What if your HOA rules were never re-uped.

I live in a area where there is a Volunteer HOA and the by-laws say toward the end.

"These covenants and restrictions are to run with the land and shall be binding upon the undersigned and upon all the parties and all persons claiming under them until December 31. 2003 unless modified in accordance with the above section 17.01 said covenants and restrictions shall automatically be extended for successive periods of ten (10( years, commencing with the year 2003.

Does that mean the rules expire if there not updated? or does that mean every 10 years if no changes they will automatically be reinstated for 10 more years?

Ok, that clears that up. We are still working on trying ot make it clear to the HOA that they can indeed enforce rules, but getting them motivated to do so is a different story.

Just remember, volunteer HOAs do not fall under Statute 720. This means there are some limitations on enforcement. When was the restrictions filed and properties first sold?

Along with some other clarifications about "volunteer," Noah, please note that many HOAs have "Rules & Regulations." These are usually elaborations of the covenants.

Also, it's not the "HOA" that's failing to enforce your covenants (if you're correct), it's the board of directors.

Generally true, but there are exceptions. Like my association. Many of the purported covenants and restritions here actually appear in the Bylaws. The CC&Rs incorporate the Bylaws by reference which I think is absurd and counter-productive. If all of the Bylaws are to be taken as part of the CC&Rs then how can a hierarchy of governing documents exist? Our attorneys over the years have said that while the docs should be revised and restated, they're legally fine and enforceable. To make for a more bizarre situation, the Bylaws also incorporate the CC&Rs by reference.

For Noah, FS 720.302(4) says:

"This chapter does not apply to any association that is subject to regulation under chapter 718, chapter 719, or chapter 721 or to any nonmandatory association formed under chapter 723, except to the extent that a provision of chapter 718, chapter 719, or chapter 721 is expressly incorporated into this chapter for the purpose of regulating homeowners’ associations."

Is membership mandatory? And is the association authorized to impose assessments that may become a lien on the property if unpaid?

If the answer to either of those is "no", then FS 720 simply does not apply to you. You can have deed restrictions that run with the land without necessarily being a member of a mandatory HOA.

Well if their are 100s if not 1000's then the state needs to find some answers , as that is 10,000s of people if not 100,000s affected by Crooked HOA's

Me and my team have decided if Tuesday does not go well, we are all going door to door to the whole neighborhood and when OCT comes in were voting them ALL out....

...bad news is we are not sure if normal people get elected if we have the legal power to make people get rid of chickens etc.....but we ill ate least have a HOA that will try.

I would assume if someone has chickens and the rules say you can't have them a judge would read the deed restrictions and let the HOA win as that is tied to the deeds.

LOL ... I would agree that Florida needs to look at their HOA statutes. FL gives WAY too much leverage to for example developers and potentially will allow developers to make changes to the CCR’s which in many other states would essentially be considered fraud ... not only to the homeowners, but also their Secured Creditors. All I can say is Thank God my mom decided to buy in another state other than Florida. As her Trustee I would have found FL to be a potential future nightmare.

The legislator does look at them and consider proposed changes to the Condo and HOA statutes every year. Most proposed changes never get out of committee. Developers all have offices in Tallahassee which they staff every year when the legislature is in session. A lot of bribes - er, "lobbying" - goes on with bags of cash changing hands all the time. Developers are big contributers to political campaigns and they get the best state government money can buy.

Every few years they get shamed about the status of the Condo and HOA statutes. The HOA statute, in particular, is incredibly weak. They make a few token changes to appease squeaky-wheel homeowners and it's back to business as usual for a few years until they start feeling the heat again from bad publicity. Wash, rinse, repeat.