Oceanside No. Four, 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" of a request by an owner or mortgagee (§ 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 of termination of the right, executed by an officer, may be treated as conclusive by anyone relying on it in good faith (§§ 18.4–18.5). Record it with the deed.
• Notice of the sale. The owner's notice of the offer and its terms, sent to the board by registered mail, starts the association's time to decide (§ 18.1).
• The right unit number. For Unit 7716 or 7776, check that the deed and the commitment use the number fixed by the 1994 amendment, not the 7715 or 7775 still printed in Exhibit 2.
• 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 recorded documents have no transfer fee, capital contribution, working-capital or approval fee. The first-refusal certificate's fee may not exceed what is reasonably required and the Act's maximum (§ 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). A transfer to a trust or entity owned by the owner or close family is exempt from the right of first refusal (§ 18.7).
• Parking, golf-cart and storage spaces. These are limited common elements assigned by written assignments that are not recorded, with a copy held by the association (§ 3.3(b), (d)). The space assigned when the developer sold the unit passes only with the unit; extra spaces can be reassigned to another unit. Ask the association which spaces go with the unit.

Yes, on sales and leases. No owner other than the Developer may sell, and no owner may lease, except by complying with § 18, which covers a bona fide offer to purchase or lease that the owner intends to accept (§ 18.1).

1. Notice. The owner gives the board notice of the offer and its terms by registered mail (§ 18.1).
2. Thirty days. The association or its designee may elect, "Not later than thirty (30) days after receipt" of the notice and any further information requested, to buy or lease on the same terms. Closing is "within forty five (45) days" after the association's notice of election; the seller pays the documentary stamps and delivers title evidence at least 30 days before closing.
3. Twenty days, and sixty. If the association does not act, the owner may close with the outside buyer "within sixty (60) days", but that paragraph speaks of the association failing to accept "within twenty (20) days", which conflicts with the thirty (master page). Allow 30, and get the certificate in every case. A sale not completed on the terms offered starts over.
4. A members' vote. The association may not exercise the option without the approval of the owners of a majority of the units present and voting at a meeting with a quorum (§ 18.2).
5. Voidable sales. A sale that ignores § 18 is voidable by the association (§ 18.1).

Exempt (§§ 18.7–18.9): transfers to the owner's spouse, adult children, parents, parents-in-law or adult siblings, or to a trust or entity of which they are and remain the sole beneficiaries or owners; transfers by the Developer, by the association, by an officer at a foreclosure sale, and by an Institutional First Mortgagee taking by foreclosure or deed in lieu; gifts, devises and inheritance, the successor remaining bound. Mortgages may be given without restriction.

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." "All leases shall be in writing, be approved by the Association", and the association may 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 "each and every time his Unit is to be occupied by a Tenant", and is jointly and severally liable for the tenant.
• The association may require an escrow of up to "the equivalent of one month's rental".
• The section also covers subleases, assignments, and renewals that change more than the expiration date and rent, and every lease also goes through the right of first refusal (§ 18.1). No charge may be made for approving the renewal or extension of a previously approved lease (§ 18.5).

No minimum term, approval period, fee or interview is stated. A person occupying a unit for more than one month is treated as a lessee unless the board decides otherwise (§ 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).

An amendment affecting the leasing or sale restrictions also needs the approval of Institutional First Mortgagees (§ 21.2(j)–(k)), and no leasing amendment is in our set. One made later would also 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, as amended. "the lien is effective from, and shall relate back to, January 1, 1992, or the date of the recording of this Declaration, whichever shall last occur. However, as to first mortgages of record, the lien is effective from and after recording of a claim of lien" (First Amendment ¶ 5, § 13.2, OR 15756/169). Unpaid assessments bear interest at the highest lawful rate from 15 days after the due date, with a late fee of up to the greater of $25.00 or 5% of the installment.
• The buyer owes the seller's arrears. In a voluntary conveyance the grantee is jointly and severally liable with the grantor for all unpaid assessments (§ 13.1), as a unit owner is under Chapter 718: "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 amended, an Institutional First Mortgagee that acquires title by foreclosure or deed in lieu is liable for the assessments that came due before, but "the Institutional First Mortgagee's liability is limited to a period not exceeding six (6) months, but in no event does the Institutional First Mortgagee's liability exceed one percent (1%) of the original mortgage debt", its liability starting 30 days after it received the last payment of principal or interest (First Amendment ¶ 6, § 13.5). This replaced the 1992 text, under which the lender owed nothing unless a claim of lien was recorded before its mortgage. Chapter 718 now sets 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.
• Fines. Under the restated by-laws, a fine may be levied only after a committee hearing, is at most $100.00 a violation and $1,000.00 in the aggregate, and is never a lien.
• Amending the declaration, as amended, takes "in excess of 66 2/3% of the voting interests" (First Amendment ¶ 3, § 6.1). A change to a unit's size, appurtenances or share needs the joinder of that owner and all its lienholders (§ 6.2), and changes to insurance, reconstruction or condemnation need the Primary Institutional First Mortgagee (§ 6.3). The developer could amend alone while it could elect a majority of the board, except for time-shares and those unit changes (§ 6.4). It made both amendments in our set alone, the First Amendment reciting that it could still elect a majority; nothing we hold shows when control passed to the owners.
• Two units were renumbered. The amendment recorded on 15 March 1994 (OR 16283/4335, CFN 94R124735) corrects a scrivener's error by the surveyor: the unit shown on Exhibit 3 as Unit 7715 is deemed Unit 7716, and Unit 7775 is deemed Unit 7776. Exhibit 2, the share table, still lists 7715 and 7775. Check the legal description on the deed and the commitment, and the Property Appraiser's numbering.
• A page is missing from our copy. The First Amendment runs from OR 15756/169 to 189, but our copy lacks OR 15756/179, a page of the restated by-laws. The first digit of its clerk's file number is cut off; the year makes it 92R505148.
• The pool. Owners may use "the swimming pool and related facilities" within the condominium property of "Oceanside at Fisher Island Condominium No. Three"; the easement "is set forth in the declaration of the Adjacent Condominium", costs are shared by unit count, and No. Three's association regulates use (§ 22). Oceanside No. Three's declaration provides for a neighbor's use of its pool (No. Three Declaration § 22, OR 14778/229).
• Lawsuits. The association needs a 75% vote of owners to sue, except to enforce the declaration or collect assessments (§ 26.2).
• Cited but not in our set: OR 15756/179, the condominium plans ("Condominium Plans Bk. 250 Page 13", the first digit uncertain), the Mutual Benefit Life mortgage and any release, and the Lindisfarne on Fisher Island Section 3 plat. FICA's lien and the question of which master covenants govern are on the master page.