[RPPTL LandTen] FW: Distressed Condo Relief Act

[Shane Weaver]

Albert - I am not in favor of the changes. I had sent the comments below to Neil and Scott last week, but I should include the rest of the committee, as well.

Shane Weaver, Esq.
Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County
423 Fern Street, Suite 200
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Tel. (561) 822-9785
Fax (561) 822-9885

From: Shane Weaver
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 11:54 AM
To: 'Neil B. Shoter'; 'Law Offices of Scott A. Frank'
Subject: RE: Distressed Condo Relief Act

Neil and Scott,

I have finally gotten a chance to review SB 0530 amending the Condo Act. My area of concentration is 718.116(11), dealing delinquent owners' tenants. There is a significant problem with one of the amendments, and I believe a few other changes not included are badly needed. It is somewhat frustrating because I thought our committee would get the chance to collaborate and offer input before an actual bill would be introduced.

First, the problems with one proposed language change:

In the first paragraph of (11), the bill changes "the obligations" to "all unpaid rent due to the association." Adding the word "unpaid" is highly confusing, if not nonsensical. There's no "unpaid rent due to the association" until *after* a demand has actually been made.

Taken literally, it suggests that a tenant owes nothing to the association as long as they were current with their landlord at the time of the association's demand. After all, if you're current with your landlord, then there's no "unpaid" rent. It seems as if they are conflating rent with assessments and making a mess of it.

This clause could state instead: "the association may make a written demand that the tenant pay his or her rent to the association and continue to make such payments until all monetary obligations of the unit owner related to the unit have been paid in full to the association."

Second, there are several other changes that are badly needed.

A.            The last sentence of (11) states that tenants are immune from a unit-owner's suit for unpaid rent only if they have "acted in good faith" in response to the association's demand. This is a major problem. It creates litigation over what bad faith is in a given case, and then allows rent validly demanded by the association to revert to the landlord if he can prove bad faith. Why is a landlord allowed to do this?

Once the association's demand has been made, the landlord should be out of the picture when it comes to rent. If a tenant hasn't paid, then let the association recover it rather than letting it revert to a delinquent owner. This subsection should state instead: "A tenant is immune from any claim by the unit owner related to the rent once the association has made written demand."

B.            11(a) refers to tenants "prepaying" rent. This concerned me in the original bill and still does, because "prepaying" carries a certain meaning-e.g., last month's rent, or paying for several months at once. The idea was to make sure tenants don't end up owing rent to two entities in the same rental period.

The subsection should state instead: "If the tenant paid rent to the unit owner for a given rental period before receiving the demand from the association and provides written evidence of having paid the rent to the association within 14 days ..."

C.            There should be a new subsection 11(d) (bumping everything else down a letter) that states: "The association shall not be entitled to the full rent if the tenant has properly served the unit owner with a valid notice of non-compliance under s. 83.60."

Please let me know your thoughts, or where else I should direct these comments. I believe the Housing Umbrella Group is still reviewing this bill and may have additional input.

Thank you,
Shane

Shane Weaver, Esq.
Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County
423 Fern Street, Suite 200
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Tel. (561) 822-9785
Fax (561) 822-9885

From: Neil B. Shoter [mailto:NShoter at shutts.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:59 AM
To: Shane Weaver
Cc: 'Law Offices of Scott A. Frank'
Subject: RE: Distressed Condo Relief Act

No, we did not meet on this. Frankly, I hadn't received much in the way of concrete issues from those I spoke to and the Condo Committee also didn't get on it (at least to my knowledge).   Do you have a bill number??  I wll also check with the Condo Committee to see if they received notice of the bill.


[http://www.shutts.com/shutts100.jpg]

Neil B. Shoter
Partner / LEED Accredited Professional
________________________________
Shutts & Bowen LLP
1100 CityPlace Tower, 525 Okeechobee Boulevard | West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Direct: (561) 650-8535 | Fax: (561) 822-5525
E-Mail<mailto:NShoter at shutts.com> | Biography<http://www.shutts.com/index.cfm/fa/attorney.bio/atty/466a1d2b-4049-425b-af4b-a56f3cb8a441/Neil_B_Shoter.cfm/> | V-Card<http://www.shutts.com/index.cfm/fa/attorney.vcf/atty/466a1d2b-4049-425b-af4b-a56f3cb8a441/Neil_B_Shoter.cfm/> | Website<http://www.shutts.com/>




________________________________
From: Shane Weaver [mailto:sweaver at legalaidpbc.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:56 AM
To: Neil B. Shoter
Subject: RE: Distressed Condo Relief Act
Neil,

Did this subcommittee ever move forward? I never received any follow-up after your e-mail below, and apparently the legislature has just written a new bill on this subject. (I haven't seen the text yet and don't know if it's fixing glitches or something else.)

Thank you,
Shane

Shane Weaver, Esq.
Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County
423 Fern Street, Suite 200
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Tel. (561) 822-9785
Fax (561) 822-9885

From: Neil B. Shoter [mailto:NShoter at shutts.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 4:18 PM
To: Shane Weaver
Subject: RE: Distressed Condo Relief Act

great, will let you know the dates

[http://www.shutts.com/shutts100.jpg]

Neil B. Shoter
Partner / LEED Accredited Professional
________________________________
Shutts & Bowen LLP
1100 CityPlace Tower, 525 Okeechobee Boulevard | West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Direct: (561) 650-8535 | Fax: (561) 822-5525
E-Mail<mailto:NShoter at shutts.com> | Biography<http://www.shutts.com/index.cfm/fa/attorney.bio/atty/466a1d2b-4049-425b-af4b-a56f3cb8a441/Neil_B_Shoter.cfm/> | V-Card<http://www.shutts.com/index.cfm/fa/attorney.vcf/atty/466a1d2b-4049-425b-af4b-a56f3cb8a441/Neil_B_Shoter.cfm/> | Website<http://www.shutts.com/>




________________________________
From: Shane Weaver [mailto:sweaver at legalaidpbc.org]
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 3:52 PM
To: Neil B. Shoter
Subject: RE: Distressed Condo Relief Act
Neil,

I definitely would like to be included on the subcommittee. As for the week of October 11, the 12th or 13th would be best. I can also do the 14th in the afternoon.

Thank you,
Shane

Shane Weaver, Esq.
Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County
423 Fern Street, Suite 200
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Tel. (561) 822-9785
Fax (561) 655-5269

From: landten-bounces at lists.flabarrpptl.org [mailto:landten-bounces at lists.flabarrpptl.org] On Behalf Of Neil B. Shoter
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 3:42 PM
To: 'RPPTL Landlord Tenant Committee'
Subject: [RPPTL LandTen] Distressed Condo Relief Act

Several of you expressed an interest at our September meeting in working on a Subcommittee to address issues that have arisen from the Distressed Condo Relief Act (formerly SB 1196), that became effective July 1st, and which affects the HOA, Condo and Co-op sections of Section 718, Florida Statutes - specifically an Association's collection of rents from tenants.

The RPPTL's Condominium and Planned Development Committee is setting us a subcommittee to study whether a "glitch" bill to correct problems or clarify language in this Act is needed and has invited our Committee to work jointly.

If you would like to participate in this subcommittee to work on this issue, please let me know, and your availability for a call with the Condo Committee the week of October 11th.

Thank you.

Neil



[http://www.shutts.com/shutts100.jpg]

Neil B. Shoter
Partner / LEED Accredited Professional
________________________________
Shutts & Bowen LLP
1100 CityPlace Tower, 525 Okeechobee Boulevard | West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Direct: (561) 650-8535 | Fax: (561) 822-5525
E-Mail<mailto:NShoter at shutts.com> | Biography<http://www.shutts.com/index.cfm/fa/attorney.bio/atty/466a1d2b-4049-425b-af4b-a56f3cb8a441/Neil_B_Shoter.cfm/> | V-Card<http://www.shutts.com/index.cfm/fa/attorney.vcf/atty/466a1d2b-4049-425b-af4b-a56f3cb8a441/Neil_B_Shoter.cfm/> | Website<http://www.shutts.com/>



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