Florida’s new HOA law - pro business

Started by DeanJ • 5 replies • 203 views

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DeanJ
Posts: 1,786

Posted:

I recently reviewed Floridas new HOA law. The most egregious sections concern the definition of commercial vehicles. Basically pro business interests drove this bill and did little to address “over egregious boards”.

Under the Florida law, a commercial vehicle is defined as having a GVW of 26,001 # or more than 16 passengers. So my question is what vehicle do you drive that carries more than 10 people that isn’t commercial? In case you don’t know, <26,001 GVW is up to a Class 6 Cargo Van. It is a really big vehicle and a real eye sore to a community and the owner or visitors can park them with few restrictions under this law.

I point this out because you can plan on similar legislation coming to your state.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

It's the way of the world, with some areas worse than others.

In a number of states, the laws also appear to prioritize the rights of investor-owners over those of resident-owners. Areas that attract tourists or snow-birds will also attract investors or developers. So my advice, if you want to live in a community that's mostly owner-occupied, is to look for housing in lousy climates. Of course you're most likely to have higher expenses as a result of dealing with the climate, but ya makes yer choice and ya lives with it. On the other hand, Florida is sort of the quintessential vacation/tourist/lovely climate state - but they have to deal with hurricanes.

Speaking of which, I hope everyone from Florida and other parts south will stay safe. Helene sounds pretty alarming.

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

A Ford Econoline Van comes to mind as a personal vehicle that can carry from 12 to 15 passenger,, tho the likeliness
of it fitting in a typical garage is slim to none.

Am HOA here in Vegas granted an exemption to a family to park on the street a converted 15 passenger bus to transport their
two disabled adult children.

We have the same problem with people parking utility trailers on the street or in their driveway as well as PWC's
despite the rules stating otherwise. No amount of letters or fines dissuade them.

DeanJ
Posts: 1,786

Posted:

A shuttle bus on a Ford 450 chassis is 15 passenger and qualifies under the Florida law. Take a 20 passenger shuttle bus, strip out some seats for cargo and Florida says we are fine with that.

LoriM15 (Florida)
Posts: 1,009

Posted:

I have attended several webinars and had discussions with our association attorney over the commercial vehicle clause. Basically, anything smaller than a dump truck could be allowed. Personal vehicle is not defined. So an owner could say that a large RV is a personal vehicle. What about a travel trailer or a work trailer? Is that a personal vehicle? Because there's not context and no case law yet, we simply don't know.

The one bright spot is that the vehicle must fit in the driveway and not encroach on common property. In our community, many of the houses have short driveways and longer vehicles, even pickup trucks, extend over the sidewalk, which is common property. We do have the right to restrict parking there. We don't allow overnight street parking, but it's not clear if we the street parking restrictions are valid even if our roads are private.

I read an interview with the state representative who sponsored many of the new statutes that are ridiculous. She said that they realize now that although they made these new laws with the restrictions for HOAs, but they don't have a way to enforce any penalties. So they are going into the new session and are going to try and ennact criminal penalties for boards and HOAs who aren't allowing things that should be allowed, like commerical vehicles.

I want to know where they are going to get the money and the people to run all the HOAs in receivership when no one volunteers to be on boards any longer.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By LoriM15 on 09/27/2024 10:35 AM
... snip ...

I read an interview with the state representative who sponsored many of the new statutes that are ridiculous. She said that they realize now that although they made these new laws with the restrictions for HOAs, but they don't have a way to enforce any penalties. So they are going into the new session and are going to try and ennact criminal penalties for boards and HOAs who aren't allowing things that should be allowed, like commerical vehicles.

I want to know where they are going to get the money and the people to run all the HOAs in receivership when no one volunteers to be on boards any longer.

I'll note that enacting criminal penalties for board members may violate the protections provided by the Volunteer Protection Act, which is a federal law. Do you suppose state lawmakers are aware of this, given that they passed legislation without making sure it's actually enforceable? I wouldn't bet any money on it.

Years ago lawmakers in my state were debating the merits of a new bill (in committee at the time) that also proposed imposing criminal penalties on community association boards. The bill died in committee after numerous lawyers around the state pointed out that the bill would indeed eliminate bad behavior on the part of board members, because every board member in the state would resign if the bill became law.(*)

(* I expect the Corporate Transparency Act will have a similar chilling effect, since it also imposes criminal penalties for failing to report data about a community association's "beneficial owners". These criminal penalties were mentioned in the lawsuit that CAI filed against the Treasury et al. as one reason that the CTA is unconstitutional.)

Lawmakers are going to have to decide if they want community associations to be run by volunteers who frequently don't know what they're doing, or if they want professional competence which means hiring and paying professionals. Pick one, folks. I boldly predict that we will never have professional quality association governance, because the cost of having it will put home ownership out of reach for even more people. And the Big Money Interests who profit from the status quo will howl - after which they'll lean on their pet lawmakers.

Yes, I'm cynical about this stuff.

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