Cypress Pointe at Heron Bay: condominium rules, fees and closing points

The building number decides it:

Everything else — association, budgets, leasing, approval, lien, insurance, restrictions — reads the same in all four. Cypress Pointe II has no Building 20: its tenth building is 40 (Cypress Pointe II Declaration p. 66), and Building 20 is in III. III and IV were recorded five minutes apart in the same book. The deed, commitment and estoppel request should all name the condominium that matches the building.

• The Cypress Pointe estoppel. It should show two assessments: the unit's 1/60 share of its own condominium's expenses, and an equal share of neighborhood-wide expenses across every unit the association governs, "contemplated" as 1/240 (§ 5.1, p. 19). The declarations promise a certificate within 15 days (§ 14.2, p. 32); Chapter 718's current estoppel rules also apply.
• The master estoppel as well, with the master's Capital Payment. Every unit is subject to the Heron Bay declaration (§ 1.3(a), p. 6), and in a conflict "the terms of the Community Declaration shall take precedence" (§ 18, p. 40), a term the declarations use without defining.
• No fee to Cypress Pointe is set in the recorded documents: no capital contribution, transfer fee or working-capital charge.
• No approval of an individual buyer, and no right of first refusal. An officer certifies the assessments paid or owed, and the new owner delivers a copy of the deed to the association and the Management Firm (§ 19.1, pp. 42–43).
• An entity buyer's occupants need approval. The person who signs for a corporation, trust or other entity is the primary occupant unless another is designated, and the purchase is "conditioned upon the approval by the Master Condominium Association (to the extent applicable) of the primary occupant and of all other occupants". The designation can change once a year at most (§ 18.2, p. 40).

Yes, on these terms (§ 19.2, p. 43):

• at least 180 consecutive days, and no more than one lease in a calendar year;
• none while the owner is behind on any assessment; once current, the owner "may rent or lease a Unit without further approval" but must tell the Management Firm the tenant and the term;
• whole units only, subleases under the same limits, and a standard lease form if the association requires one;
• while the unit is leased, the tenant has the use of the common areas and the owner does not.

The master's rules apply on top: one lease in any 12 months, tenants registered before moving in. The declarations are not consistent on approval: § 19.2 requires none, but § 18.1 speaks of an "approved lease" and § 18.2 conditions an entity's lease on approval of its occupants (p. 40). Ask the association what it requires. No leasing amendment is in our set; Chapter 718 limits whom a later rental amendment binds.

The drywall at the unit's boundary is a limited common element the owner maintains (§§ 3.3(a)(vi), 3.3(b)(ix), pp. 13, 15). The association carries liability cover of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence (§ 15.3(b), p. 34). This split was written in 2004 and 2007, and Chapter 718's insurance rules have changed since; how current law divides coverage is a question for underwriting before the table is relied on for a claim or a lender questionnaire.

• 40 buildings, numbered 1 to 40, each with six units on two floors: A–C on the first floor, D–F on the second, garages on the ground floor. The I and II plats label each "TWO STORY 6 UNIT RESIDENCE" (Cypress Pointe I Declaration p. 55; Instr 105937625, p. 4); the III and IV unit sheets show the same two floors (Instr 110951287, p. 6; Cypress Pointe IV Declaration p. 57).
• Only Buildings 11, 12 and 14 were certified substantially complete when their condominium was created (Cypress Pointe I Declaration p. 51). The surveyors for II, III and IV certified the improvements "NOT SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETE". Certificates for the other buildings came later by amendment; the dates are in the table below.
• Every building but one has a certificate in our set. Building 31's was recorded 5 May 2011 (Instr 110026864), Building 30's 10 June 2011 (Instr 110088962) and Building 24's 29 January 2013 (Instr 111285121). None is in our set for Building 37 (Cypress Pointe III), and no filing after the declaration mentions it.
• Building 31's garages carry the wrong number. Its recorded floor plan labels the six garages "GARAGE UNIT 14-A" to "14-F", while the units and parking spaces on the same sheet are 31-A to 31-F (Instr 110026864, p. 6). Building 14 is in Cypress Pointe I; the Building 30 sheet labels its garages 30-A to 30-F (Instr 110088962, p. 6). The garage is a limited common element of the unit (§ 3.3(a), p. 13), so for a Building 31 unit we describe it by the unit it serves; whether a corrective amendment is needed is a question for underwriting.
• Nothing in the recorded documents addresses milestone inspections or structural reserve studies. Ask the association for any reports.

• Building 37 has no completion certificate in our set. The later certificates were recorded, in the successor developer's words, "to allow units in such building to be conveyed to individual purchasers" (Instr 110951287, p. 1). Before a unit in Building 37 is insured, the records should be searched for its certificate; what follows if none was recorded is a question for underwriting. So is a developer deed of a Building 31 unit dated before 5 May 2011, or of a Building 30 unit before 10 June 2011.
• The recorded access is the Declaration and Grant of Easements. Each declaration submits it as part of the condominium (§ 1.2, p. 6). WCI recorded it on 6 December 2004, before any condominium was declared (OR 38648/525, Instr 104542906). It burdens 35.679 acres of Parcel A with perpetual, non-exclusive easements for emergency access, utilities and drainage, "legal ingress to and from the Property and public roadways" over Parcel R, and ingress, egress, utilities, drainage and "parking services" along the internal roads (Easement Declaration §§ 2(a)–(h), pp. 1–2). The two road easements run to "the present and future owners of portions of the Property" and are granted to the Master Condominium Association and Heron Bay Community Association, Inc., among others (§§ 2(g)–(h), p. 2). It has no maintenance or cost-sharing clause; upkeep comes from the condominium declarations (§ 7.1(b), p. 22). Once the association's consent to an amendment is needed, approval by "a majority of the members of the board of directors shall be the only requirement", with "no obligation for a unit owner vote" (Easement Declaration § 8, p. 3).
• Its exhibits were drawn for an earlier plan. They are captioned with condominium names no recorded declaration uses, Exhibit B carries a surveyor's certificate that its improvements are "NOT SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETE", and § 2 jumps from (c) to (g) (Easement Declaration pp. 2, 6, 9, 18). None of this obviously affects a unit; we note it for underwriting.
• The other easements and the plat are ordinary. The six other § 1.3 easements are utility, access and drainage grants through the common areas to Florida Power & Light, BellSouth, AT&T Broadband, Comcast and North Springs Improvement District (OR 33515/343, 38435/439, 38435/448, 38561/1027, 38648/408, 38648/475); none charges a unit. Expect them and the plat as exceptions on the commitment. Still not in our set: City of Parkland Resolution 2003-46 (§ 1.3, p. 6), and a one-page instrument recorded at OR 44393/471, between the III and IV declarations.
• Title to the roads, Parcel R and the pool. The declarations' plats label the roads "Master Condominium Association Property", and the pool, cabana and play area lie outside Cypress Pointe I and II (Instr 105937624, p. 3; Instr 105937625, p. 4). That property was to be conveyed to the association (§§ 1.5(b), 25.5, pp. 7, 47). Heron Bay North Plat 1 dedicates no part of Parcel A, and dedicates Parcel R to no one: it gives unit owners, and owners of Heron Bay Committed Property "subject to" the master declaration, easements over Parcel R, and reserves WCI's own perpetual right (PB 173/105, sheet 1). The easement declaration grants easements, not title. No deed of any of this land to an association is in our set.
• A successor developer with no recorded assignment in our set. WCI Communities, LLC signed the 2009 and 2010 amendments, and Cypress Pointe Holdings, LLC those from 2011 to 2014 as "successor developer". Section 2.17 requires a recorded assignment before an assignee becomes the Developer; none is in our set, nor any instrument turning WCI Communities, Inc. into an LLC. A 2013 Secretary of State certificate shows only that the company exists and was formed in March 2010 (Instr 111365006). Its 2011 filings came within seven years of the first Cypress Pointe declaration (22 December 2004), its 2012–2014 filings after. Whether owners already controlled the board when those amendments were made under the developer's § 6.2 power is a question for underwriting.
• Buildings 18, 19 and 40. Their certificate came in Cypress Pointe II's Fourth Amendment of 17 July 2007, which leaves its execution date blank and, unlike the Third, does not recite that the developer still controlled the association (Instr 107221531, p. 1). The developer could amend alone only until owners took control (§ 6.2(a), p. 20). Whether turnover had happened by then, and any developer deed of those units dated earlier, are questions for underwriting.
• Execution. On several instruments the notary was also a subscribing witness, two December 2007 amendments were signed by an "Authorized Agent" with no recorded authority (Instr 107543243, 107543242), Cypress Pointe III's Second Amendment leaves its date blank, the Building 31 filing was acknowledged before the attorney who prepared it a day before its surveyor's sheet is dated (Instr 110026864, pp. 1–3), and the successor developer's signer is a "Managing Member" on its IV filings and a "Manager" on its III filings (Instr 110026864, p. 2; Instr 110951287, p. 2): a question for underwriting.
• The buyer owes what the seller did not pay. A unit owner is jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for assessments due up to the transfer (Fla. Stat. § 718.116(1)(a); § 14.1(a), p. 31). The lien is "effective on the earliest date allowed by law, which shall be no later than as of the recording of the claim of lien" (§ 14.1(b), p. 31). A first mortgagee taking title by foreclosure or deed in lieu is liable "only to the extent provided by the Act" (§ 14.1(e), p. 32); how that applies to a bank-owned sale is for underwriting. "No fine will become a lien against a unit" (By-Laws Art. VIII § 2, p. 90).
• Master Neighborhood status and city. No master supplement names Cypress Pointe a Neighborhood; ask the master's manager whether it bills Neighborhood Expenses to these units. The master supplement for this plat recites Coral Springs (Instr 104561424), but the declarations and the plat itself say Parkland (PB 173/105, sheet 1).
• Nothing after 18 March 2014 is in our set, and no owner-adopted amendment at all. A search forward should look for amendments, recorded by-law amendments and any merger of the four condominiums. No Chapter 712 preservation notice is in our set; the Declaration and Grant of Easements turns 30 on 6 December 2034 and the earliest condominium declaration on 22 December 2034.

None of the amendments changes a use, leasing, assessment or insurance provision.