Blogs & Resources

“Jimerson Birr honored by Florida Trend,” reports the Ponte Vedra Recorder.

The Florida Condominium Act sets forth the process and procedure for perfecting a condominium assessment lien for delinquent assessments. A condominium lien creates an interest in real property in favor of the association. In many instances, it has been said that the association has a “perpetual” right to lien, so long as the association remains in existence. The condominium lien will take its priority in right based on the date the declarations were recorded. Because Florida association liens require the inclusion of a legal description, and liens create real property rights, only attorneys who are members of The Florida Bar may draft liens. A non-Florida attorney’s preparation of a lien on Florida real property constitutes the unauthorized practice of law. This is so, even if the non-attorney is a licensed community association manager. See The Florida Bar re Advisory Opinion — Activities of Community Ass’n Managers, 681 So.2d 1119 (Fla. 1996).

Florida’s community associations are largely governed by two main sources of authority: (1) the Florida Condominium Act (for condo associations) and the Florida HOA Act (for homeowners’ associations); and (2) the association’s governing documents. While court opinions, State of Florida arbitration decisions and the Florida Administrative Code also govern community associations, these sources largely rely on the Florida Statutes, association governing documents, or both, for any given issue. Concerning the hierarchy of this authority, the Florida Condominium Act and the Florida HOA Act (collectively referred to as the “Acts”) will trump community association documents (i.e., declarations, bylaws, articles of incorporation and rules and regulations). Stated another way, the Acts ultimately have the final say if the governing documents are silent or contradict the Acts on any issue. Because association documents are subordinate to the Acts, an association’s declaration that does not contain Kaufman Language is stuck in the past.

A condominium association’s governing documents in conjunction with Section 718.116, Florida Statutes, are the genesis of the condominium association’s authority to impose and perfect assessment liens against individually owned units and parcels within the community. This four-part blog will discuss the condominium association’s right to lien, perfecting the condominium association lien, and collection practices for condominium associations. Part I will discuss the condominium association’s authority for asserting liens.

Often leaders in organizations view a document retention policy as simply a written document that a company creates or obtains and then saves on its server with every other document the company has created or obtained and now retains. Best practices dictate that an effective document retention policy be seen as […]

Spoliation of relevant Electronically Stored Information (ESI) is a serious concern for litigants in both Federal and State court actions. Because of records retention measures that may be in place at an organization, such as automatic deletion of emails after a certain time period has elapsed, and because of litigants’ potential ignorance of their duty to preserve, it is prudent to seek avenues to ensure that both your own client and the opposing party are proactively preserving ESI from the onset of their duty to preserve.

The Legislature deems it necessary in the interest of the public health, safety, and welfare to regulate the construction industry in Florida. As a result, the Florida Legislature enacted Chapter 489, Florida Statutes. The general policy in Florida is that construction work needs to be performed by an appropriate licensed contractor unless exempt from licensure under 489.103, Florida Statutes. In order to obtain initial licensure for construction work in Florida, the applicant must demonstrate the requisite knowledge, skill and experience, in addition to good moral character and financial stability.

Jimerson Birr featured on the Jax Chamber website for being named to Florida Trend magazine’s annual list of “Best Companies to Work For”.

Featured in the July 2016 Issue Partner’s Perspective: Civility in Litigation: A Key Ingredient to Effective and Economical Legal Strategy J&C to Host Construction Law Workshop Seminar New Law Blogs Curiosities, Ruminations and Various Eccentricities of Firm Biz Click to read.

A major expense for many homeowners’ and condominium owners’ associations is the cost of the utilities for common areas of the communities. The good news for such associations, however, is that they are entitled to an exemption for the sales tax related to their utilities as long as a few requirements are met—a fact of which many associations are not even aware.