Mandatory membership of a private club owned by the Developer

RamC (Florida)
Posts: 8

Posted:

I’m an advisor to the President of our HOA and we want to amend the current DECLARATION OF RESTRICTIONS, COVENANT, AND CONDITIONS.
Our HOA is in the state of Florida.

The developer sold all the homes in the HOA and turned over except for the Clubhouse. In the article which describes the Clubhouse Covenents (Clubhouse owned by the Developer) it has the following provision: "Every Owner by acceptance of a deed to any Unit, shall automatically assume and agree to pay all Club Charges which shall be due and payable as of the date of such deed and which shall become due and payable thereafter on account of the membership in the Anand Vihar Club pertaining to the Unit belonging to such Owner."

The developer still owns the clubhouse and the covenants were created in 2017, the turnover and voting of board members took place in June 2023. The developer declares that it is a Private Club but at the same time the membership is mandatory!

Is there any way (legally) that the HOA can remove the restriction with respect to mandatory membership of all homeowners with the payment of a high dollar amount of fees without the Developer agreeing to it in writing?

Or is this one of those things that we agreed upon when we purchase our lots, and now we have to live with it.

The Board members and the Homeowners want to know if we should spend the money on legal counsel to verify if the above covenent is legal and whether it can be removed. So I would like to get some advice from the forum to help us in making a decision.
Any help is appreciated,
Ram

ElleN (Idaho)
Posts: 4,420

Posted:

RamC, you should find and study the Declaration section on amending the Declaration.

RamC (Florida)
Posts: 8

Posted:

The declaration about Amendment has the following General Restrictions on Amendments. Notwithstanding any other provision herein to the contrary, no amendment to these Bylaws shall affect the rights of Declarant unless such amendment receives the prior written consent of Declarant which may be withheld for any reason whatsoever. My question is - can a private club owned by the developer impose compulsory membership and payment. Most developers turned over the clubhouse at the time of HOA turnover from developer to Homeowners. But this developer appears to exploit our Senior Homeowners (55 plus community) to force them to use and pay! The members who join have no rights except the payment! For the coming year, the developer wants $400 plus for club fees in addition to HOA fees and the total come close to $800 which is pretty high!!

DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By RamC on 10/17/2023 9:15 AM

The Board members and the Homeowners want to know if we should spend the money on legal counsel to verify if the above covenent is legal and whether it can be removed.

I'd say yes, competent legal help is needed here.

Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.

RamC (Florida)
Posts: 8

Posted:

The declaration about Amendment has the following General Restrictions on Amendments. Notwithstanding any other provision herein to the contrary, no amendment to these Bylaws shall affect the rights of Declarant unless such amendment receives the prior written consent of Declarant which may be withheld for any reason whatsoever. My question is - can a private club owned by the developer impose compulsory membership and payment. Most developers turned over the clubhouse at the time of HOA turnover from developer to Homeowners. But this developer appears to exploit our Senior Homeowners (55 plus community) to force them to use and pay! The members who join have no rights except the payment! For the coming year, the developer wants $400 plus for club fees in addition to HOA fees and the total come close to $800 which is pretty high!!

LoriM15 (Florida)
Posts: 1,009

Posted:

It is not unusual in Florida for a development to have mandatory membership in a club (usually a golf club), whether or not the developer turns over the club or continues to run it themselves. This was most likely in your governing documents when you bought your home.

Does this club serve food and beverage? A non-profit can't allow outside members, so if you owned the club, only the membership and guests could use the facility. But a for-profit, like the developer, can offer it to outsiders.

This is a really complicated situation. Do you expect the developer to just give the club away to the community? You are already past turnover and you did not receive the club along with the rest of the amenities. Why should that change now?

It appears the problem is that you just don't want owners to be obligated to pay for the club, but want to make it optional. This is not an issue that your association can do without the advice of an HOA attorney.

Don't waste your time asking questions here. We can all guess, but you're not going to get much actionable advice. If you are on the board, set up a meeting with an attorney. If you are not on the board, find out if the board also feels this is an issue and lobby them to speak to an attorney.

One word of caution. If you are successful in making the club membership optional or if you somehow get the developer to turn over the club to the membership, you are going to find that it is hard to make a club like this profitable and you may end up adding to the fees of your owners, instead of decreasing them. And what about reserves for it? The list goes on.

ElleN (Idaho)
Posts: 4,420

Posted:

I see that the Florida legislature in 2010 responded to this grievance by giving, via statute, HOAs the right to purchase such clubs. See 720.31 (6) at http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=display_statute&URL=0700-0799/0720/0720.html

See also https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2011/11/13/can-i-be-forced-to-join-club-in-my-community/29059287007/ . Though this is dated, articles from this past year indicate nothing in the latter article has changed.

I suspect purchase of the club by the HOA is the only option.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

I agree entirely with Lori. Your Board needs professional advice from an HOA a attorney.

RamC (Florida)
Posts: 8

Posted:

My sincere thanks to all of you for your guidance. Two attorneys have been consulted already to take necessary actions. Thanks for confirming which makes us feel secure.

RamC (Florida)
Posts: 8

Posted:

I live in Pasco county of Florida. The developer just turned over the property 3 months ago to the Home owners. He still owns the Clubhouse and recreational play ground with Pickle ball court and a Gazebo. He did not turn over the Clubhouse and the playground and in the Master Declaration made mandatory membership requirement for all home owners. The monthly dues for the Clubhouse was collected along with the Master Association fees as declared in the Covenants. The covenents is written completely one-sided and the developer refuses to take inputs from the home owners but they are responsible for all expenses. In addition to the Clubhouse the developer introduced Lunch and Dinner Menu Plan for which the fees were collected with several options. These fees do not fall into Club budget and membership to food plan is not mandatory as per the Master declaration. The clubhouse and the meal plan are operating from 2020 to the present time. After the turn over which happened during the last week of June, the Developer sends a Special invoice of $3600 per home for the losses to the Meal Plan for the year 2002! The developer combined the meal plan expenditures with the Clubhouse maintenance budget and showed a loss of over 500000. The developer further claims that the Master Declaration provides the authority to charge for the losses from the homeowners. The master declaration clearly shows that the meal plan expenditures shall not be combined with the club budget. More than 85 percent of homeowners did not agree with the special invoice and refused to pay. The developer put a deadline of October 16th and no one paid till now. A second invoice was issued by the developer declaring that if the invoice is not paid by November 16, then the defaulters will be prohibited to enter the Clubhouse! The BODs of the HOA has filed a legal complaint to Pasco County 6th Circuit court through a law firm. Today, the developer sent an email suspending the BODs, their family members and guests and they will not be allowed to enter the Clubhouse. Since all of us have been paying the monthly Club fees of $204 without default, can the developer has rights to ban the homeowners entering the Clubhouse from 1st of December? Whom do we report about this unlawful act of the developer harassing the elderly citizens (most of us are over 65)? Where to seek remedy for this cruel act of the developer?

RamC (Florida)
Posts: 8

Posted:

I live in Pasco county of Florida. The developer just turned over the property 3 months ago to the Home owners. He still owns the Clubhouse and recreational play ground with Pickle ball court and a Gazebo. He did not turn over the Clubhouse and the playground and in the Master Declaration made mandatory membership requirement for all home owners. The monthly dues for the Clubhouse was collected along with the Master Association fees as declared in the Covenants. The covenents is written completely one-sided and the developer refuses to take inputs from the home owners but they are responsible for all expenses. In addition to the Clubhouse the developer introduced Lunch and Dinner Menu Plan for which the fees were collected with several options. These fees do not fall into Club budget and membership to food plan is not mandatory as per the Master declaration. The clubhouse and the meal plan are operating from 2020 to the present time. After the turn over which happened during the last week of June, the Developer sends a Special invoice of $3600 per home for the losses to the Meal Plan for the year 2002! The developer combined the meal plan expenditures with the Clubhouse maintenance budget and showed a loss of over 500000. The developer further claims that the Master Declaration provides the authority to charge for the losses from the homeowners. The master declaration clearly shows that the meal plan expenditures shall not be combined with the club budget. More than 85 percent of homeowners did not agree with the special invoice and refused to pay. The developer put a deadline of October 16th and no one paid till now. A second invoice was issued by the developer declaring that if the invoice is not paid by November 16, then the defaulters will be prohibited to enter the Clubhouse! The BODs of the HOA has filed a legal complaint to Pasco County 6th Circuit court through a law firm. Today, the developer sent an email suspending the BODs, their family members and guests and they will not be allowed to enter the Clubhouse. Since all of us have been paying the monthly Club fees of $204 without default, can the developer has rights to ban the homeowners entering the Clubhouse from 1st of December? Whom do we report about this unlawful act of the developer harassing the elderly citizens (most of us are over 65)? Where to seek remedy for this cruel act of the developer?