Valencia Estates, Fisher Island: first refusal, leasing and the Valencia Waterfront replat

• The association's estoppel. It must be "in recordable form", and no owner may sell until it is in hand (§ 8.10). Our HOA estoppel page gives the fee caps.
• The disclosure summary. The buyer must have it before signing, and cannot waive the right to void a contract signed without it (Fla. Stat. § 720.401).
• Who may occupy the home. Only owners and their "Members' Permittees" may live there (§ 7.19). Those are an individual owner, a corporation's officers, directors, stockholders or employees, a partnership's partners or employees, a trust's fiduciaries or beneficiaries, and approved tenants, each with family.

A right of first refusal lets the association buy or lease the home itself on an outside offer's terms. Article 8 binds every owner but the Developer.

The owner's registered-mail notice gives the Board the offeror's name and address and the terms, and doubles as an offer to the association on those terms (§ 8.2). The association or its designee has 30 days after the notice and any requested information to elect by certified mail. Where the condominium form adds a 20-day sentence, § 8.2 repeats 30 days. A purchase closes at the association's attorneys' office within 45 days of the election. The owner conveys by statutory warranty deed, pays the documentary stamps and supplies an abstract or title binder at least 30 days ahead, then title insurance. If the association passes, the owner has 60 days to accept the outside offer, and new terms or a later sale need a fresh notice.

Using the right takes the prior approval of a majority of the Homes present at a meeting with a quorum (§ 8.3). A sale or lease that skips these steps "shall be voidable at any time at the election of the Association" (§ 8.2). An officer's acknowledged certificate that the right was satisfied or waived is "conclusive" for anyone relying on it in good faith (§ 8.5). Look for one behind each earlier resale or lease.

The right skips transfers to the owner's spouse, adult children, parents, parents-in-law or adult siblings, or to an entity or trust wholly theirs (§ 8.7), as in the Island Developers condominiums. It also skips the Developer, the association, foreclosure sales, deeds in lieu and a Mortgage Lender taking title. Gifts, devises and inheritance are free of it, though the new owner is bound by Article 8 (§ 8.8), and mortgages are unrestricted (§ 8.9).

Yes, with the association's prior written approval, "which approval shall not be unreasonably withheld" (§ 8.1). A written lease of the whole lot and home is required, and the association may end it on the tenant's default. The minimum term is 30 days, and one lease may begin each calendar year.

A stay of over a month makes the occupant a lessee, even without a lease or rent (§ 7.19), and FICA may refuse the ferry to an unapproved tenant. No leasing amendment is recorded through 9 October 2026. Any adopted after 1 July 2021 falls under § 720.306(1)(h), which preserves the small-association rule of § 720.303(1).

Each lot is for single-family use, with one Home and "one cabana house" (§ 7.2). The association does routine lawn cutting, weeding, hedge trimming and pool chemical treatment and skimming, and the owner the rest (§ 5.2). Any visible change needs the Architectural Control Board's written approval, pools, screen enclosures, hedges, paint, shutters and driveways included. It may refuse on "purely aesthetic grounds", and a request left unanswered for thirty days is deemed approved (§ 7.11). Each submission costs a non-refundable $5,000.00, adjustable for inflation, and the Board may require a bond of up to $10,000.00. Ask for its approvals of the existing home. Contractors may work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, not on Sundays or federal holidays (§ 7.3). Signs in public view need the Board's consent (§ 7.8). Trucks, motorcycles, commercial vehicles, boats and trailers stay in enclosed garages or designated spaces (§ 7.12).

Dated as of 1 March 2001, the declaration was not recorded until 6 February 2003. A lot deed recorded before then would pre-date it, so check the vesting deed's date.

The Property Appraiser shows Lots 1 to 4 of Block 2 as one Valencia Waterfront parcel, Lot 1, Block 1, at 6901 Valencia Drive, under a replat recorded on 22 July 2014. No supplemental declaration, joinder or release recorded through 9 October 2026 adds that lot to the declaration or takes it out. How the 12 assessment shares now apply is not of record, so we ask the association.

Assessments are "a continuing lien upon the Lot" (§ 6.1), and the owner's obligation "shall pass to his successors in title" (§ 6.8). A buyer of a lot in arrears may not occupy it or use the Common Properties until they are paid, so they are cleared at closing. Late installments draw a late charge, interest "at the highest lawful rate" and up to 12 months' acceleration (§ 6.8).

A Mortgage Lender's first mortgage recorded before the association's claim of lien outranks the lien. That lender or a foreclosure buyer takes title subject only to assessments "coming due after such foreclosure" (§ 6.9). How that fits § 720.3085 is for underwriting.

Fines stop at $100.00 a violation, or $100.00 a day while one continues, and $1,000.00 in all, after a committee hearing on at least 14 days' notice. They are collected like assessments (§ 9.3), so ask the association to show any fine on its estoppel.

The Developer may amend alone while it or an affiliate holds a lot. Otherwise an amendment takes "not less than 66-2/3% vote of the entire membership", plus the Developer's consent while it owns one (§ 14.7). Every owner is also a FICA member (Art. 12), and in a conflict FICA's Master Covenants prevail (§ 14.9).

As a Chapter 720 association of 12 lots at most, Valencia Estates has 15 or fewer parcel owners. It may enforce against an owner only the deed restrictions in place when that owner bought (§ 720.303(1)).

Exhibit "F", the Design Guidelines (§ 7.11), and Exhibit "G", the casualty-assessment percentages (§ 11.1(b)), were not recorded. We have not read the two plats or the Club's 1993 membership plan.

We searched the Miami-Dade Clerk's Official Records index, current through 9 October 2026, for Valencia Estates' instruments recorded after the declaration, under the association's name and the Valencia Waterfront replat's. It shows the 2014 replat and two 2017 county right-of-way covenants, and no amendment, supplement, joinder or release of the declaration.