Bay Cove at Heron Bay: HOA rules, fees and closing points

• Bay Cove's estoppel. Bay Cove levies its own assessments, backed by its own lien (Declaration Arts. IX–X). The association must give a signed "Certificate of Payment" on demand, which is "conclusive evidence of payment", and may charge "a nominal processing fee" (Art. IX § 7, p. 36). Chapter 720's estoppel statute sets its own delivery time and fee limits (Fla. Stat. § 720.30851; see HOA approvals and estoppels).
• No resale fee in the recorded documents. The $100 Capital Contribution is paid "only … once for each Lot … at the time of conveyance of title by Developer" (Art. IX § 5, pp. 35–36).
• The master's estoppel and Capital Payment. Master assessments are paid directly to the master (Art. IX § 3, p. 35), and the buyer pays the master's Capital Payment on every resale (master page).
• Written notice of the sale, with a copy of the contract, to the association. The declaration says it gives no "right of approval or disapproval of purchasers or lessees" (Art. XVIII § 1, p. 53).
• Rules adopted since 2001. The Board may add use restrictions without recording them (Art. V § 2, p. 18), so ask the association for everything adopted since.
• Entity buyers designate one individual to exercise membership rights, and may change the designation no more than once every six months (Art. IV § 2, p. 17).

Yes. Every lease must be in writing, "for a term no less than one (1) year", and make the tenant subject to the Homeowners Documents (Declaration Art. XVIII § 2, p. 53). Article V separately bars leases under six months (Art. V § 2(B), p. 18); the one-year rule is the stricter. Leasing is also subject to the association's Rules and Regulations (Art. V § 1, p. 18).

The recorded Bay Cove documents have no approval, registration fee, waiting period or cap; the owner sends the association a copy of the lease (Art. XVIII § 1, p. 53). No Bay Cove leasing rule recorded after 2001 is in our set. One adopted after 1 July 2021 would be read against Fla. Stat. § 720.306(1)(h), so for an investor buyer the records need searching forward from 2001.

The master's rules apply on top: one lease in any 12 months, with tenants registered before they move in (master page).

• The city is Parkland. The declaration defines "City" as "the City of Parkland, Florida" (Art. I ¶ 14, p. 6), and the plat puts all of Heron Bay East in the City of Parkland (PB 169/105, sheet 1). The master supplement that brought in Heron Bay East, recorded the day before the declaration, says "the City of Coral Springs" (OR 31395/1976, Instr 100911952, p. 3), which is wrong. We still order municipal lien and permit searches from the property appraiser's record.
• All of Bay Cove is master land, on the face of the documents. That supplement commits "All of Heron Bay East" but "Less and except Nob Hill Road, Parcel B, Parcel U and Parcel L-1 through L-15" (Instr 100911952, p. 3). On the plat, Parcel B is a public road dedication tabulated with Nob Hill Road and Parcel U, while Bay Cove's B-2, B-4, B-5 and B-14 are separately numbered buffer parcels (PB 169/105, sheets 1, 3), which the exception does not name.
• What the plat shows. The Bay Cove lots carry the plat's "zero lot side" symbol (PB 169/105, sheet 3, note 30), which fits the declaration's easements for painting and maintaining walls from the neighboring lot (Art. VII § 1, p. 28). Parcel D is a private road over which the owners of lots in Blocks E, F and G, "and not the public", have an ingress and egress easement; owners of lots and parcels in the plat, and owners of master "Community Property" subject to the master declaration, have one over Parcels A and H (Heron Run Drive); and WCI reserved a perpetual right of ingress and egress over Parcels A and C–H (sheets 1–2). The plat caps Heron Bay East at 360 detached homes, including 25 on Block E, 27 on Block F and 18 on Block G, a note that does "not operate as a restriction in favor of any property owner" (sheet 3, note 26).
• A later amendment of the plat is not in our set. Sheet 1 carries a clerk's box reading "AMENDED 113899895" (PB 169/105, sheet 1). Its number places it between instruments recorded in August and November 2016, but nothing we hold says what it changed. We pull it before relying on the plat for a Bay Cove lot.
• The lien dates itself from the declaration. It "shall be effective from and after the time of recordation … of this Declaration" and is superior to all other liens except taxes and Institutional Mortgagees (Art. X § 2, p. 37). The master's lien, by contrast, attaches only when a claim of lien is recorded. The lien carries interest at 1.5% a month and a late charge of up to $25.00, and the remedies clause leaves the number of days blank (Art. X §§ 1, 3, pp. 37–38). Which rule governs against a particular mortgage or buyer is a question for underwriting; rely on the estoppel.
• Buyers and lenders. A grantee is jointly and severally liable for assessments due at the conveyance (Art. X § 1, p. 37; Fla. Stat. § 720.3085(2)(b)). An Institutional Mortgagee or other purchaser taking title under the mortgage is not liable for assessments that came due before (Art. IX § 10, p. 37).
• Carried over from other WCI forms. The drainage easement is granted over land "shown on the Plat Exemption of Bay Colony, approved by the City of Coral Springs" (Art. VII § 3, p. 29); no Bay Colony plat exemption is in our set, so where the easement lies is uncertain. The by-laws' proxy form refers to a "Plat Exemption for a Portion of Parcel F and Parcel J, Heron Bay Four" (p. 77), and Fleet National Bank's consent calls the document a "Declaration of Neighborhood Covenants" and consents to "the Amendment" (p. 59). None of these touches the lot description in Exhibit A. Ask whether a corrective instrument exists.
• Amending it takes two-thirds of the total votes, with a mortgagee's approval where its security is materially and adversely affected, and the Developer's before the Transfer Date (Art. XVII § 2, p. 52).
• Preservation. The declaration turns 30 on 22 March 2031. We found no Marketable Record Title Act notice for it, and the master's 2024 notice does not list it. How Fla. Stat. § 712.04 and § 712.05 apply turns on each lot's chain of title (master page).
• Cited but not in our set: the plat amendment (Instr 113899895), the Fleet mortgage (OR 30462/207), the BankBoston mortgage that consented to the plat (OR 29652/27), the Bay Colony plat exemption, and any deed of the common areas to the association.