Florida HOA - ARC Approval give, work done, ARC wants to revoke approval

Smart, are you the owner in question?

Are you on the Board?

I did, in the topic section Florida HOA.

Yes there is a written approval which specifically states it was based upon the plan submitted as an attachment to an email on a specific date. The original email with plan attached was sent back to them.

Just trying to find cases in Indian River County and or arbitration decisions to see how Judges and Arbitrators are ruling.

Can you believe the Court docket does not allow someone to search the cases by the heading HOA to bring up only HOA cases!

Your general analysis seems to be common sense, but it appears common sense is devoid in many HOA's.

It appears you've posted three conversations on the same issue, which boils down to you submitted an exterior change request, it was approved and then the ARC committee changed switched years and are now saying you have to remove what it initially approved. I say you because you haven't answered George and Augustin's questions. That's often a giveaway that this is a SWIM (someone who isn't me) question.

And why not combine All your questions in one post - it'll save you and everyone else some time.

All of that said, you mentioned in one of the other posts you're being sued over this , so you really need to discuss this with an attorney because you need to prepare for that hearing. Most of us aren't attorneys and it's NEVER a good idea to get legal advice on specific legal entanglements on the internet.

I don't know how state law will play into this, but I would think You will have a chance to present your side of all this. I would also think in situations where You have an ARC committee, it may or may not make a decision, but the board would have the final decision.

If your community has a committee and a board, but the same people serve on both, that doesn't seem fair to me, and that would be one of the issues is being up in court (at least the court will give you a chance to defend yourself). You should also present whatever you submitted in your request as well as the boards initial approval - which I really hope you got in writing, otherwise you have bigger problems

So far, I believe Indian River County is in the 19th Judicial Circuit. This translates to decisions of the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal are binding on the 19th Judicial Circuit trial courts. Other Florida Court of Appeals decision may have a bearing on decisions in the 19th Circuits trial courts, but they will not be binding. If one is competent with searching sub-sites, then one may search this site for HOA ARB-type appeals court decisions:

https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/fourth-district-court-of-appeal/

The FS 720 required "pre-suit mediation" is not the same as the required arbitration for election disputes.

I see two cases from the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal that give an idea of how Florida appeals courts think about HOAs and discretionary approval of architectural changes. These are not "on point" to the OP's situation but may be helpful anyway:

Miller v. Homeland Prop. Owners Ass'n, 2019. See https://casetext.com/case/miller-v-homeland-prop-owners-assn-2

L'Etoile Homeowner's Association v. Fresolone, 2006. See https://casetext.com/case/letoile-hom-assn-v-fres

I am searching the Florida Supreme Court decisions but so far, am coming up empty-handed.

Checking the other four Florida Courts of Appeal may be worthwhile, but again, so far, I am coming up empty-handed.

Love to communicate with GenoS on the issue of research.

I do legal research. There just are no cases on this in the appellate courts. Still relying on cases from 1969 and 1980 before these laws were written. That is sad but I have checked with a few HOA attorneys who tell me the cases I found are still what they are using. Sad

You are mistaken. The Florida HOA/Condo statutes do not affect the decades-old case law on covenants. The case law declaring, for one, that a HOA/Condo Board cannot create architectural guidelines or rules that exceed the authority of what is in the Declaration is still 100% valid and applicable to your situation. The case law declaring that HOA/Condo Boards must be reasonable when they exercise discretionary power is still 100% valid and applicable to your situation.

I'm familiar with that county. Each county has its own website and software for court dockets. Indian River County is one of the easiest to navigate, in my opinion, probably because it's a relatively "small" county. It's also unlike that of other counties. Brevard county has a different system. St. Lucie county has yet a different implementation, and so on. When you get to the larger counties, like Orange, Palm Beach, or Broward, their online systems are more complex and none uniformly use the same software. In IRC it's easy to search for specific party names on the docket going back 30 years or so, but you can't really search for general categories or types of cases. I'm registered with the county for access to the online court case system (i.e. general citizen access, not an attorney, not involved directly with any cases, etc.) and I just searched for cases with "homeowners" as a party name, between 2010 and now. 38 cases were returned but 35 of them are having to do with insurance companies, so it's hit or miss.

The breakdown of cases appears to be mainly foreclosures where the HOA is named as a defendant along with the homeowner. That's par for the course in Florida. The cases where one insurance company is the defendant appear to be "assignment of benefits" type cases. Homeowners hire a vendor to do work that they expect will be paid for by insurance. They the owners sign an "assignment of benefits" statement that gives the contractor the right to pursue a settlement with the insurance company. Insurance company balks and the vendor sues. I'm not an attorney so probably best if you check yourself regarding the case details. I just had a brief look at a couple of case dockets and haven't read any of the associated documents. Those are available for inspection but there is a delay as county court personnel have to look at the documents and make appropriate redactions before making them available.

There's another case where an HOA appears to have sued a homeowner for unpaid assessments and "lot mowing". The original amount of approx. $4,000 became $6,000 after costs and attorney fees. Homeowner lost and the court imposed a payment plan. That's the only case where the HOA was the plaintiff. I thought it was most interesting because from initial filing to final order the case took only 2 months to go through Small Claims court.

As for what county I reside in, I'll only say "maybe". I try to not disclose too much online.

sspg12 for all you yahoos

Thank you for that detailed report of cases. if you can send the case number or the plaintiff and defensant so i can find it in IRC public records online that would be great.

I am a yahoo!