Perhaps there is no greater animosity between a homeowner and a community’s association than fines imposed for violating the community’s covenants.
When a homeowner does not edge the grass, pressure wash the driveway, or bring up a garbage can quickly, many homeowners’ associations are quick to threaten and impose a fine.
From the homeowner’s perspective, this often seems like an overreach for what they consider a trivial matter, but the homeowner usually is quick to take care of the situation.
But in those cases where they can’t perform the necessary improvements, there are new safeguards to give homeowners time to fix the situation. If the homeowner refuses to fix the issue, it is now in statute the homeowner will be paying for attorney fees, in addition to any fines imposed by the association.
The attorneys at The Orlando Law Group represent more than 100 communities in Central Florida. If you live in Orlando, Winter Garden, Altamonte Springs, Kissimmee or anywhere throughout Central Florida, The Orlando Law Group is ready to help you.
New timelines for violations
Perhaps the biggest change to the process of fining homeowners over violations of covenants is the timeline now required by Florida statutes.
Before the passage of HB 1203, the association could impose a fine on the homeowner with 14 days’ notice disclosing the fine and sharing information about a hearing about the fine. The fine would be due with a payment due 5 days after the hearing.
Starting on July 1, the association still must provide written notice about the hearing and fine within 14 days, but there are more requirements before the fine is due.
Now, the timeline for a violation looks like this:
- 14 days to provide written notice to a homeowner about the fine and the hearing, as was in statute before the law.
- The hearing must be held within 90 days of when the notice was sent, with the 90 days being a new requirement.
- After that hearing, the statute now says the association has seven days to send notification of the results of the hearing.
- Finally, the date the association can start collecting fines and attorney’s fees must now be set 30 days after delivery of the notice of the hearing’s results.
The 30 days is a significant expansion of time for homeowners to pay their fine and fix the issue to avoid a fine. Remember, before July 1, 2024, that period was just five days after the hearing.
Of course, if any of those timelines are not met, the homeowner has a good case to take to court to get the fines removed – and the homeowners’ association would be liable for attorney fees.
Again, this gives extra time for homeowners to fix the violations as the law now specifically says “If a violation has been cured before the hearing or in the manner specified in the written notice required in paragraph (b) or paragraph (d), a fine or suspension may not be imposed.”
Homeowners can avoid fees
There are other ways a homeowner can try to trip up its homeowners’ association into eliminating fines. One of the ways this can be done is by asking for a complete and detailed accounting of the fines that have been accumulating.
The Orlando Law Group wrote a separate article on this issue here, but to summarize, if a homeowner writes and requests a detailed accounting of their fines and the association does not provide it within 15 days, the fines could be waived.
There is a perceived loophole in that new ‘detailed accounting” statute. If the homeowners’ association follows the statutes that pertain to written notices, the fines cannot be waived even if the accounting was not provided within 15 days.
Garbage cans and holiday decorations
The Florida Legislature did address two of the more contentious issues that face homeowners and their associations: Garbage cans and holiday decorations.
There are many stories of aggressive homeowners’ associations sending violation letters because someone put their garbage out early or left their Christmas lights up too long.
The new statutes address both of those issues with specific timelines.
For garbage cans, the association cannot fine a homeowner for having their cans at the curb 24 hours before the garbage is collected or 24 hours after the garbage is collected, giving homeowners a 48-hour window for garbage.
This is a bit ambiguous, however. Does the clock start when the truck enters the community or when it picks up the individual homeowner’s garbage? It will probably be fought in court, but preliminarily, we are looking at a larger time frame based on schedule and prior activity, like Wednesday morning, instead of the exact time.
For holiday decorations and lights, the only way for a homeowners’ association to fine someone for having their decorations up too long is to have an explicit time to remove decorations in their covenants and send a written notification of the violation.
That written notification gives the homeowner one week to take the decorations down or start the violation process.
What to do now?
Every association needs to take a look at its procedures for sending out violation notices, holding hearings and providing records. There are very specific timeframes that must be made and if an association is sloppy or doesn’t have set procedures in place, the repercussions could be significant.
In addition, the association needs to look at what the board documents say about holiday decorations. To enforce compliance with holiday decorations, there must be a specific date after the holiday when the community wants decorations removed.
Finally, the association must ensure every email and address is current for every property owner and any renters or guests in the community. With such detailed statutes for notifications, there will be legal battles over whether a communication was received or not. Having a complete and current list of addresses and emails will help eliminate many of those fights.
The attorneys at The Orlando Law Group can help association board members and managers in Orlando, Waterford Lakes, Altamonte Springs, Winter Garden, Lake Nona, St. Cloud, Kissimmee, and throughout Central Florida.
If you have questions about anything discussed in this article or other legal matters, give our office a call at 407-512-4394 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a consultation to discuss your case. We have an office conveniently located at 12301 Lake Underhill Rd, Suite 213, Orlando, FL 32828, as well as offices in Seminole, Osceola and West Orange counties to assist you.
The articles on this blog are for informative purposes only and are no substitute for legal advice or an attorney-client relationship. If you are seeking legal advice, please contact our law firm directly.
Last Updated on June 17, 2024 by The Orlando Law Group
