Homeowners associations are everywhere in Florida, and there is no shortage of opinions about what they do and the power they wield.
From limits on street or even driveway parking to restrictions on landscaping and even the color scheme of your home. For a long time, HOAs have had broad powers to enforce and even fine people for rules violations. However, a series of laws that went into effect earlier this month in Florida are now pushing back on some of these powers. They would limit which rules that HOAs can enforce and even provide more transparency to members.
Many HOAs across the state aren't giving up some of these powers without a fight, and even have plans to fight them in court.
Chris Mandell and his family live in the Calusa Lakes Community in Nokomis, a small golf course community with a couple hundred residents.
"One of the only drawbacks was that as a working family, my wife takes our children to school every day, so now I can finally have my truck in my driveway every day, not to have to walk through the rain in the morning or adverse weather just to go do my daily activity," Mandell said.
Mandell's HOA at Calusa Lakes doesn't allow overnight driveway parking. So for years, he has had to make a long walk each morning to his truck parked elsewhere.
Then on the 1st of July, House Bill 1203 went into effect.
It's a new set of rules that vastly limits what HOAs are allowed to enforce in Florida. The law even specifically says HOAs can't ban homeowners from parking personal cars and trucks in driveways. Mandell was relieved—until he wasn't.
"We were quite shocked when we reached out to the HOA and said, OK, we were using some free days that we had to park in the driveway, and they waited until July 1st, when it came into effect, to say, in layman's terms, well, we aren't going to follow that law."
He even showed us an email from the HOA, in which they say:
"The Association has a legal argument that has gained a sort of consensus among HOA attorneys over the last month or so that it can ignore this part of the statute and continue to enforce its declaration and rules regarding parking restrictions."
And breaking those restrictions doesn't come cheap.
"Right now, they are looking at 100 dollars per night, per vehicle, for overnight parking. Our son has his vehicle here right now. He is serving in the military, and he just left for boot camp. And we thought, what a better place to keep your car than in our driveway? And now we've got to pay 100 dollars per night, per vehicle, until we change our mind," Mandell added.
Mandell also isn't the only one in the community who feels this way.
"It's my understanding that they are going to completely disobey state law, and I want to know who these people think they are that they can completely disobey state law because an attorney said there is no Kauffman language in the contract..." said George Aiton, a Calusa Lakes Homeowner.
"Kauffman Language" is a term that kept coming up over the course of this story. We spoke to Fort Myers HOA attorney Alex Menendez from the Pavese Law Firm for an explanation.
"So there is an appellate case, Koffman v Shere, that a lot of practitioners will refer back to, and it generally provides that if you include language in your governing documents to specify that the statute is to apply as it is amended from time to time, then you could have a situation where the change in the law takes effect immediately, not what you have in your governing documents..." Menendez said.
Basically, if your HOA's original set of rules don't mention that they'll follow laws passed in the future, they can choose to ignore those new laws. But not all attorneys agree with that argument.
"So I don't think there is a legal loophole in that respect. I believe there is still a required analysis even if there is no Kauffman language and there are some articles out there, published by the Florida BAR, that do explain that if having no Kauffman language isnt the end all, there are additional tests that need to be determined to see if the existing declaration would incorporate new laws," said Jeff Kominsky, an Attorney who represents homeowners involved in legal battles against their HOAs.
We also wanted to get the HOA's side of the story, so we called, emailed and even visited AMI Community Management's Office in Bradenton, hoping to get a response to Mandell's parking issue. No one was willing to comment.
However, issues like Mandell's are likely to end up being argued in court, at the expense of HOAs trying to fight them.
"As an American citizen I follow the law, I want to follow the law and want to be fair to everyone here, and not be that guy to go against it in no way shape or form other than its legal, but I see no reason to go against it, when the Governor Desantis signed the bill, this was the legislative intent of this law..." Mandell said.
With those who pay HOA dues footing the legal bill.