If you
live in a condo or an HOA association-controlled apartment, residence or
property, your most likely interaction will be with something called the
architectural committee or its counterpart.
The
architectural control committee is established in the association’s
declarations or CC&Rs (Covenants,
Conditions, and Restrictions) and in Florida, it’s also authorized in the Florida
statute 720.3035. So, it’s functions and actions are not only provided for in
the condo association/HOA rules and regulations, they are also supported by
Florida's state law.
Generally
speaking, the people who migrate to the architectural control committee or its
condo counterpart are those most interested in controlling the lives of the
people that live in the condo or development, and they have a significant
tendency to be those least easy to deal with.
An
acquaintance of mine whose son was in his in the driveway of his recently
purchased home in an association-controlled community, was rinsing off his car
when he heard the clicking of a camera behind him. He turned around to see a
somewhat angry looking lady standing in his yard, who identified herself as a
member of the “Environmental Control Committee” taking pictures of his son and
the car.
A few
days later and envelope was found taped to the door with a $25 fine from the
Environmental Control Committee since washing your car is illegal under the HOA
rules. Obviously, a battle ensued; feelings were hurt, and my friend is looking
for a new home.
Depending
upon the provisions of the association’s governing documents, the architectural
committee may be referred to as any of the following: Architectural Committee,
Architectural Control Committee, Architectural Review Committee, Art Jury,
Design Review Committee, Environmental Control Committee, Landscape Review
Committee.
An
architectural committee's authority and responsibility came from the Homeowners
Association's bylaws also known as CC&Rs(Covenants, Conditions, and
Restrictions)
Members
of the architectural committee are responsible for maintaining the aesthetic
and structural integrity of the association and enforcing the CC&Rs.
They
should be reviewing any applications for modifications, additions, or
architectural changes in the community.
The architectural review committee is
responsible for:
- Managing the change or modification application and approval
process;
- Monitoring the community for violations of standards;
- Fairly enforcing standards set forth in the governing documents;
- Making subjective and objective decisions about guideline
compliance;
- Making recommendations to the board of directors;
- Reviewing guidelines for adequacy and proposing changes
- Educating the community about set guidelines.
These committees operate
under the guise of “protecting property values," “maintaining aesthetic consistency," “external conformity," but frequently it is all about
power and imposing personal will than it is about property value or esthetic
consistency.
Fighting with the
Architectural Control Committee any of its iterations or the Association Board
of Directors is usually a losing battle.
The courts have made
it clear that HOA covenants are valid and enforceable provided there are clear
policy guidelines establishing the overall standards and they are applied
uniformly. Florida Statute 720 loads the
game in the favor of the developers, lawyers and the feudal kingdoms they
create.
Most year's minor tweaks
in the Statute 720 are made by the legislature, but these changes are carefully
watched over by the developers, lawyers and those that make significant money from
litigation related to Statute 720 impositions.
It just seems
unconscionable to me that the State would allow a situation where one of the
conditions of purchasing real property could be the enforcement of an agreement
that directly takes away rights guaranteed by our constitution.
It is way past time for
the Florida Legislature to take a serious look at the requirements imposed by
developers on their customers and make some changes that protect the buyer.
Disclosures:
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