The Colony at Heron Bay: HOA rules, fees and closing points

A second estoppel, and little else from the Colony's own documents.

• Two estoppel certificates, one from The Colony at Heron Bay Association, Inc. and one from the master association. Each lot is assessed by both (Declaration Art. IV ¶ 1, p. 10; Art. V ¶ 6, p. 11).
• No fee to the Colony association appears in its recorded documents: no capital contribution, transfer fee or working capital charge on a resale. The master's resale Capital Payment still applies — see the master page. Because our set ends in 2000, have the estoppel confirm that nothing has been added since.
• Assessments are quarterly, in advance. By written consent of all three directors, the annual assessment began on 1 January 2000, "payable in advance in quarterly installments" (Instr 100308209, p. 2). An owner more than 15 days late may have the rest of the year's assessment accelerated (Declaration Art. IV ¶ 4, p. 10). No later change is recorded; the estoppel should give the current due dates.
• No approval of a sale or a lease, and no right of first refusal.
• The manager is TMG Management, 954-782-7820, according to the master association's website; no Colony document we hold names one. Confirm before ordering the estoppel.
• Municipal searches in Parkland. The declaration places the land in the City of Parkland and names the Parkland Police Department as responsible for the neighborhood (Declaration Art. I ¶ 5, p. 2; Art. II ¶ 12.B, p. 7), and the plat is titled City of Parkland (PB 165/18, sheet 1). The 2001 master supplement that annexed the plat recites Coral Springs (Instr 100811009, p. 4). We order lien and permit searches from the property appraiser's record.

Yes, on the master's terms. The Colony's documents set no minimum term, no approval and no limit on how often. The master allows a lease once in any 12-month period, with tenants registered before they move in — see the master page.

The Colony declaration binds tenants and their guests as it binds owners, and the owner "shall be responsible for all violations" by them (Declaration Art. V ¶ 5, p. 11).

No Colony leasing amendment is in our set, which ends in July 2000. A rental amendment adopted after 1 July 2021 generally binds only owners who take title after it or consent to it, though limits on leases shorter than six months or on more than three leases a calendar year bind everyone (Fla. Stat. § 720.306(1)(h)). For an investor buyer we search the records forward before saying what applies.

• The Colony lien needs no recorded claim, and it has no mortgagee clause. Every owner, "including any purchaser at a judicial sale", covenants to pay annual assessments and special assessments "for capital improvements or major repairs", and assessments, late charges, collection costs and "reasonable attorney's fees" are "a continuing lien upon the LOT" and the owner's personal obligation (Declaration Art. IV ¶ 1, p. 10). The declaration does not require a claim of lien to be recorded for the lien to attach. A buyer is also jointly and severally liable with the seller for assessments due up to the transfer (Fla. Stat. § 720.3085(2)(b)). The estoppel, not the lien search, shows what is owed.
• Bank-owned resales. Unlike The Falls, the Colony declaration has no clause subordinating its lien to a first mortgage. Chapter 720 limits a first mortgagee's liability for earlier assessments where the association was joined in the foreclosure (§ 720.3085(2)(c)). Which rule governs a particular sale is a question for underwriting.
• The declaration came before the annexation. The Colony declaration was recorded in December 1998, more than two years before the supplement that brought the Colony lots under the master declaration, recorded 5 February 2001 (Instr 100811009). The Colony association joined that supplement "for convenience only". The earlier Supplement No. 6 of January 1998 is not Colony land: the plat shows its 19.037-acre tract is Blocks D and E and their parcels, the Waterford Estates land, south of the drainage area that separates Block D from the Colony blocks (PB 165/18, sheets 3–5; Instr 98020807, p. 3). So for any title question turning on 23 December 1998 to 5 February 2001, the master covenants were not yet of record against these lots by supplement, although the Colony declaration says the lots are held subject to them (p. 1).
• Who made the amendments. Both amendments were made by WCI Communities, Inc. as "successor by merger" of WCI Communities Limited Partnership (Instr 99572303, p. 1; Instr 100384655, p. 1). No merger document is in our set, and neither amendment states that the Declarant still held its power to amend alone, which lasted until three months after 90% of the lots were sold (Declaration Art. V ¶ 9, p. 12). Both also carry execution slips. They change only the screen-enclosure rule, so this is a question for underwriting only if a closing turns on that rule. The 2000 assessment certificate has one too: it recites that the President was "duly sworn", but its notarial certificate is an acknowledgment, not a jurat, and the notary's printed-name line is blank (Instr 100308209, p. 1).
• How the declaration is amended now. By "not less than 66-2/3% vote of the entire membership" at a meeting, with the Declarant's joinder while it owns a lot and the amendment affects its interest (Declaration Art. V ¶ 9, p. 12).
• Conflicts with the master. The declaration does not say the master controls; WCI, as Declarant, "reserves the right and the power to resolve any such conflict, and its decision shall be final" (Declaration Art. V ¶ 8, p. 12).
• The covenants run to 23 December 2028, then extend in 10-year periods unless owners of a majority of the lots record an instrument changing or terminating them (Declaration Art. V ¶ 10, p. 12). Covenants that predate a lot's root of title — a title transaction at least 30 years old — are extinguished unless an exception applies (Fla. Stat. § 712.04); an association preserves them by recording a notice (§ 712.05). No preservation notice for the Colony declaration is in our set, and the master's 2024 notice does not list it.
• Common areas. Parcel A of the plat is master common area, a roadway, drainage and utility parcel for all Heron Bay owners. Parcel C, the neighborhood road, and Parcels B-1 to B-4, the buffers, become the Colony association's common area once WCI conveys them (Declaration Art. I ¶ 7, p. 2; Art. II ¶ 1.B–F, pp. 3–4). No such deed is in our set.
• What the plat grants. Parcel A is Heron Bay Boulevard and Parcel C (N.W. 71 Street) a private street. The owners of lots in Blocks A, B and C, "and not the public", have an ingress and egress easement over Parcel C; all lot and parcel owners, and owners of master "Community Property" subject to the master declaration, have one over Parcel A; and WCI reserved a perpetual right over Parcels A, B and C. Drainage and maintenance areas 1 to 3 are dedicated to the public (PB 165/18, sheet 1). The plat's 93-home cap covers the 52 Colony and 41 Waterford lots and does "not operate as a restriction in favor of any property owner" (sheet 3, note 24).
• Not in our set: the association's by-laws, the common-area deeds, and the mortgages whose holders consented to the declaration, the plat and the Second Amendment (OR 26082/1, OR 27540/707, OR 30462/207).
• After closing, send the association the recorded deed. A new member's rights "shall not become effective until the new MEMBER presents the NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION with a recorded copy of the deed of conveyance" (Articles Art. V, Declaration p. 18).