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

A second estoppel, a $500 fee from the buyer, and the seller's arrears paid in full.

• Two estoppel certificates, from The Pointe at Heron Bay Association, Inc. and from the master association. The declaration adds its own certificate of whether the owner is in default, due within 15 days of a written request, which protects a buyer or lender who relies on it (Declaration § 10.1.8, p. 22). Chapter 720 requires each association to issue its estoppel certificate within 10 business days of a written or electronic request, and that period controls a request made under the statute (Fla. Stat. § 720.30851).
• A $500 Sales and Transfer Fee, paid by the buyer. "The Association shall have the right to impose a fee in an amount equal to Five Hundred ($500.00) Dollars, to be collected from the purchaser, in connection with any sale, or other voluntary transfer of a Lot" (Declaration § 7.38, added by Instr 103616508, p. 1). How it was adopted raises questions (see the title points), but expect it on the estoppel.
• Working capital of two months' assessments is due "upon the first to occur of the next conveyance of the LOT or the first occupancy of the UNIT" after the certificate of occupancy (Declaration § 9.4, p. 20) — as written, a one-time, first-sale charge. If the estoppel shows it on a resale, ask what the association relies on.
• The seller's arrears. Each owner is responsible for the prior owner's unpaid assessments (Declaration § 9.1, p. 20), and a buyer other than a foreclosing first mortgagee is "not entitled to occupancy of the UNIT or enjoyment of the COMMON AREAS" until they are paid (§ 10.1.6, p. 22).
• A release of the school impact lien. Parcel B carries a $230,940 allocation under the 1995 Educational Impact Lien Agreement for the Heron Bay Four plat (OR 24291/831, p. 2). The title search should find a County satisfaction or partial release covering the lot (see the title points).

Yes, for at least six months. Leases must be written, made subject to the documents, and delivered to the association before the tenant moves in. "No lease shall be for a period of less than 6 months, without the consent of the APPROVING PARTY", and the owner may be required to escrow up to one month's rent against tenant damage (Declaration § 7.18, p. 16). The Approving Party is the Declarant while it owns any lot, then the association (§ 1.1, pp. 1–2). No tenant approval is required, but the association may evict a tenant who materially violates the documents, at the owner's cost (§ 10.6, p. 24).

The master's rule applies on top: one lease in any 12 months, tenants registered before they move in (master page).

The six-month rule dates from 1997; no leasing amendment is in our set. One adopted after 1 July 2021 would generally bind only owners who take title after it or consent to it. An amendment limiting leases shorter than six months, or barring more than three rentals in a calendar year, would apply to every owner (Fla. Stat. § 720.306(1)(h)). Any leasing amendment would need two-thirds of the owners plus lender approval (Declaration § 12.4(viii), p. 26).

The association keeps up the grounds and the outside finish; the owner keeps up, and insures, the house.

• The association maintains all landscaping (Declaration § 5.1.2, p. 9); periodically paints the exterior walls and doors and cleans the roofs (§ 5.1.5, pp. 9–10); maintains the privacy walls, "including the privacy walls constructed upon any LOT" (§ 5.1.6, p. 10); and maintains the common sprinklers, sidewalks, street lighting and surface water system (§§ 5.1.4, 5.1.7, 5.1.8).
• The owner maintains the rest of the home — roof and walls apart from that painting and cleaning, doors, garage doors, windows, patios, pools and screens — and the driveway (Declaration § 5.2, p. 10), and insures it at replacement cost. If proof is not given within 10 days of written demand, the association may buy the insurance at the owner's expense, so ask about any force-placed premium (§ 7.15, p. 15).
• Casualty damage is the owner's, even to parts the association maintains, "whether or not the applicable UNIT OWNER maintains insurance that actually covers such damage" (Declaration § 5.1.11, p. 10).
• Zero walls. A wall on or within 4 feet of a lot line is a "ZERO WALL", and the neighboring lot carries a 4-foot maintenance easement for it. The zero wall's owner may enter on 24 hours' written notice, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, or any time in an emergency; the neighbor may not attach anything to the wall or paint it without consent (Declaration §§ 8.1–8.3, p. 19). A survey should show these walls.

They predate The Pointe's declaration and bind Parcel B too. WCI deeded Parcels B and P to Shelby subject to "the Declaration of Neighborhood Covenants attached hereto as Exhibit '1'" (OR 25078/30, p. 1), which required Shelby to "create and establish a Neighborhood Association" before the first home sale (Art. II ¶ 4, p. 6). They never name it, but The Pointe's declaration covers the same land, so its association is very likely the one they called for.

On Parcel B they add: "zero lot line" homes, "Not more than sixty-eight (68)" of them (Art. I ¶ 4, p. 3; Art. III ¶ 1.A, p. 11); at least 2,000 square feet of living area (Art. II ¶ 3, p. 6); a garage for at least two cars and no carports (Art. II ¶ 5, p. 6); and upkeep "to the satisfaction of DECLARANT", with WCI able to do neglected work after 15 days' notice and lien the lot if not repaid (Art. II ¶ 11, p. 10). Conflicts with the master are for WCI to resolve, "whose decision shall be final" (Art. III ¶ 8, p. 13). The plat's 90-unit figure for Parcel B does not conflict with the 68, since the plat note only indicates "the approved development level" and does not "operate as a restriction in favor of any property owner" (PB 160/1, sheet 3); the declaration's is the lower. Their one-time charge of $500 a home was owed by Shelby on new-home sales, not by resale buyers (Art. III ¶ 2, p. 11). It is separate from the master's resale Capital Payment and from The Pointe's own $500 transfer fee.

Parcel P is not part of The Pointe. The 1996 covenants call it the "BUFFER PARCEL" (Art. I ¶ 1, p. 3). Shelby deleted it from The Pointe in 1998 (OR 29097/1769), and in 1999 WCI and Shelby amended the 1996 covenants to say it "shall hereafter be owned and maintained by the Association" — the master association — as common area for every Heron Bay member (OR 29221/1659, p. 1). The master did not join. The Property Appraiser records the master association as owner of Parcel P, citing a quit-claim deed dated 23 November 1998 (OR 29097/1770). It records The Pointe at Heron Bay association as owner of the common area, Parcel B outside the 68 lots, citing quit-claim deeds dated 30 October 2014 (Instr 112678814) and 20 January 2015 (Instr 112770132). We have not read any of the three. On the plat, Parcel P is 0.938 acres at Parcel B's northeast corner, beside the entrance from the Parcel U private street, with no units allotted (PB 160/1, sheets 3–4). Confirm from the vesting deed that a lot lies in Parcel B; Villa Sorrento and The Enclave sit on other parcels of the same plat.

• How the $500 fee was adopted. The 2004 certificate recites a membership meeting on 24 November 2003 but also says the amendment was "proposed and adopted by unanimous vote of the Board of Directors", and states no owner vote (Instr 103616508, p. 1). The declaration then required two-thirds of the owners to amend (§ 12.1, p. 25), and two-thirds of the owners plus institutional lenders for a material change to "assessments" or "restrictions on an OWNER's right to sell or transfer" (§ 12.4, p. 26). The certificate is signed by the President alone, though § 12.1 calls for the President's and Secretary's certification, and it misnames the declaration and uses condominium language. The Enclave's May 2003 certificate adds the same § 7.38 on the same form and does recite a two-thirds member vote (Instr 102979217, p. 1). These are questions for underwriting.
• The 2022 amendment cut the owners' vote to amend to "a majority of the OWNERS" and deleted the Declarant's power to amend alone (§ 12.1, Instr 118155468, p. 2). It recites consent of "more than 2/3 of the members" but is signed by one officer, a Vice President, not the President and Secretary (p. 1). § 12.4's two-thirds-plus-lenders rule is unchanged.
• The declaration's lien needs a recorded claim; the buyer's liability does not. The lien "is effective from and after recording a claim of lien" (Declaration § 10.1.3, p. 21). Chapter 720 makes an association's lien relate back to the recording of the original declaration, except against a first mortgage of record, where it runs from the recorded claim of lien (Fla. Stat. § 720.3085(1)). Either way, a buyer takes on the seller's unpaid assessments under the declaration (§§ 9.1, 10.1.6) and under Chapter 720 (§ 720.3085(2)(b)). The estoppel is what protects the buyer.
• Bank-owned resales. A person taking title by foreclosure of a first mortgage, or by deed in lieu, is not liable for earlier assessments "unless the payment of such funds is secured by a claim of lien recorded prior to the recording of the foreclosed or underlying mortgage" (Declaration § 10.1.6, p. 22). Chapter 720 caps what a first mortgagee owes when it takes title by foreclosure or deed in lieu (§ 720.3085(2)(c)). The cap is the lesser of the unpaid common expenses and regular periodic or special assessments that came due in the 12 months before it took title, or 1% of the original mortgage debt. It applies "only if the first mortgagee filed suit against the parcel owner and initially joined the association as a defendant", unless the association was dissolved or had no office or agent the lender could find. Which rule governs a particular sale, and how § 720.3085(1) sits with the declaration's claim-of-lien clause, are questions for underwriting.
• The 1996 covenants are easy to miss because they are recorded as an exhibit to a deed. Signed by WCI alone, they run with the land "binding upon and enforceable by DECLARANT, its successors and assigns", without separately naming lot owners (Art. III ¶ 10, p. 13). Their first 30 years ended on 1 July 2026, after which owners of two-thirds of the Property Units may terminate or modify them by recorded instrument. None is in our set, nor any preservation notice, and the master's 2024 notice does not list them. Whether they bind today's owners, and how they fare under chapter 712, are questions for underwriting.
• The Pointe declaration turns 30 on 9 December 2027. That is only the earliest date a lot could lose its covenants, because Chapter 712 runs from each lot's root of title, the last title transaction recorded at least 30 years earlier (Fla. Stat. § 712.01; § 712.04). A § 712.05 notice preserves them, as does an amendment indexed under the association's legal name that cites the declaration's recording information (§ 712.05(2)(b)), or a deed in the lot's chain citing it by book and page or instrument number (§ 712.03(1)). The 2022 amendment may count as such a filing, depending on how it was indexed and what it cites. No notice for The Pointe is in our set; the master's 2024 notice lists only master instruments.
• The school impact lien has no release in our set. The 1995 Educational Impact Lien Agreement between Broward County and WCI liens all the Heron Bay Four land to secure WCI's school impact fees, allocating $230,940 to Parcel B, and binds WCI's grantees; mortgages are subordinate to it (OR 24291/831, Instr 95564740, pp. 2–3). WCI's 1996 deed made Shelby assume it for this land (OR 25078/30, p. 1). It is released only by a recorded County satisfaction or partial release, and none is in our set; the County's 2011 and 2017 certificates recorded against the plat only confirm its name (OR 47813/974; Instr 114445771). Whether a lot is insurable without a release is a question for underwriting.
• Access is by private street. The plat gives the owners of land in the plat, "and not the public", an ingress and egress easement over Parcels Q, U and V (PB 160/1, sheet 1). Parcel U, the private street beside Parcel B, was annexed to the master in 2001 (Instr 100816954).
• Not in our set: any City plat exemption or unrecorded site plan that describes the lots, any assignment of the Declarant's rights, the 2003 meeting minutes, and any association rules.
• After closing, give the association a copy of the deed. Until then it "shall not be obligated to recognize any change in membership or ownership" (By-Laws § 2.2, Declaration p. 37).