Misleading rule changes in Florida

I maintain the website for our HOA. On the website we have the Covenants and Community Rules on the website.

When community members have asked for certain rule changes, the Board has replied they would not support the covenant change due to the cost of filing the changed document with the county clerk of court. The topic of contention concerns the community parking rules.

Recently, the President asked me to edit the PDF and add a few words to one rule on page 5 of the Supplemental Rule. The document has the county stamp and a disclaimer statement from the President who was in power in 2019 when the document was filed with the county. I did not have the original document to edit so he or another Board member made the change and sent me the new PDF. The new document was not filed with the county ( current President advised he was told by the attorney that a rule change does not need to be filed with the county). BUT the new document is showing the same cover page.

To me, this is misleading, that the rules have changed but nobody would know of the few word change between the document on file at the county and the document on the website.

Thoughts?

Are you on the board, HenryD? It matters in state statutes whether you're condo HOA or SFHomes. Which are you?

Next, covenants and rules are usually two different documents. Covenants require owners votes -- often a very high % like 75%-- to amend them. See near the end (probably) how to amend the covenants.

See the early part of your covenants for Definitions. There, you should see a definition of Rules or Rules & Regulations. Usually they elaborate on covenants. Usually, HOAs can make rules by Board action/votes only. So, usually the Board can make rules about parking so long as they don't conflict with the covenants. NOTE: the prez alone may not make changes. There needs to be a Board vote in an open meeting.

It sounds like your HOA has convents & rules smushed together when they probably should not be. Note your HOA attorney's advice: "current President advised he was told by the attorney that a rule change does not need to be filed with the county)."

So....what do your documents say? If silent, then FL statues will help you.

What is the title of this "2020 PDF. "The Board, in FL, cannot amend ANYthing unless it meets in an open meeting, and the item, say "Parking Use Proposed Rule Change," is on an agenda that was posted xx days in advance and THE BOARD vote on the changes.

It doesn't matter what "the Board states." What matters is what your covenants state. In addition, the president is NOT "the Board." He has NO decision-making authority.

So long as a new or amended rule on parking does not conflict with the covenants, the HOA proceeds with the Rules & Regulations amendment(s).
HOW it proceeds depends on what your covenants (CC&Rs) say is required to amend Rules & Regs. In some, apparently, Owners vote to amend rules. But not in others.. Only you know what is in your CC&RS.

Again review the "definitions" section of your covenants and your should see the names of the governing docs for your HOA.

There is no governing doc called "paint Colors." Use restrictions like this are usually gathered in a sole doc call rules & regs. OR perhaps in a doc called Architectural Guidelines.

It feels like the president is asking you to do something that opposes FL 720 statutes for HOAs and probably your HOA's document too. IF, for instance, you write on the website that there is a new rule ---and spell out its wording-- you are not telling the truth to owners IF the Board did not vote on it at an open meeting and is in the meeting minutes. THEY are of the official record of your HOA. So... you're in a very uncomfortable simulation, it seems to me.

There are a couple of fine FL posters whom I hope will chime in. They'll be more accurate than I. Good luck.

Let's start with the parking rules. Where were the original rules? Were they in the original declaration, or were they always in a supplemental rules and regulations document?

This makes a huge difference. If the parking rules are part of the declaration, then they can only be changed by a vote of the membership (based on what your quorum is as defined in the bylaws) and must be recorded with the county.

If they were always part of a supplemental document, check to see what your declaration and bylaws say. Most declarations in Florida allow the board to make changes to those documents without a vote of the membership, however there must be an official notice sent to every owner at least 14 days in advance of the vote to make the changes. The vote has to be done at a properly noticed board meeting where the vote is one of the agenda items.

If you have legally adopted new parking rules, you don't need to change remove the old ones from the county records. If your declaration requires that you record your new rules (very uncommon in Florida HOAs in my experience) then your new ones would just supercede your old ones. Florida law does require a seller provide a copy of the current documents to the buyer. Just make sure that the packet your management company (or the ones on your website) are correct. Most people do not pull everything from the county website.

My HOA has documents that are pretty standard for Florida:
Articles of Incorporation (changes require vote of membership and will be recorded).
Declaration (changes require vote of membership and will be recorded).
By-laws (doesn't require vote of membership - board can vote at properly noticed meeting with 14 day notice to owners, must be recorded with county)
Rules and regulations (doesn't require vote of membership - board can vote at properly noticed meeting with 14 day notice to owners, not recorded with county)
Architectural regulations ((doesn't require vote of membership - board can vote at properly noticed meeting with 14 day notice to owners, not recorded with county)

LoriM15,
I lost this discussion and just found your reply.

Your question on where the original rules - I am not sure, the community has been around 20+ yrs and I have only been here the last 7. The farthest I can find is Supplemental Rules 2017 and the parking rules are included. The rule versions 2017, 2019, 2020, 2024 May, 2024 December.

Attached are two Covenant paragraphs that could come into play.

New parking rules have come into play due to Florida HB1203 from July 1 2024. Our current documents are available to the public on the community website. The documents have the old parking restrictions with an asterik and the asterik refers to a statement on the first page that the Statements identified with an asterik (*) on Pages 4, 5, and 6
are no longer valid or required based upon Florida Statute 720.3075(3) which went into effect on July 1, 2024.