Not So Fast

I received a call this week from a worried Cocoa Beach condo owner. He had just been notified that his condo association was about to vote to change the rental minimum from one week to one month. The ability to do vacation rentals was the reason he bought the unit a few months ago. I've addressed this in the past and the segment below is from an old post. 

In short, if your condo allows weekly rentals, they can't limit your right to do so in the future without your affirmative vote on the change. Don't be bullied by a condo board trying to restrict your property rights. They often get away with these bluffs because owners don't know that the Board doesn't have that right.

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I've recently heard about two local condo associations trying to change rental restrictions via rule changes. As we found out in an outrageous incident a few years ago, an association can't merely add a new rule to change property use. That particular incident was a Cocoa Beach association that attempted to limit how many units a person could own by burying a new rule in the existing rules and regulations. It doesn't work that way. Property use can only be changed by a properly announced and voted amendment to the condo docs. Any properly administrated new amendment that changes property usage does not apply to owners who vote no or abstain from voting on the new rental restriction. The condo docs determine the process and majority required for such changes. As always, I am not a lawyer and unit owners should seek qualified legal counsel if they think their Board is operating outside the law. Rogue Boards are not an uncommon occurrence in the Sunshine State.

From the Florida Statutes:
The Florida Condominium Act, in Section 718.110(13), Florida Statutes, limits the ability of a condominium association to amend its documents to impose new rental restrictions. The statute states that “an amendment prohibiting unit owners from renting their units or altering the duration of the rental term or specifying or limiting the number of times unit owners are entitled to rent their units during a specified period applies only to unit owners who consent to the amendment and unit owners who acquire title to their units after the effective date of that amendment.”

I'm always interested to hear stories of condo association shenanigans. Feel free to send me an anonymous email of shady goings-on at your association. I can share them or not, your call.

“All art is unstable. Its meaning is not necessarily that implied by the author, There is no authoritative voice. There are only multiple readings.” __David Bowie

Do You Remember?

In lieu of any interesting developments worth writing about since the last post, I'm reposting an old story that I was reminded of when I walked in a convenience store in south Cocoa Beach this week and saw an old familiar face behind the counter, Gary. He was one of the victims in the original story about the impact of the Magnolia Bay development in which I was unfortunately involved. 

I, in a moment of poor judgement, agreed to plead to the Brevard County Commission on behalf of the developer. The Magnolia Bay development was being opposed by the upscale River Falls neighborhood to the north on what I believed were unfair grounds. Thus my misguided appearance at the Commission meeting in which I was passionately villainized by the neighbors as a proxy for the developer. In retrospect, I regret supporting the development because of the unintended consequences to so many people. My only compensation was an attaboy from the developer. He won his case and the condos were built with the concession of one less story on the building closest to River Falls. The finished development is beautiful but many lives were changed to make way for it. Sorry, Gary, Sam and all the unnamed others. Here is my post from 2013 quoting the original from 2007.

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Another One Bites the Dust (originally posted October 4, 2007)  In 2013 we saw almost all the remaining Magnolia Bay units finally sell. It's been a long hard road. I thought the readers who may not remember the drama of 2007 during the construction might appreciate this look back at the time of construction and some of the unintended consequences. There is a new store in the old Express Grocer spot now and they seem to be doing OK. The site of the old trailer park is occupied on one half by a self-storage facility and the other half by nothing. I have no idea where Sam and Gary are these days.

Oct. 4, 2007 - This unwinding of the housing bubble has touched many lives. Besides the flippers who were too late to the party and people who bought more home than they could afford with exotic mortgages, some innocent victims have been dragged down, too. A deadbeat homeowner in my building has decided to walk away from her mortgage and will be leaving the remaining owners with thousands in unpaid assessments. My life will go on even though it riles me to have to pay for someone else's bad choices. It may hurt more for my retired neighbors. More heartbreaking is the impact on the decent people who run the small grocery store close to my home. They didn't speculate on pre-construction condos or try to flip houses and yet their lives have been changed forever.

It all began when construction began on the big empty parcel of land that was to become Magnolia Bay. Business picked up as workers walked over for lunch, snacks, cigarettes and so forth and the promise of all the new families that would be moving in made the future look bright. Shortly thereafter, the trailer park next door that housed the biggest part of our grocer's customers was purchased. With plans to build townhomes on the site, the trailers were progressively moved out or torn down until the property was empty. Things were still looking good even with the loss of the regulars. With 77 new half million dollar plus Magnolia Bay units and 18 new townhomes right next door, the customer base was growing and being upgraded and the construction workers were providing business in the interim. Life was good.

Then, Magnolia Bay sales slowed and the planned 4 buildings got scaled back to 3. Scheduled closings failed to happen and the construction workers finished their work and moved on. Today, the grand buildings at Magnolia Bay are mostly empty and dust blows in the sea breeze on the site of the old trailer park. The only townhomes there today are in the picture on the "coming soon" sign. Business at the grocer who stocked my favorite beer in a corner of the walk-in cooler at my request dried up to a trickle and, this week, he told me that this is his last month there. He can't make it any longer.

There are multiple losers in this story; the developers of Magnolia Bay, the trailer park residents, some of whom had lived there for decades, the owners of the trailer park property, the customers of Express Grocer including me and, most of all, Sam, the grocer and his family, and Gary, his long-time employee, who has been known to extend credit to a down-on-his-luck customer or two. Sam, your family, and Gary, you will be missed by many. You are good people.

My favorite Express Grocer memory will always be the sign that appeared on the door one day. It read:

Do not ask Gary for credit. He is not allowed to give it anymore. Sam