Help to Re activate community association

We live in a single family housing community in Florida that was built in 1958. There are 60+ units in our subdivision that all have access to a common area on a lake that includes a dock boat ramp and picnic area.

The community association (as it was titled) has had various levels of activity since 1958. The most recent was administratively dissolved in 2008 for failure to file annual reports. The community association only deals with the operation and maintenance of the lakefront property we have no other HLA restrictions.

The property has been poorly maintained however there is one homeowner that continues to mow the lawn.

There are several homeowners that would like to reactivate the community association.

I was able to download the original community association documents from online that show which houses should have access to the property, how many Board of Directors it should have, their term limits etc.

We are very concerned that the current state of the property leaves us all open to a lot of exposure.

We would like to send out a notice to all of the property owners for a meeting to discuss the future of the association and allow those interested to run for a board position.

Was our community association dissolved, or was it just inactive? If reinstated can the association REQUIRE all residents in our subdivision to pay the annual dues to maintain and insure the property?

Are we going about this the right way?

I am the second-generation owner of our property. I purchased the home from my mother last year. Our goal is to get the lakefront property back to the state was when I was a kid so another generation can enjoy it.

Thank you in advance for your help.

I am not nor do I play a lawyer.

Covenants/Deed Restrictions, and often Bylaws, are a legal matter/document. Unless the association was properly dissolved, more then likely it can be reactivated. Now all wanting to do so could be an issue.

Gather a few desiring the same, build a war chest ($$$$) and hire a local attorney
to look into it.

MariaF,
You can check with the County Clerk's office to see if there are deed restrictions, such as a Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs). A homeowners association is formed of either voluntary or manditory members to enforce deed restrictions. The Association is separate from the CC&Rs. It is usually formed and incorporated through the Secretary of State. The Bylaws create an organizational structure for an association, which may or may not be incorporated.

If you do not have CC&Rs, or their equivalent, you can not require homeowners to pay a manditory assessment. However, you can ask homeowners to join a voluntary association and pay voluntary dues. An association would have more clout than an individual owner towards enforcing existing CC&Rs.

I hope this info helps clarify your concerns.

You would want to look for a notice of preservation that would have been filed with the county. The law would have caused your covenants to expire in 1988 so a document would have been around then, although there have been some changes to the law that may have had some effect to your neighborhood being that it is so old.

I am not nor do I play a lawyer, especially in FL.

Process to Renew Expired CC&Rs

The Campbell Amendment, F.S. §720.401 et seq., Preservation of Residential Communities; Revival of Declaration of Covenants, which was placed in S.B. 1184 and S.B. 2984, establishes the parameters and procedures for revising extinguished CC&Rs. These bills were passed and signed by the governor, and became effective as law on June 23, 2004.

Thank you all for your advice. The Property appraiser still shows the community association as the property owner. The land itself considered unbuildable land.

I have contacted an attorney. But trying to get the neighbors to agree to pay attorney fees, that's going to be a whole other story.

The 2004 amendment didn't change the root of title. The root of title would be the original title that references the specific book and page of the filed covenants. It is that document that grants C&Rs authority and when the clock starts ticking. The amendment just churned some of the processes. The law existed for years but lacked preservation or revitalization processes for associations causing some situations to occur resulting in the industry lobbying for changes to make it easier to clear that hurdle. It now gave HOAS a method to maintain their governing documents.

From what I have read, since Florida can have some titles dating back to Spanish occupation, the legislature created laws to allow restrictions and things expire to allow for a clear and easy title. The problem was that while that solution sounded easy once covenants started expiring it started to cause chaos. Nobody knew what to do - especially some long established neighborhoods or ones that maintained essential services, such as water pumps or sewage. I guess the problem that they saw was that only the homeowners had authority to revitalize - not the associations. I think nobody really thought about the consequences. They changed the law to try and fix some of these problems but I think a huge issue is that nobody understands the law. Even lawyers have no clue, or don't care. From my experience the neighborhoods just do their own thing and file required documents when it is conevnient for them and not when it is required. It is also commonly believed that filing amendments serves the purpose of extending the covenants but court cases have cleared that up. People still misunderstand the law. I am still learning new things about it that and I have been researching this topic for sometime. This is why I recommend that if people wish to go through this process they find an experienced attorney who knows MRTA.