Pursuant to Florida Statute 718.111(5), an Association has the irrevocable right to access each unit during reasonable hours for the purposes of maintenance, repair or replacement of any common elements or of any portion of a unit to be maintained by the Association. The term “reasonable” is not defined by the Florida Statutes but it has come to mean during daylight hours. Regardless of whether entering occurs during reasonable hours, the recommendation is to give prior Notice at all times. Additionally, the Association cannot reasonably be allowed or expected to enter a unit during the night hours, unless an emergency arises, and usually, notice must be given. It is also important to review the Condominium Documents and bylaws in regards to this matter as well. Further, a Condominium Association, at the sole discretion of the Board of Directors, may enter an abandoned unit to inspect the property and adjoining common

Collection of a community’s assessments is critical to maintaining a steady flow of income to support the association’s maintenance responsibilities and maintain the association’s overall fiscal health. Yet with the more urgent day-to-day demands on property managers and volunteer board members, collections can often be neglected or completely overlooked. On day one, new board members should evaluate the association’s accounts receivable aging report, its internal collections policy, and the governing documents. If delinquencies are rampant, it is possible that the collections policy may be inconsistently applied. If an association has recently decided to crack down on delinquencies, it must be sure to adopt a clear collections policy and share that collections policy with owners prior to implementation. The board will need to make sure that the collections strategy also includes a plan to combat recidivism, including acceleration or shortening the time for turnover of an account to collections. The board

While the country begins to prepare for the national election, election season is also rearing its head for many community associations across the State of Florida. Now that most community associations have held their annual meetings reviewing all things 2019 and set a budget for 2020, it is important to keep in mind all the details that have to be straightened out weeks, and even months, before the nail-biting, hours-long board elections take place. Florida requires that residential condominium associations send out their first notice of the annual meeting and elections not less than 60 days prior to the election. Once the notice is sent, the clock starts for a myriad of deadlines and paperwork that require advance planning. For-getting to check one of the items off the list could lead to having to start the whole process all over again, which can lead to increased costs and confusion for

KWPMC’s Chief Operating Officer, Katalina Cruz, has been named by the South Florida Business Journal as one of their “2020 Influential Business Women,” an honor bestowed to only twenty women each year in the region who have shown strong records of leadership, innovation in their industries and community involvement. Katalina has played a major role in structuring the company in an organized way, onboarding new communities and ensuring smooth community operations at all times. Company co-founders Paul Kaplan and Robert White credit Cruz with creating and fostering a corporate culture that has allowed KWPMC to add so much talent – and retain that talent – in such a short period of time. Most recently, Cruz has been fine-tuning the company’s technological infrastructure, showing clients and employees the company’s ability to provide real-time property and employee performance data through integrated online dashboards. Cruz is spearheading a growth and development program that

There are several community association law bills that have been filed in either The Florida House of Representatives or The Florida Senate to keep an eye out for and that may merit the input of community associations across the state – to help get them passed or voted down. Here is a summary of the bills to keep an eye on and the corresponding Florida Congressperson or Senator that has sponsored it: HB 0137 (REPRESENTATIVE CORTES): This bill proposes changes to the HOA recall statute to allow directors to be recalled if 60% of the people who are living in the HOA vote to remove the current board or board member, rather than a majority vote of all of the owners. HB 0233 (REPRESENTATIVE CORTES): This bill would require the parties to attend arbitration, should pre-suit mediation fail. This bill would require the parties to first mediate and then arbitrate