Heron Cove at Heron Bay: 148 Parkland homes under 2021 leasing rules

A Heron Cove lease must be in writing and run "for a term no less than one (1) year" (Art. XVIII § 2, p. 54), stricter than the six-month floor in Article V § 2(B) on page 19. In December 2021 the Board's rules, recorded as Instr 117801910 (the County's instrument number), went further.

• No tenant may lease or occupy a lot "during the first twenty-four (24) months after a full or partial transfer of ownership", by any means, foreclosure, gift and inheritance included. Adding or replacing anyone on the title restarts the clock. A lease running at the sale may finish its original term, without extension or renewal (p. 4).
• "All tenants require approval from the Association to occupy a Lot", and a renewal or extension counts as a new lease. Tenants must be natural persons and a single family. Short-term rentals need approval too, though a seller staying up to 90 days after closing is not one (p. 5).
• Page 5 also requires the complete application and lease at least 45 days before the term starts, with $100 per applicant unless the Board sets another amount, and allows background checks and interviews.
• "Failure of the Association to approve the lease within thirty (30) days constitutes a denial of the application", and no tenant may move in first (p. 7).

These limits run alongside Heron Bay's cap of one lease in any 12 months.

Section 720.306(1)(h) generally lets a rental amendment enacted after 1 July 2021 bind only owners who take title after it or agree to it. A buyer closing now takes title after the December 2021 rules, so that protection does not help them.

The limits were adopted as rules rather than as a declaration amendment, so underwriting has to decide whether a rule could impose them at all. Section 720.301(8) lists Chapter 720's "governing documents" as the recorded declaration and its amendments, the articles and the by-laws, leaving out Board rules. Section 720.306(1)(h)1 speaks of governing documents and their amendments, while (h)5, on entity owners, says "amendment or rule".

The filing's certificate, on page 2, says the Board adopted the rules on 8 December 2021. The cover notice on page 1 names "a duly called and noticed meeting of the membership" on "12-8-21", and neither gives a vote count.

The declaration points both ways. Article XVIII § 1 disclaims any intention "to grant to the Association a right of approval or disapproval of purchasers or lessees", except as it provides (p. 54). Article V makes leasing subject to the rules, and lets the Board "make and enforce standards and restrictions" on use until an association meeting overrules, cancels or modifies them (§§ 1–2, p. 18).

For a buyer who intends to rent, Heron Cove's written position is worth having before the contract binds.

Under Article IV § 1 every Heron Cove owner also belongs to the master (p. 17). Heron Cove itself levies assessments and liens its own lots under Articles IX and X, on pages 33 to 38. So the closing needs its estoppel, the association's statement of what the seller owes, as well as the master's. The buyer pays Heron Bay's Capital Payment with no Heron Cove resale fee on top.

• On demand, Article IX § 7 obliges Heron Cove to sign a "Certificate of Payment", for which it may charge "a nominal processing fee" (p. 37). On the Florida Realtors/Florida Bar "AS IS" form, paragraph 9(a) leaves the estoppel fee with the seller unless the contract provides otherwise.
• Before a sale, Article XVIII § 1 requires written notice to Heron Cove with a copy of the contract, and gives the association no right to approve the buyer.
• Article X § 1 makes the buyer jointly and severally liable for the seller's unpaid assessments, so Heron Cove can collect them all from either (p. 38). Chapter 720 imposes the same liability on a buyer.
• Until those arrears are paid, the 2021 rules deny a new owner "occupancy of the Lot or enjoyment of the Common Areas" (p. 10). They except a first mortgagee within what they call Chapter 720's "safe harbor", the statute's cap on what a foreclosing lender owes.

The association keeps up the common areas, and under Article VIII § 1(B) it "may maintain" property it does not own, mowing yards included. The same clause still puts all of a lot's landscaping and irrigation on the owner (p. 31). Page 9 of the 2021 rules now has the association provide landscaping and pruning, grass cutting, swale trees, sidewalk planing and replacement, "Basic Alarm Monitoring", and road pothole repair and resurfacing. The owner keeps the rest, including driveway repair, sod, irrigation and "all exterior portions of the home", as Article VIII § 2 also provides.

Article XI § 2 has each owner "insure his or her Unit from all casualty losses" (p. 41), and under § 1 the association insures only the common areas. An owner whose rear yard meets a lake or canal keeps up the adjoining slopes and banks, under page 24 of the declaration. Page 4 of the 2021 rules bars trees in the lake-bank easement.

The 2021 rules also set work hours on page 2, fences and fruit trees on page 3, and pets, vehicles and roofs on page 10.

• Work hours: exterior work only from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday.
• Fences: bronze aluminum, flat-handrail style, up to 5 feet high and at least 10 feet behind the front plane of the house, with ARC approval. No chain link or wood, and a gate may be locked only if the association holds a key.
• Fruit trees: not allowed.
• Pets: dogs, cats and other household pets, in a number the Board does not deem unreasonable, leashed outside a fully enclosed yard. No dog of mean or violent temperament, and no "bull terrier (pit bull)".
• Vehicles: commercial vehicles, RVs, trailers, boats, motorcycles and trucks go entirely inside a garage unless the Board approves otherwise, and no wheel may rest on the grass. Chapter 720 now shields driveway pickups and out-of-view boats and RVs.
• Roofs: tile, and never painted.

• Heron Cove's lien, like others on WCI's later declaration form, reaches back to the declaration's recording in July 2003. Only taxes and Institutional Mortgagees, the declaration's term for certain mortgage holders, rank ahead of it. Article X § 3 leaves blank how many days after a due date the association's remedies begin (Art. X §§ 2–3, p. 38).
• If an Institutional Mortgagee takes title, it owes no assessments that fell due earlier (Art. IX § 10, p. 37). How these clauses fit with Chapter 720's rules on lien dates and foreclosing lenders is for underwriting, and the closing pays the figure on Heron Cove's estoppel.
• The association may record a Certificate of Non-Compliance against an owner who breaks the declaration or rules (Art. XII § 3(J), p. 48).
• Exhibit A cites the plat as Plat Book 171, Page 23 (p. 60), matching the plat copy at page 81. The master's supplement for Heron Bay Central miscites it.
• Parcel R-3, the 6.79-acre private road bordering all 148 lots, is in the Heron Cove association's name on the Property Appraiser's roll. WCI Communities, Inc. quit-claimed it in 2006 to the master, with parcels on several other plats (OR 42667/1362, dated 12 July 2006, p. 3). The master quit-claimed it to Heron Cove by a deed dated 27 June 2024 and recorded 10 July 2024, "in substitution for" the 2006 deed, which it says WCI "mistakenly conveyed" to the master "instead of" Heron Cove (Instr 119676045, p. 1). It dates the 2006 deed 25 August 2006, the day that deed was recorded.
• Heron Cove's declaration stays out of reach of Florida's Marketable Record Title Act, which can cut off old covenants after 30 years unless they are preserved, until at least 15 July 2033. Whether a given lot sheds the covenants after that turns on its own chain of title. Our search through 20 October 2026 found no notice preserving the declaration. Nor does the master's 2024 notice name it, or any other Neighborhood declaration by name.