and severally liable with the grantor for all unpaid Assessments" (§ 13.1). Chapter 718 says the same: "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. Under the declaration, an Institutional First Mortgagee taking title by foreclosure or deed in lieu, having named the association as a defendant, is not liable for earlier assessments "unless such share is secured by a claim of lien that is recorded prior to the recording of the foreclosed mortgage" (§ 13.5). Chapter 718 now makes a first mortgagee that acquires title that way owe 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)1.). Which rule governs a particular sale is for underwriting; the estoppel shows what the association claims.
• Amending the declaration takes owners of "in excess of 50% of the Units" together with "not less than 66 2/3% of the Board", or owners of "in excess of 80% of the Units" (§ 6.1). A change to a unit's configuration or share needs that owner and its lienholders to join, and changes to the insurance, casualty and condemnation sections need the Primary Institutional First Mortgagee (§ 6.4). Termination needs 80% of the interests and the Primary Institutional First Mortgagee (§ 20), and the association needs 75% of the owners to sue, except to collect or enforce (§ 25.2).
• The developer's mortgages. The consents of The Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company and The Philadelphia National Bank both leave the mortgages' recording data blank, and no release is in our set. Confirm the unit was released from both.
• The execution page. The year in the developer's signature and acknowledgment is a handwritten correction; the mortgagee consents (23 January 1989), the joinder (26 January 1989) and the recording fix it as 1989.
• Nothing later is in our set. Oceanside No. Four's developer recorded a First Amendment with restated by-laws in December 1992; we hold no such instrument for this condominium, so the search forward from 26 January 1989 should look for one.
• Cited but not in our set: the two developer mortgages and any releases, and the Commercial Subdivision of Harbor Terminal plat. FICA's lien and the question of which master covenants govern are on the master page.