The Pointe at Heron Bay: Shelby Homes' 68 zero-lot-line houses on Parcel B

Both bind every Pointe lot, along with the master's covenants. WCI's covenants, Exhibit 1 to its 1996 deed of the land to Shelby, set what may be built. Shelby's declaration sets the assessments, lien, leasing and use rules and upkeep that The Pointe's association applies. Under Art. I ¶ 4 and Art. III ¶ 1.A, Parcel B may hold no more than 68 homes, all "zero lot line". Article II ¶¶ 3 and 5 set a 2,000-square-foot minimum for living area, require a garage for two or more cars and bar carports.

Article II ¶ 4 of the covenants required Shelby to "create and establish a Neighborhood Association" before the first home sale. They never name it, but The Pointe's declaration covers the same land, so its association is very likely the one they meant. Under Art. II ¶ 11, WCI may do upkeep not done "to the satisfaction of DECLARANT" after 15 days' notice, and lien the lot if not repaid. Article III ¶ 8 has WCI settle conflicts with the master, "whose decision shall be final", as under WCI's other Neighborhood Covenants.

Section 7.4 of the declaration (p. 13) and Art. II ¶ 1.B of the covenants both allow a home business only if no customers come and nothing shows from outside. Under Art. III ¶ 2, the covenants' one-time $500 a home was Shelby's to pay on new-home sales. Resale buyers owe none of it, and it is separate from Heron Bay's Capital Payment and from The Pointe's own $500.

The Pointe's association issues the second estoppel, its statement of what the seller owes, and we order it with the master's.

• $500 from the buyer. The 2004 amendment at Instr 103616508, the County's instrument number, added § 7.38, which lets the association impose the fee "to be collected from the purchaser" (p. 1). It comes on top of Heron Bay's Capital Payment.
• Arrears before move-in. Section 9.1, on page 20, makes a buyer owe the seller's unpaid assessments. Unless the buyer is a foreclosing first mortgagee, § 10.1.6 bars it from the home and the common areas until they are paid (p. 22).
• Coral Springs searches. WCI's deed places Parcel B in Coral Springs, so the City gets the municipal lien search.
• A copy of the recorded deed. By-Laws § 2.2, on page 37 of the declaration, excuses The Pointe's association from recognizing a new owner until it has one.

Under § 7.18 a Pointe lease runs for six months or more, and only the Approving Party can allow a shorter one (p. 16). Section 1.1 makes that party Shelby, the Declarant, while it owns any lot, then the association (pp. 1–2). Each lease is subject to the documents, and the owner may be required to deposit up to one month's rent in escrow against damage a tenant causes. The association approves no tenant, yet § 10.6 lets it evict one who materially violates the documents, at the owner's cost (p. 24). Heron Bay's master rule still caps a Pointe home at one lease in any 12 months, with each tenant registered.

No leasing amendment is recorded through 20 October 2026, so Chapter 720's 2021 rental-amendment rule has nothing to catch. A change needs two-thirds of the owners plus lender approval under § 12.4(viii) (p. 26), which the 2022 amendment left alone.

Yes. Under § 5.1.5 the association periodically paints exterior walls and doors and cleans the roofs (pp. 9–10). Section 5.1.2 adds all landscaping and § 5.1.6 the privacy walls, "including the privacy walls constructed upon any LOT". Sections 5.1.4, 5.1.7 and 5.1.8 cover the common sprinklers, sidewalks, street lighting and surface water system.

Section 5.2, on page 10, leaves the owner the roof and walls beyond that painting and cleaning, plus doors, garage doors, windows, patios, pools, screens and the driveway. Under § 5.1.11, on the same page, casualty damage is the owner's too, even to parts the association maintains and whether or not insured. Replacement-cost cover on the house is the owner's to buy (§ 7.15, p. 15). If an owner leaves a written demand for proof unanswered for 10 days, the association may insure the house itself and recover the premium, so ask whether the seller owes one.

A survey of a Pointe lot should show each "ZERO WALL", which §§ 8.1 to 8.3 define as a wall on or within 4 feet of a lot line (p. 19). Whoever owns the wall has a 4-foot maintenance easement on the neighboring lot, usable on 24 hours' written notice from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and at any time in an emergency. Without consent, the neighbor may not attach anything to the wall or paint it.

How the $500 fee was adopted is open to question. The 2004 certificate recites a members' meeting on 24 November 2003, of which we found no minutes. Yet it says the change was "proposed and adopted by unanimous vote of the Board of Directors" and states no owner vote (Instr 103616508, p. 1). Section 12.1 then required two-thirds of the owners, and § 12.4 institutional lenders as well for a material change to "assessments" or "restrictions on an OWNER's right to sell or transfer" (pp. 25–26). The President signed alone, without the Secretary's certification § 12.1 calls for, and the certificate gets the declaration's name wrong and borrows condominium terms. The Enclave's May 2003 certificate for the same § 7.38, Instr 102979217, does recite a two-thirds member vote on its first page.

The 2022 amendment cut § 12.1's vote to "a majority of the OWNERS" and ended the Declarant's power to amend alone. It recites consent of "more than 2/3 of the members", but only a Vice President signed it, without the President and Secretary (Instr 118155468, pp. 1–2).

Recorded as a deed's exhibit, WCI's covenants are easy to miss. WCI alone signed them, and they run with the land "binding upon and enforceable by DECLARANT, its successors and assigns", without separately naming lot owners, under Art. III ¶ 10. Their first 30-year term ran out on 1 July 2026. Since then, owners of two-thirds of the Property Units, as the covenants call the homes, may terminate or modify them by a recorded instrument, and our search through 20 October 2026 found none.

Under Florida's Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA), covenants more than 30 years old can be cut off unless preserved, at the earliest on 1 July 2026 for WCI's covenants and 9 December 2027 for the declaration. Our search through 20 October 2026 found no notice preserving either set, and the master's 2024 notice names no Neighborhood declaration by name. The 2022 amendment is indexed under "POINTE AT HERON BAY ASSN INC" and cites the declaration at OR Book 27381, Page 425 (pp. 1–2). Whether that preserves the declaration is for underwriting. Whether WCI's covenants still bind today's owners, and how a lot fares under MRTA's lot-by-lot test, are questions for underwriting.

Parcel B carries $230,940 of the County's 1995 school impact lien on the plat (OR 24291/831, pp. 2–3), and no County satisfaction or release of the whole parcel is recorded. The County has released lots on the plat one at a time, 68 of them, so the title search looks for a partial release naming the lot. Without one, underwriting decides whether a Pointe lot is insurable, and Heron Bay's note on school impact liens sets out why.

Under § 10.1.3 a Pointe lien takes effect only once a claim of lien is recorded, as under Heron Bay's builders' form. Section 10.1.6 then excuses whoever takes title by first-mortgage foreclosure, or by a deed given to the lender in place of one, from earlier assessments unless such a claim preceded the mortgage (pp. 21–22). Because Chapter 720 has lien rules of its own, which rule governs a bank-owned Pointe resale is a question for underwriting.

The Property Appraiser cites no replat for Lots 1 to 68, and we found no City plat exemption or unrecorded site plan for them. Match the seller's deed to Parcel B, as Villa Sorrento and The Enclave sit on other parcels of the plat. Neither an assignment of the Declarant's rights nor any association rules are recorded through 20 October 2026. Shelby has since been dissolved, and its 2014 and 2015 deeds turned the common land over to the association "for winding up the business of the corporation" (Instr 112678814; Instr 112770132). Ask the association who now acts as Approving Party and whether it has rules.