HD Law Partners Blog

Many homeowners choose to put signs in their yards to express their political views or opinions on controversial issues. While the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech, homeowners who display or place controversial yard signs in their yard may get into disputes with their homeowners’ associations (HOAs).

Who’s Right in Yard Sign Disputes Between Homeowners and HOAs?

The practice of displaying political or other signs outside of your home is not prohibited in many neighborhoods and rural settings. However, when a homeowner lives in an area governed by an HOA, they may have to comply with the association’s rules regarding what homeowners can and cannot place in their yard.

Often, homeowners are restricted from:

Many of the restrictions trigger disputes between homeowners and their HOAs. When this happens, the parties should contact a homeowners’ association attorney to help them resolve their disputes in accordance with applicable state laws and ordinances. Typically, who is right in a yard sign dispute between homeowners and HOAs is determined on a case-by-case basis.

If you are like most business owners, you will do all it takes to protect your business at all costs. However, under certain circumstances, you may be unable to protect your business from unexpected events such as a natural disaster or pandemic.

Every business owner must consider purchasing business interruption insurance to protect their company from the unexpected extra expenses and loss of income. However, you need to understand what is covered under business interruption insurance before investing in it.

Business interruption insurance is a coverage that can help replace the income your business loses in the event of physical damage or covered loss. This type of insurance is very popular among business owners in Florida because the Sunshine State is no stranger to hurricanes that cause devastating damages and financial losses to businesses.

Your business may benefit from having business interruption insurance coverage because you need to be prepared for the unexpected. If you own or operate a business in Florida, having business interruption insurance is almost a necessity because of the hurricane season.

The board of directors of a Homeowners’ Association (HOA) is elected by the residents of the community. An HOA is a governing body that makes and enforces many rules that impact the entire community. One of the HOA’s duties is to protect the value of its residents’ homes.

But what about denying buyers or renters in the community? Can an HOA decide who can and cannot buy or rent homes in the community? In Florida, HOAs have a legal right to approve or deny potential buyers and tenants if they do not meet specific criteria outlined in the association’s governing documents.

The Association’s Decision Cannot Be Discriminatory

HOA/Condo laws in Florida allow HOAs considerable discretion in approving or denying potential buyers and renters. While associations can apply the screening process to deny buyers and renters, the decision cannot be discriminatory or violate the Fair Housing Act.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, religion, color, sex, age, disability, familial status, and national origin.

If your landlord fails to make necessary repairs or violates housing codes, you may be thinking about stopping to pay rent. But are you legally allowed to do that in Florida without facing an eviction notice?

What Are the Obligations and Duties of Your Landlord?

In Florida, landlords are legally required to comply with housing, building, health codes, laws, and ordinances. The exact duties of your landlord depend on whether you rent an apartment, home, or commercial premises.

If you live in an apartment building, your landlord is required to provide or ensure:

If you live in a standalone home, it is important to review your lease agreement. Many landlords delegate many of their duties and obligations to tenants.

What to Do if Your Landlord Fails to Make Repairs?

If your landlord violates housing codes or fails to make necessary repairs or keep the environment clean and free of hazards, you should discuss your options with a competent landlord & tenant attorney in your city.

Whether divorces are amicable or contentious, divorce settlements that are drafted and finalized too quickly could be missing some crucial issues, especially if a couple shares children. This is especially important if one parent is  the primary residential parent and, as a result, may incur extra costs and could end up being on the hook for thousands of dollars.  As a result, if any of the following applies in your circumstances, ensure that you and your attorney discuss and address these issues in your settlement:

College Costs

Addressing who is going to pay for college is essential if you share a child who is college bound, as Florida does not require parents to split tuition, room, and board, and, as a result, parents cannot be forced to pay for college costs unless it is addressed in the settlement or another contract. As a result, if you are the primary residential parent (or even if you are not), it may be important to you to at least obtain language covering the cost of a four-year in-state school. Also make sure that there is language included which addresses all of the other costs that come along with the college experience, such as books, computers, meals, travel, insurance, and any other expenses that might come up.

As family law attorneys who practice here in Florida, an increasingly common issue that we deal with when it comes to divorcing spouses is addressing custodial and 529 accounts. Even when a divorce is amicable, problems can still arise with respect to budgeting for a shared child’s college plans.

529 accounts allow people to save and invest for college, while avoiding taxes. The funds, when withdrawn, are also exempt from federal taxation, as long as they are spent on “eligible” education expenses (tuition, books, housing, meal plans, computers, etc.).

Still, if not properly addressed in the separation agreement, some of them are subject to a number of changes that you may be opposed to. While the general rule is that the custodial parent becomes the owner of the 529 account, with more and more courts encouraging equal, shared parental responsibility (unless they find that it is detrimental to the child), the management of the college savings account must be explicitly addressed in the separation agreement; the contract that outlines how everything is divided. In particular, it is  very important for spouses to know that, legally, these funds belong to the child as the beneficiary, and are not available to a spouse to withdraw and use as their own.

In late August, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) extended the ban on evictions and foreclosures until 2021, protecting more than eight million homeowners with single-family mortgages. The agency had previously only extended loan forgiveness on single family home mortgages that were insured and backed by the Federal Housing Administration through the end of August.

Below, we discuss which mortgages are not covered by this development, the most recent executive order on the issue, and what other protections might be available to those facing eviction or foreclosure at this time and in the future.

What Is Not Included

Note that this extension does not include residential mortgages backed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; government-run companies that guarantee approximately 50 percent of the entire US residential mortgage market, both of which last extended moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures on single-family homes through August 31.

In spite of the moratorium placed on foreclosures by the state of Florida, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac through December 31, 2020, the recession brought about by the pandemic is going to bring about a significant spike in foreclosures. Specifically, according to housing experts, once that the mortgage forbearance period ends, between 200,000 and 500,000 defaults and foreclosures are expected, reflecting a 70 percent increase in foreclosures alone over the next two years.

In addition, Florida has already been hard hit: According to the latest reports, the sunshine state had the country’s second highest foreclosure filing rate in August, with Jacksonville having the highest foreclosure rate of any metro area in the entire country, and Lakeland, Miami, and Ocala also among the top metro areas with high foreclosure rates as well. In addition, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the recession will also cause Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan losses more than $4 billion, which will inevitably be passed onto consumers.

On July 29, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-180, extending the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures in Florida until September 1 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Failing to do so could have left thousands of Floridians homeless, as, unfortunately, many expect a deluge of foreclosures and evictions once the moratorium is lifted. In fact, according to reports, a number of landlords have already filed paperwork to evict their tenants once that the ban is lifted.

Similarly to the original Executive Order (20-94), relief in these circumstances is limited to residential tenants and single-family mortgagors adversely affected by COVID-19, and does not cover commercial tenants. Still, state politicians called on DeSantis to put in place additional plans to ensure long-term housing security – both during and after the pandemic – for mortgagors and residential tenants, as they claim that the governor has ignored important proposals necessary to assemble a more sustainable plan for Florida.

As family law attorneys who practice here in Florida, one of the important areas that we counsel clients on is how to walk away from your divorce while ensuring that you are financially protected. This is, in many circumstances, easier said than done, as, of course, it is difficult to plan for every little financial detail when you are first preparing for divorce. Yet, by hiring a good, experienced attorney who you are comfortable with, and who also has experience and contacts in other areas of law, such as business law, you set yourself up to be better prepared to ensure that you come out of your divorce financially protected.

Below, we discuss one of the common misunderstandings people have when it comes to financial obligations after divorce, as well as several steps that you should take right away when you are getting a divorce in order to protect your financial interests:

First and foremost, regardless of whether one’s divorce decree indicates that they are not liable for their former spouse’s tax bill, if you filed a joint federal income tax return with your ex, both of you are jointly and severally liable for what is due that tax year. This means that the IRS has the authority to collect the full amount from either of you, regardless of whether one or the other is specifically responsible for or connected to the liability. This is because while the divorce decree is issued by the state, the IRS is a federal entity. However, there are certain tax forms that an individual can file in an effort to obtain relief from joint and several tax liability, such as Form 8857, titled “Request for Innocent Spouse Relief,” which is specifically for those who believe that their current or former spouse should be held responsible for all or part of the tax.