Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Declarations, Bylaws & Articles of Incorporation

Fla. Stat. 720.305(c) of the Homeowners Association Act limits the cost of copies to $0.50 per page unless they have to send them out to be copied, in which case they can charge a reasonable fee for staff to bring the documents to a vendor for copying. The same statute requires them to keep sufficient copies of the governing documents (Declarations, Bylaws, Articles of Incorporation) on hand to provide members with copies. While the statute doesn't outright say these documents must be provided free of charge, industry practice has been to provide them for free.

You could always go online and download them for free. Search on your county's "Official Records" and once you're on the website search by your association's name. You will also want to restrict the search to Condo documents, restrictions, plat-related, and assignments so you don't get too many results.

You should check them online anyway to make sure you have the latest documents and they are recorded. There are many associations that do not reord their documents, either due to an oversight or because they isn't get member approval, but they will enforce these documents as if they are recorded because most of the time they can get away with it without anyone challenging them.

If you are in a condo association, Fla. Stat. 718.112 has a similar provision.