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After hearing horror stories of selective enforcement, predatory fines and harassment in HOAs, a number of state legislators sponsored or co-sponsored bills in prior legislative sessions to help Floridians live their home ownership dreams without experiencing any nightmares.
Chances are, as a Central Florida or Osceola County homeowner, your property is part of a homeowners association (HOA) — like it or not.
While you pay the mortgage and maintain the home or property, a set of covenants or deed restrictions put in place govern a few of the things you can, can’t or must do. The intent is to keep neighborhoods looking kept and clean, which enhances the property values of the homes in them.
Almost 50,000 HOAs govern the property of just over nine million Florida residents — about 42 percent of the state’s population. After hearing horror stories of selective enforcement, predatory fines and harassment in HOAs, a number of state legislators sponsored or co-sponsored bills in prior legislative sessions to help Floridians live their home ownership dreams without experiencing any nightmares.
In the upcoming session that begins Jan. 9, Rep. Kristen Arrington (D-Kissimmee), whose district 46 includes the wholly HOA-run Poinciana, is taking up owners’ rights again.
She has two bills on her docket, parts of which she’s proposed in prior sessions that made it as far as the committee level (they didn’t get to the House floor for a vote).
“We have Speaker (of the House) and leadership support HOA reform, so that’s why I’m sponsoring these again,” Arrington said.
House Bill 59 (with companion Senate bill 50 filed by Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando) would require a onetime distribution of an HOA’s rules and covenants to existing and new members, and extends that to emailing to residents or posting them to an association website.
“People move into a community and don’t know what’s asked of them, or the HOA makes changes along the way and owners don’t know (the new covenants),” Arrington said.
House Bill 431 would prohibit fines imposed by homeowners’ associations from exceeding $500 total, which is a half of the current $1,000 limit, creating a cap.
Arrington also has the support of Osceola County’s state Senator, Victor Torres, who sponsored companion legislation (SB 826).
“Every Legislative Session I file bills relating to Homeowner Association reforms that help protect residents from overzealous HOA fines and penalties,” said Torres. “I am honored to work with Representative Arrington this year on reducing fine amounts.”
Arrington noted that some people want a bill to make fines disappear completely, but she said there needs to be a way “to put teeth into the enforcement power.”
“We want to keep property values up, but we don’t need to give a senior citizen a $1,000 fine for not pressure washing their driveway,” she said. “I got elected during COVID, and I heard many stories from Poinciana, when fines of $1,000 were hard for people not knowing when their next paycheck would come from, or if they could get workers out. It still has residents worried.
“We don’t need HOAs running themselves like a business, and some are doing that, trying to make a profit. Maybe not around here, but I hear stories from South Florida.”
If passed, the Arrington/Torres legislation would take effect July 1, 2024.
Among the HOA reform bills that did pass in the 2023 session included one that prevented HOAs from putting liens for unpaid fines onto properties as a threatening tool.
