The Reserve at Tampa Palms: HOA rules, fees and closing points

A second estoppel, a clear answer on who bills the master's assessment, and a notice to The Reserve's Board. The declaration charges nothing at closing.

• Two estoppel certificates, one from The Reserve Homeowners Association, Inc. and one from TPOA, whose estoppel is ordered from its financial agent, University Properties, Inc. (TPOA's estoppel information sheet, not recorded; master page); we weren't able to confirm the sheet is current. We weren't able to confirm The Reserve's manager or where its estoppel is ordered; no document we hold names either. Chapter 720's estoppel statute sets its own delivery time and fee limits (Fla. Stat. § 720.30851).
• Who bills the master's assessment. The Reserve's association pays TPOA's assessments "on behalf of all Units" as a common expense of its own budget, with first priority on its income, and TPOA may enforce that obligation "against the Association and each Owner" (Declaration Art. III § 4, pp. 7–8). Ask both associations whether TPOA's assessment for the lot is billed through The Reserve or to the owner, so it is neither missed nor paid twice.
• Every balance cleared. The owner's grantee "shall be jointly and severally liable for such portion thereof as may be due and payable at the time of conveyance", except a first mortgagee taking title under its mortgage (Art. III § 2, p. 7), and "The sale or transfer of any Unit shall not affect the assessment lien" (§ 8, p. 8). Chapter 720 also makes a buyer 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.
• Fines. The Board may fine, and fines are specific assessments, collected like assessments and secured by the same lien (Art. III § 2, p. 7; Art. XIV § 1, p. 20). The declaration sets no amount, and no fine may be imposed without written notice of the violation and of the right to ask for a hearing within ten days (By-Laws Art. III § 21 and Art. V § 2, Declaration pp. 38–39). A fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien (Fla. Stat. § 720.305(2)), so ask the estoppel to list fines apart from assessments.
• Notice of the sale. Within 10 days of signing the contract, the seller must give the Board the purchaser's name and any other information the Board reasonably requires (Art. V § 5, p. 11). It is a notice, not an approval.
• Nothing to pay The Reserve at closing. The declaration sets no transfer fee, capital contribution or initial reserve charge; assessments are payable monthly unless the Board provides otherwise (Art. III § 2, p. 7). The recorded master documents set no transfer or capital charge either (master page). Confirm both on the estoppels.

No approval of a sale or lease is needed, and there is no right of first refusal, in The Reserve's documents or the master's.

Yes, but not for less than 180 consecutive days. The master declaration prohibits the rental, listing or electronic advertising of a home for rent "for a period of less than one hundred eighty (180) consecutive days" in the single-family Villages it lists, and the list names "The Reserve" (master declaration Art. XII § 14, OR 24716/383, p. 2; master page). That rule reaches these lots through the master declaration, and we weren't able to confirm the instrument that brought them under it, which is not in our set (below), but a buyer who plans to rent should plan on the 180-day minimum.

The Reserve's own declaration adds conditions but no minimum term, cap or approval. A lease must be residential, of the whole Unit, in writing and subject to the declaration, by-laws and rules; the owner gives the tenant copies; a violation is a default under the lease; and the owner delegates to the association the power to evict for violations, with eviction costs not recovered from the tenant assessed against the Unit. The owner must also give the Board the tenant's name within 10 days of signing the lease (Declaration Art. V § 5, p. 11).

The master's rule was recorded on 7 February 2017, before the 1 July 2021 date that Fla. Stat. § 720.306(1)(h) uses for rental amendments. We weren't able to confirm whether The Reserve has a leasing amendment of its own; none is in our set. One adopted after 1 July 2021 would generally bind only owners who take title after it or consent to it, and we weren't able to confirm anything recorded after 20 February 2017, so for an investor buyer we search forward.

• We weren't able to confirm what brings The Reserve under the master declaration. The Reserve's declaration says every owner "acknowledges that he or she is subject to" the TPOA declaration and is automatically a TPOA member (Art. XIV § 16, p. 22), and the master's 2017 rental rule names "The Reserve". But we weren't able to confirm any supplemental declaration or certificate submitting 4A Unit 1 (PB 63/30) or Plat 4A2 to the master declaration; none is in our set. The Reserve's declaration requires land added to it later to be under the master declaration already (Art. IX § 3, p. 16); it sets no such condition for its original land. Which master instrument binds these lots, and so whether the master's covenants and lien reach them, is a question for underwriting (master page).
• The 1984 restrictions. 4A Unit 1 and 4A Unit 2A are each a replat of a portion of Tampa Palms Unit 4 (PB 63/30, sheet 1; PB 70/41). A separate 1984 Declaration of Restrictions covered Unit 4 (OR 4452/1217, p. 23) and was struck in 1986 by Tampa Palms Development Corporation alone (OR 4754/911, pp. 1–2). Whether the strike worked, and whether underwriting excepts the 1984 restrictions, is taken up on the master page.
• Are the nine later plats under The Reserve's declaration? The declaration binds Plat 4A1 (PB 63/30), Plat 4A2 (60.60 acres in Section 35), Tract 4D and land added under Article IX (Declaration p. 27; OR 7162/1103, p. 4). Nine plats of 1991–1995 name the association: 4A Unit 2A (PB 70/41) conveys its private roads and its drainage and access easements to the "Reserve Owners Association, Inc." (sheets 1–2), and the other eight — 4A Units 2B1 to 2B6 and two replats of 4A Unit 1, Tract "B" and the 1st Addition — dedicate utility easements to utilities "selected by the Reserve Homeowners' Association, Inc." and, on some, drainage easements to it (sheet 1 of each). The two replats are of 4A Unit 1 land, but we weren't able to confirm whether 4A Units 2A and 2B1–2B6 lie within Plat 4A2, which needs a surveyor to plot them. We weren't able to confirm any instrument adding them under Article IX, or the subdivision restrictions that each City plat resolution required the subdivider to record (for example Res. 91-1078, OR 6314/622, p. 2); none is in our set. The plat of 4A Unit 2C/2D (PB 73/43), whose Unit 2C is Kensington, also names the association; we weren't able to confirm from the plats whether Unit 2D is the rest of Plat 4A2. Whether the declaration, and the association's lien, bind a lot on any of these plats is a question for underwriting.
• The 2017 preservation notice describes 4A Unit 1 only. 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). The association's Notice and Claim, signed 31 January 2017 and recorded 20 February 2017, within 30 years of the declaration's recording, preserves the declaration and both amendments (Instr 2017066760, pp. 1, 4). But the only land it describes is 4A Unit 1, PB 63/30 (pp. 1, 7). It does not describe the nine later plats or Tract 4D, so for a lot there it does not show that the declaration was preserved. A question for underwriting.
• Was Kensington validly released? The Second Amendment, made 1 February 1994 by 75/275 Corp. as Declarant, released the parcel headed "Tampa Palms 4A Unit 2C (Kensington)" from the declaration (OR 7301/617, pp. 2, 5). It relied on the Declarant's power to amend alone "so long as the Class 'B' membership exists" (Declaration Art. XIV § 4, p. 21). Class "B" ended at the earliest of 75% of the planned Units being conveyed, 1 January 2001 or the Declarant's election (Art. II § 2(b), p. 7), and we weren't able to confirm how many Units had been sold by February 1994. The association joined and consented by its President, who was also an initial director of the Kensington association, and no owners' vote is recited (OR 7301/617, p. 3; Kensington declaration, OR 7301/553, pp. 45–46). The notary who took the acknowledgments was an officer of the Declarant (OR 7301/617, pp. 2–3; OR 7301/553, p. 39), and the amendment's exhibit is a fax print on which the acreage and some bearings are illegible (OR 7301/617, p. 5). Whether Kensington's lots are free of this declaration is a question for underwriting. As read, the released parcel lies within Plat 4A2 (Declaration p. 27; OR 7301/553, p. 41); we weren't able to confirm that with a surveyor, and a lot near the line should be checked against it.
• Who is the Declarant? Tampa Palms Development Corporation assigned its rights to SWF South Limited Partnership in 1990, by an assignment that lists this declaration (OR 5905/1207, p. 1), and SWF South assigned its rights as declarant, "to the extent assignable, if any", to 75/275 Corp. as of 31 December 1992 (OR 6844/932, pp. 1, 4). The declaration lets a successor become Declarant only if "designated as the 'Declarant'" in the instrument conveying it undeveloped land (Art. I § 7, p. 6), and the assignment conveys no land. 75/275 Corp. made both amendments; whether that matters is a question for underwriting.
• Tract 4D. The First Amendment added Tract 4D of the Tampa Palms Golf Course plat (PB 65/1), after the Class "A" members approved the annexation "by a vote of 33 to 2" at a meeting on 28 September 1993 (OR 7162/1103, pp. 1, 4); Sun Bank of Tampa Bay joined as mortgagee (p. 5). Land added later must already be under the master declaration (Declaration Art. IX § 3, p. 16), and we weren't able to confirm whether Tract 4D is under it. A 1993 declaration by 75/275 Corp. limits a 50-by-175-foot strip "between Lots 5 and 6 in Block 6 of Tampa Palms 4A – Unit 1" to underground utilities and a driveway for at most two homes on Tract 4D, for the benefit of part of Lots 4 and 5 of Block 6 (OR 7054/789, p. 1). We check it for any lot in Block 6 or made from Tract 4D.
• Drainage acknowledgments on some 4A Unit 1 lots. Three lot owners' acknowledgments to the City are recorded: under a revised drainage plan, shaded areas of their lots are subject to periodic saturation or ponding (OR 6325/78; Instr 2000187324; Instr 2000361041). The two recorded in 2000 also waive the owners' claims against the City, for themselves and their "heirs, personal representatives, grantees, assigns, and successors in interest" (Instr 2000187324, p. 1; Instr 2000361041, p. 1). The three are for lots in Blocks 5, 6 and 11 of 4A Unit 1. We weren't able to confirm whether others are of record, so we search the lot.
• The lien is perfected by recording a notice. Assessments, with interest at no more than two points above Citibank's prime rate, costs and fees, are a charge on the land and a continuing lien (Art. III § 2, p. 7). "Upon recording of a notice of lien, there shall exist a perfected lien … prior and superior to all other liens", except taxes, a good-faith first mortgage of record and TPOA's lien (§ 7, p. 8). The lien is subordinate to any first mortgage, and a foreclosure or deed in lieu extinguishes it for amounts due before, which become a common expense (§ 8, pp. 8–9); the declaration has no one-year or 1% formula. How that fits with Chapter 720 on a bank-owned resale is a question for underwriting.
• Three forms of the association's name. The declaration names The Reserve Homeowners Association, Inc. (Art. I § 1, p. 5); the 4A Unit 2A plat conveys its roads to the "Reserve Owners Association, Inc." (PB 70/41, sheets 1–2); and the later plats name "The Reserve Homeowners' Association, Inc." The recorded copy of the articles carries no Secretary of State filing stamp (Declaration pp. 24–26), so we weren't able to confirm which form is the name as incorporated.
• What we weren't able to obtain or confirm (none is in our set): any amendment after 1994, the master instrument for this land, any Notice of Waiver of the house-size minimum, the subdivision restrictions the City's plat resolutions required, and any rules, budget or estoppel form of the association.

• House size. Homes are single-family only (Art. V § 2, p. 10), with at least 3,700 sq ft of air-conditioned living space; the house, with its porches, garage, pool and accessory buildings, may cover no more than 25% of the lot. The New Construction Committee may waive the minimum down to 3,200 sq ft for no more than 25% of the Units, unanimously, by a recorded Notice of Waiver (Art. VI § 3(g), p. 13). For a house under 3,700 sq ft we search for that notice; none is in our set, so we weren't able to confirm any.
• Two architectural approvals. The Reserve's comes first and does not replace the master's (Art. VI § 4, p. 14). A modification application not acted on within 60 days is deemed approved (Art. VI § 2, p. 13). On use restrictions and architecture (Articles V and VI) The Reserve's declaration controls over the master's; otherwise the master's documents are superior, and disagreements are resolved in TPOA's favor (Art. XIV §§ 16, 17, 20, pp. 22–23).
• Roads and gate. The declaration has no provision on a gate or private roads; the Declarant's reserved rights mention "the entrances and roadways constituting Common Areas of the Community" (Art. XIII(b), p. 19). On 4A Unit 2A the roads, Parcel A, "are not dedicated to the public, but are hereby expressly dedicated as private roads" for the members of the "Reserve Owners Association, Inc.", which takes title and maintains them; SWF South Limited Partnership, the Tampa Palms Community Development District and the City keep rights of ingress and egress (PB 70/41, sheets 1–2). We weren't able to confirm who owns and maintains the streets on the 4A Unit 1 plat (PB 63/30) or on the eight other later plats.
• The golf course. No wall or fence may be built along a lot boundary shared with the golf course (Art. VI § 3(c), p. 13). The association and its committee may not approve work next to, or in direct line of sight from, the Country Club "for the depth of one building lot" without 15 days' notice to the club, whose opinion "shall be given great weight" (Art. XII § 3, p. 19), and no representation is made that the golf course will continue (Art. XII § 1, p. 19).
• Insurance. Each owner must carry all-risk casualty insurance for full replacement cost, and liability insurance; the association insures none of the homes (Art. VII § 2, p. 15).
• Special assessments and the master's reach. The Board alone may levy special assessments of up to $500 per Unit in a fiscal year; more needs a majority of the Class "A" members (Art. III § 5, p. 8). TPOA may take over the association's maintenance and charge its cost as a Subdistrict Assessment (Art. IV § 1, p. 9).