Villa Sorrento at Heron Bay: 115 Coral Springs villas their owners keep up and insure

Article 6, "Resale Restrictions", bars a sale or conveyance of a Lot until all sums due the association are paid and the owner holds an estoppel certificate "in recordable form" saying so (p. 15). A sale without one is a breach, "wholly null and void", and passes no title, unless the association validates the deed by approving the sale afterwards.

The association has ten days from a written request to deliver the certificate or a notice of what is unpaid. Its silence "shall be deemed an approval of the transfer". The owner pays "a reasonable sum … not to exceed Fifty Dollars ($50.00)". Underwriting decides how the ten days, the $50 and § 11.11's price index sit with Chapter 720's estoppel deadline and fee caps. Article 6 does not bind the Declarant, or a Preferred Lender acquiring a Lot through foreclosure or a deed in lieu.

Section 4.8 repeats the bar and keeps a buyer of a delinquent Lot out of the villa and the Common Areas until the seller's arrears are paid (p. 10). The seller must also pass the Declarant's documents to the buyer.

No resale contribution is due, because the Capital Contribution of three months' assessments fell due once per Lot, on the Declarant's sale (§ 4.16, p. 11). Under § 1.12, on page 2, the master covenants bind the Lots too, so the master's estoppel is ordered and Heron Bay's Capital Payment falls to the buyer. L'Hermitage shares Villa Sorrento's resale-restriction declaration form.

A Villa Sorrento landlord uses the association's lease form, for a year or more and for the whole Lot and Unit (§ 5.18, p. 14). The association must approve each lease in writing first, and that approval "shall not be unreasonably withheld", though unpaid assessments are a reasonable ground to refuse. Up to $250 goes into escrow against tenant damage, and what is left comes back within 90 days of move-out, less up to $50 for administration. If the tenant defaults, the form lets the association end the lease as the owner's agent.

None of the three amendments touches § 5.18, so its terms date from 1998, before Chapter 720's 1 July 2021 rule on rental amendments. Heron Bay's leasing rule also limits the owner to one lease in any 12 months and has the tenant registered before move-in.

Section 4.4, on page 8, leaves the owner the whole Lot and villa, from lawn, trees and sprinklers to the driveway surface and roof. On the Lot, the association only cuts the front lawn and need not replace landscaping. If an owner falls behind, it may give thirty days' written notice, do the work and lien the Lot.

Each owner insures his villa, because the association's policy covers the Common Areas "but not for the Units" (§ 8.1.1, p. 17). Under § 8.1.5 the association may choose to insure the Units as a common expense instead, so ask the manager whether it has. The association need not carry flood cover, and when it does not, each owner must insure his own Lot against flood (§ 8.1.3, p. 17).

Villa Sorrento's declaration has no party-wall article. Instead, §§ 3.7.1–3.7.2, on page 6, let an owner cross neighboring Lots and the Common Areas to paint his villa's exterior and wall and to rebuild after a loss. He may also service air-conditioning equipment and meters sited there. A villa that encroaches keeps an easement for itself and its upkeep, including the roof overhang and exterior walls.

• Under § 5.12 (pp. 12–13), roofs, paint, landscaping and every other exterior change need approval from the ACC, Villa Sorrento's architectural committee, and garages may not be converted. The ACC must also approve a satellite dish's size and location under § 5.17 (p. 14). Exterior work goes through Heron Bay's architectural review as well.
• A fence needs ACC approval under § 5.9, on page 12, stands five feet high at most and is aluminum rail unless the ACC accepts another material. The master's fence rules apply too.
• Signs saying "for sale" or "for rent" may not go on a Lot, its villa, any other structure or a vehicle there, under § 5.6 and the master's sign rule alike.
• Household pets, "dogs, cats and domestic birds and fish", are allowed if not kept commercially or as a nuisance, and go leashed outside (§ 5.10, p. 12).
• No one parks on the streets "except for a temporary basis or for emergency vehicles", or on another owner's driveway without consent (§ 5.23, p. 15).
• Commercial vehicles, campers, motor homes, trailers and boats stay in the garage (§ 5.13, p. 13). Personal vans, pick-ups, motorcycles and SUVs need the Board to find them acceptable, and Florida's newer limits on such rules still apply.

Because Article 6 voids a sale made without the certificate, every earlier resale of the Lot needed one too, or the association's later approval. Underwriting decides what a gap in the chain means.

Each Lot is described by a surveyed boundary, its metes and bounds, under a plat exemption the City of Coral Springs approved in place of a new plat (§ 1.13, p. 2; Exh. A, p. 25). On the Property Appraiser's record, each of Lots 24–34 also takes in a 5-foot strip of Drainage and Maintenance Area 2 of Heron Bay South, Plat Book 167, Page 44. The same record moves a sliver of Lot 106 to Lot 107 without naming the instrument.

Heron Bay Four's 1995 Educational Impact Lien Agreement with Broward County allocates $307,920.00 of the plat's school impact fees to Parcel F (OR 24291/831, Instr 95564740, ¶ 2(a), p. 2). No satisfaction of the agreement is recorded, but the County has released Parcel F Lots one at a time, Lot 97 in 2009 and Lot 60 in 2012 among them (Instr 109003349; Instr 110543048). So the title search looks for a partial release naming the Lot, and a Lot with none goes to underwriting before we insure. Heron Bay's shared section on the Neighborhood declarations sets out how these school liens work.

WCI signed the declaration under a Certificate of Authority/Power of Attorney from its general partner, Investors of WCI, Inc., dated 21 September 1998 and recorded 14 October 1998. It superseded the earlier certificate at OR 28488/632 and delegates the partnership's affairs to the officers it names, as its Exhibit 1 sets out (OR 28911/1040, Instr 98601241, pp. 1–2). We have not read that exhibit, the BankBoston mortgage (OR 26082/1) or the City's plat exemption, so a question turning on one needs a copy.

WCI made all three amendments as Declarant, the First under its power to amend before turnover and the others under its easement power (§§ 3.7.3, 11.4, pp. 6, 20). None says whether turnover had happened, and no turnover instrument is recorded through 20 October 2026. Owners otherwise amend by 66-2/3% of the entire membership at a meeting, and no amendment may impair Preferred Lenders' rights without their consent.

Unpaid Villa Sorrento assessments bind the owner "and all subsequent Owners until paid" under § 4.1, and under Chapter 720 the buyer is jointly and severally liable with the seller as well. The association's continuing lien gives way only to tax liens and to a Preferred Lender's first mortgage recorded before the association's claim of lien (§§ 4.1, 4.9, pp. 7, 10). The lender or a buyer taking title through its foreclosure, or by deed in lieu, owes only later assessments, and the shortfall is spread over all Lots.

Section 7.3, on page 16, sets fines of up to $100 for a first violation, $500 for a second and $1,000 for any later one, and treats them as assessments. Any of them may appear on the estoppel, and a $1,000 fine may also turn up in a lien search, because only a fine that size can become a lien.

The declaration's first term ends on 8 December 2028. That 2028 date is also the earliest a Lot could lose the covenants under Florida's Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA), which can cut off old covenants after 30 years unless they are preserved. Our search through 20 October 2026 found no MRTA notice for the declaration, and the master's 2024 notice does not list it. Nor did owners of 75% of the Lots record a revocation by 8 December 2025, so the declaration renews for ten years after 8 December 2028.