L'Hermitage at Heron Bay: HOA rules, fees and closing points

The association's estoppel certificate, before the deed is signed. Article 6, "Resale Restrictions", says:

• "No Owner may sell or convey his interest in a Lot unless all sums due the Association shall be paid in full and an estoppel certificate in recordable form to such effect shall have been received by the Owner."
• A sale without one "shall be deemed to be a breach of this Declaration, shall be wholly null and void, and shall confer no title or interest whatsoever upon any purchase[r]", although "any deed may be validated by subsequent approval of the Association".
• The association must deliver the certificate within ten (10) days of a written request if everything is paid, or mail notice of what is unpaid within ten days, and a failure to respond in time "shall be deemed an approval of the transfer".
• The owner pays a reasonable sum for it, "not to exceed Fifty Dollars ($50.00)".
• A Preferred Lender taking title by foreclosure or deed in lieu, and the Declarant, are exempt (Declaration Art. 6, pp. 15–16).

Separately, anyone who acquires a Lot with delinquent assessments, even at a judicial sale, "shall not be entitled to the occupancy of such Lot" until the seller's arrears are paid, § 4.9 mortgagees and purchasers excepted (§ 4.8, p. 10). The certificate, being in recordable form, can be recorded with the deed.

Chapter 720's estoppel statute sets its own deadline and fee limits (Fla. Stat. § 720.30851; see HOA approvals and estoppels). How they sit with Article 6's ten days and $50 is a question for underwriting, as is the Board's power to raise the declaration's dollar figures by a consumer price index (§ 11.11, p. 21).

Also:

• No resale contribution. The Capital Contribution of three months' assessments is paid "only … once for each Lot … at the time of conveyance of title by Declarant" (§ 4.16, p. 11).
• No master Neighborhood Expenses. The 1996 covenants say this "is not a Benefitted Neighborhood" under the master declaration (Art. I ¶ 5, p. 3). Their $500-per-home master Capital Payment, $30,000 for 60 Property Units, was the builder's, due by a date the 1998 amendment moved to 31 December 1999 (Art. III ¶¶ 1–3, pp. 8–10; Instr 98390581, p. 1). The master estoppel shows whether anything is still claimed.
• The master's estoppel and Capital Payment, as on the master page.
• A tenant in place needs the association's written approval of the lease.

Only with the association's prior written approval, "which approval shall not be unreasonably withheld" (Declaration § 5.18, p. 14). The terms:

• "No lease shall be approved for a term less than one (1) year. No portion of a Lot and Unit (other than an entire Lot and Unit) may be rented";
• on forms the association approves, which let it terminate the lease as the owner's agent if the tenant defaults;
• unpaid assessments "shall be deemed to be a reasonable basis for withholding approval";
• the owner places "up to Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($250.00)" in escrow against tenant damage and is jointly and severally liable with the tenant beyond it; the balance, less up to $50.00, comes back within ninety days after the tenants leave (§ 5.18, p. 14).

The declaration sets no deadline for the decision, no deemed approval and no application fee, and no rules are recorded, so ask the manager for the application. These rules are in the declaration as recorded in 1997, and no leasing amendment is in our set, so nothing here was adopted after the 1 July 2021 date that Fla. Stat. § 720.306(1)(h) uses for rental amendments. The master's rules apply on top: one lease in any 12 months, tenants registered first (master page).

• The owner maintains the Lot and home, "including, but not limited to, the landscaping, shrubbery, trees, finished surface of the driveway, roof, and all other structures and improvements thereon" — except the lawn and sprinkler system, which the association maintains. If an owner falls behind, the association may do the work after thirty (30) days' written notice and lien the Lot (§ 4.4, p. 8).
• The association maintains, insures and replaces the Common Areas — paving, drainage, street lights, fountains, walls, entrance features, sidewalks and landscaping — "together with the lawns and sprinkler systems on Lots", to the City of Coral Springs' code standard, which the City may enforce and charge to owners pro rata (§ 3.3, p. 5).
• The owner insures the home. The association's casualty insurance covers the Common Areas "(but not for the Units or any personal property therein)" (§ 8.1.1, p. 17). The Board may choose to insure the Units as a common expense (§ 8.1.5, pp. 17–18), so ask whether it has. Flood insurance is optional for the association; if it has none, "each Owner shall be responsible for obtaining flood insurance for his respective Lot" (§ 8.1.3, p. 17).
• Between homes. There is no party-wall article. Each owner has an easement over adjoining Lots to maintain air-conditioning equipment and meters (§ 3.7.1, p. 6) and, where part of a home encroaches, to "maintain and repair the Unit (including, without limitation, the roof overhang and the exterior walls)" (§ 3.7.2, p. 6).
• One Unit per Lot, no more than two stories (§ 5.2, p. 11).

They predate L'Hermitage's declaration and bind the same land. WCI deeded Parcels A, A-1 and A-2 to the builder subject to its Declaration of Neighborhood Covenants, attached as Exhibit 1 (OR 24337/694, p. 1), and L'Hermitage's declaration holds the land subject to them (§ 1.13, pp. 2–3). WCI's 1998 amendment names L'Hermitage at Heron Bay Homeowners' Association, Inc. as the Neighborhood Association they called for (Instr 98390581, p. 1). Because they are recorded inside a deed, a search by document type can miss them; The Pointe, on Heron Bay Four, carries covenants recorded the same way.

On L'Hermitage they add:

• no business and no professional office (1996 covenants Art. II ¶ 1, p. 4);
• at least 2,000 square feet of living area (¶ 3, p. 5), and a height limit of 35 feet, or 22 feet along the south 196.73 feet of the west perimeter line (¶ 2.D, p. 5);
• a garage for at least two cars, no carports, and vehicle repairs only inside the garage (¶ 5.A–B, p. 6);
• pitched roofs of cement or clay tile, or slate — "Cedar shingle and asphalt shingle roofs are not permitted" (¶ 7.A, pp. 6–7);
• driveways of stamped concrete, paver block or brick, never plain concrete, asphalt or loose stone (¶ 8.A, p. 7).

WCI resolves any conflict between them and the master declaration, "and its decision shall be final" (Art. III ¶ 11, p. 13), and may lien a site for the cost of curing an owner's maintenance failure (¶ 6.B, p. 13).

The Buffer Parcels are not part of L'Hermitage. Parcels A-1 and A-2, marked "PLANTING AND NON-ACCESS STRIP" on the plat (PB 159/41, sheet 3), were L'Hermitage Common Areas under the 1997 declaration (§ 1.6, p. 2). Two amendments recorded one after the other on 2 July 1998 changed that: WCI's provides that they "shall hereafter be owned and maintained by the Association" — the master — and ends the builder's and L'Hermitage's duty to maintain them (Instr 98390581, p. 1); the builder's removes them "from the lien, effect and operation of the DECLARATION" (Instr 98390582, p. 1). The master joined neither, and no deed of those parcels to it is in our set. Check that the legal description says Parcel A.

• The void-sale clause reaches back. Each earlier resale in the chain should have had an estoppel certificate, or a later validation by the association. What a missing one means for an earlier conveyance is a question for underwriting.
• The school impact lien. The Heron Bay Three plat was recorded on 4 December 1995, the same minute as an Educational Impact Lien Agreement between Broward County and WCI (OR 24213/65, Instr 95531596). It imposes a County lien on the whole plat for the school impact fees WCI agreed to pay before each home's building permit, $307,920.00 for Parcel A, adjusted annually; "Such lien shall continue from the date of this Agreement until fully paid, discharged, released or barred by law", it runs with the land and binds WCI's grantees, and mortgages are subordinate to it (¶¶ 1–2, p. 2). The County is to record evidence of satisfaction once it is paid (¶ 2(d), p. 3). WCI's deed conveyed the land "FURTHER SUBJECT TO: Educational Impact Lien Agreement, dated December 4, 1995, and recorded in Official Records Book 24213, at Page 65 … which the Grantee shall assume and agree to pay" (OR 24337/694, p. 1), but no satisfaction, release or recorded assignment and assumption is in our set. The title search should turn up the County's release; if it does not, it goes to underwriting (master page).
• Thirty years, and preservation. The 1996 covenants ran 30 years from 3 January 1996 and now renew for ten-year periods; since 3 January 2026 owners of two-thirds of the Property Units may terminate or modify them by recorded instrument (Art. III ¶ 13, pp. 13–14). The L'Hermitage declaration runs ninety-nine (99) years from recording, then renews for ten-year periods unless owners of 75% of the Lots record a revocation at least three years ahead (§ 11.1, pp. 19–20); it turns 30 on 12 May 2027. Covenants that predate a lot's root of title are extinguished unless an exception applies (Fla. Stat. § 712.04), and an association preserves them by recording a notice (§ 712.05). No notice for either is in our set, and the master's 2024 notice lists neither. Whether they bind a particular lot turns on its chain of title, a question for underwriting.
• Lien priority. The lien is superior to all liens except tax liens and "the first mortgage lien of any Preferred Lender recorded … prior to recordation by the Association of a claim of lien"; a lender or foreclosure buyer takes subject only to assessments coming due afterwards (§ 4.9, p. 10). Assessments are the personal obligation of the owner when due "and all subsequent Owners until paid" (§ 4.1, p. 7), and Chapter 720 makes a buyer jointly and severally liable for them too (Fla. Stat. § 720.3085(2)(b)). After fifteen days the association may charge a late fee no greater than the unpaid installment, or accelerate the next twelve months (§ 4.8, p. 9).
• Fines of up to $100.00, $500.00 and $1,000.00 for a first, second and later violation, after a Board hearing on at least six days' notice (§ 7.3, p. 16), are collected as assessments (§ 7.3.5, p. 17). A fine under $1,000 cannot become a lien (Fla. Stat. § 720.305(2)), so it shows on the estoppel, not in the search.
• Lot descriptions. No recorded instrument designating the Lots is in our set; the by-laws refer to an "approved site plan of L'Hermitage at Heron Bay, unrecorded, on file with the City of Coral Springs" (Exh. C, p. 45). The plat itself is stamped as amended by OR 24732/384, which we do not hold. Check each description against Parcel A.
• Execution. The declaration was acknowledged before a notary who also prepared it and signed it as a witness, and the notary's printed name and commission lines are blank, though the seal gives them (pp. 24–25). The builder's 1998 amendment has no subscribing witnesses, and its acknowledgment leaves both "personally know[n]" and "has produced his Florida driver's license" standing (Instr 98390582, p. 2). Whether either matters is for underwriting.
• Amendments. The builder could amend alone while it or an affiliate held any Lot; otherwise an amendment takes 66-2/3% of the entire membership at a meeting (§ 11.4, p. 20). No assignment of the builder's rights, and nothing showing when it sold its last Lot, is in our set.
• Not in our set: the SunTrust mortgage at OR 24337/714, whose joinder subordinates it to the declaration but not to the assessment lien (p. 26) — confirm it is released; the power of attorney for WCI's 1998 amendment (OR 26908/845); and anything recorded for L'Hermitage after 2 July 1998.
• After closing, give the association the recorded deed. A new member's rights start only then (Exh. B Art. V, p. 31).