News From Board of Directors

 

The Florida legislature has enacted, and the Governor signed last week, new legislation that limits the authority of homeowner associations and protects the rights of homeowners in some important ways.  The legislation progressed through the legislature as HB 1203 and with the Governor’s signature, these new provisions will take effect on July 1, 2024.

 

These changes passed both the House and the Senate with unanimous votes in both chambers and a summary of the new provisions are:

 

• Associations with more than 100 parcels will be required to maintain a digital copy of specified official records for download on the association’s website or through an application on a mobile device.  Valencia has 74 and we are exempt from this requirement, but with the introduction of our new website we are in full compliance with this provision of the statute.  Since we already value access and transparency, we already comply if this requirement if extended to communities of our size in the future.
• Official records will be required to be maintained for at least seven years, unless the governing documents of the association require a longer period of time.  We already comply with this requirement also.
• There will be new and significant criminal penalties for board member misconduct.
• Homeowners will be empowered to make a written request for a detailed accounting of any amounts owed to the association, with response time requirements on the part of the association and penalties for not meeting those requirements.
• The education requirements for directors are revised to include specific curriculum that includes training relating to financial literacy and transparency, recordkeeping, levying of fines, and notice and meeting requirements.
• Directors will now also be required to complete at least four hours of continuing education annually.
• Associations (including Architectural or Modification Review Boards) will be required to provide written notice to the homeowner of the specific rule or covenant relied upon when denying a request for the construction of a structure or other improvement.  It will no longer be acceptable to just say ‘No’ with little or no citation of chapter and verse of the basis for that decision.
• Associations will be prohibited from placing limits on the interior of a structure or require review of HVAC, refrigeration, heating, or ventilating system not visible from a parcel’s frontage, an adjacent parcel, common area, or community golf course, if a substantially similar system has been previously approved.
• Associations will no longer be able to prevent a homeowner from installing or displaying vegetable gardens and clotheslines in areas not visible from the frontage or an adjacent parcel, an adjacent common area, or a community golf course.
• Fines or suspension are expressly prohibited for:

• • Leaving trash cans at the curb or end of the driveway less than 24 hours before or after the designated garbage collection day or time.

• • Leaving holiday decorations or lights up longer than indicated in the governing documents, unless such decorations or lights are left up for longer than one week after the association provides written notice of the violation to the parcel owner.

• Associations are legally prohibited from restricting a homeowner or others from parking:

• • A personal vehicle, including a pickup truck, in the property owner’s driveway or in any other area where they have a right to park.

• • A work vehicle, which is not a commercial motor vehicle, in the property owner’s driveway.

• • Their assigned first responder vehicle on public roads or rights-of-way within the homeowners’ association.

• Associations are prohibited from applying compound interest on unpaid assessments, allowing only simple interest.