self-help Archives - Kaye Bender Rembaum

Rembaum’s Association Roundup | Jeffrey A. Rembaum, Esq., BCS | Visit HERE

An Ever-Changing Situation

In two previous articles – “Violation Remedies: Self-Help vs. Injunction | Which to Use” published in June 2022 and “Is It Time to Consider Removing an Association’s Right of Self-Help to Cure an Owner’s Violation from the Declaration?” published in November 2023 – the Roundup reported on appellate cases addressing the right of homeowners’ associations to seek an injunction against an owner for violations of the declaration as compared against the need to first seek a self-help remedy when also authorized by the declaration. Both articles discussed recent appellate cases from Florida’s 2^nd District Court of Appeal (DCA) and Florida’s 6^th DCA. These cases held, in short, that if the declaration provides that an association may seek an injunction for a court order against a noncomplying owner and also includes the association’s right of self-help to cure the violation, the remedy of self-help must be employed before the association can seek an injunction ordering the noncomplying owner to cure the violation.

For example, if an owner fails to maintain their yard and the declaration provides the association with the remedies of self-help and seeking a court ordered injunction to compel the owner to cure the violation, both the 2^nd DCA and 6^th DCA held that the association must at least try…

Read the full article HERE

Rembaum’s Association Roundup | Jeffrey A. Rembaum, Esq., BCS | Visit HERE

Through the years Florida’s community associations have relied upon the court decisions that had routinely agreed that the provisions of Florida Statutes that expressly authorize an association to entitlement to an injunction (i.e., a judicial order requiring a person to take action) superseded the common law standard of the requirement that there be no adequate remedy at law before a party could seek an injunction. In other words, an association could pursue injunctive relief and seek a court order to force an owner to wash their dirty roof even if the governing documents also permitted the association to enter upon the lot and cure the maintenance violation by cleaning the roof (this remedy is often called “self-help”).

However, due to rulings from both the 2nd District Court of Appeals in April 2022 and now the 6th District Court of Appeals in August 2023, that may no longer be the case. As you may recall, the April 2022 appellate case requiring a community association to first exhaust its permissive right to use “self-help” and cure an owner violation of the covenants before seeking an injunction was addressed…

Read the rest at Rembaum’s Association Roundup..Click Here

Tag: self-help

Does the Association Need to Exercise Self-Help Options Before Taking Legal Action?

An Ever-Changing Situation

Is It Time to Consider Removing an Association’s Right of Self-Help to Cure an Owner’s Violation from the Declaration?