HD Law Partners Blog

Florida citizens upset over their homeowners’ association charging them for painting that had to be done on residences have garnered news headlines of late. This is a common type of dispute that arises between residents and their homeowners’ association; a maintenance service that has been written into residents’ contracts increasing their association dues; and residents being frustrated about it. Is the homeowners’ association in the wrong here?

A homeowners’ association board has tremendous power and every right to follow through with a maintenance requirement like painting residences and charging owners for that requirement. It does not need to take a vote from resident owners first; however, a majority of the homeowners can demand a recall election and elect new board members if they are frustrated by decisions like these.

The Ability to Levy Special Assessments

These types of fees are typically collected each month by homeowners’ associations to assist with improving and maintaining all properties in the association. While already-established fees often cover regular maintenance costs, associations can levy special assessments—like this painting fee—if reserve funds are not enough to cover a large project that’s badly needed.

As attorneys who regularly represent clients who are going through a divorce here in Florida, we consider it to be of vital importance to ensure that our clients understand the most important mistakes to avoid during the divorce process. Below, we discuss some of these mistakes in greater detail:

First and foremost, be careful—and cautious—on social media. Boasting about your new life—salary, trips, etc.—can only negatively affect your proposed settlement.

You also want to make sure that you gather all of the important paperwork in place before it’s too late and if you have to ask for it from our ex, down the road. Some of the paperwork includes information covering:

These documents are not only essential to the current divorce settlement process, but they help you and your attorney figure out what makes sense in terms of negotiations. For example, alimony negotiations might be affected by spousal survivor benefits from Social Security in 25 years. The more information you have now, the better you will be able to predict current and future tax consequences, and all of that affects what you demand and give up in the now. For example, a Roth IRA is worth more than a traditional IRA because it is untaxed in retirement. In a nutshell, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is being in the dark when it comes to your finances.

An important insurance bad faith decision out of a New York appellate court clarifies important Court of Appeals precedent regarding the bad faith pleading standard, while also clarifying a number of issues that the courts have never addressed, including consequential losses and attorney’s fees.

Even though decided in New York courts, this is an important decision to all insurance companies when it comes to setting precedent for bad faith claims, as we discuss in greater detail below.

The Case

The case started with property owners filing an insurance claim for direct damage and physical loss to their property as a result of construction work done in the adjoining building. According to reports, the property owners filed a claim with their insurance company, National Union Fire Insurance Company, which did not respond or pay the claim. According to them, National Union, instead “made unreasonable and increasingly burdensome information demands” with the hopes that the owners would drop the claim entirely. As a result, the owners filed claims alleging breach of contract and of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

There is no question that Hurricane Michael has wreaked incredible devastation to many Floridians, both destroying their homes and their places of work. While a number of media outlets have focused on the estimated damage to agricultural resources and related business operations, as of late, new housing has emerged as one of the most challenging struggles for those affected by the hurricane.

The damage wreaked by Michael not only affected a number of property owners, but those who depend upon spring tourism as well. With a number of businesses now awaiting the arrival of beach tourists to make up for their losses, those displaced by the hurricane who still have not been made whole by their insurance companies are concerned that they could find themselves homeless, as they have, up until now, had to depend upon temporary housing which could now be turned over to tourists. According to reports, their monthly and weekly rates are now expected to double, while others are being turned out without the option of lease renewals.

When it comes to being a landlord preparing your property to be rented by tenants, there are a number of helpful tasks that a landlord-tenant attorney can help you with. This includes precautions that will likely provide you with more protection than simply working with a property management company that does not have any experienced attorneys on staff.

Let’s take, for example, the task of finding your tenants: Let’s say you and/or the property management company having potential tenants that appear to be good on paper, but also appear to have bad credit. An attorney can help you build in some protection for yourself in case these tenants do not work out. Start by running through their references, and remember that a credit score does not tell the whole story, especially if someone experienced a couple of difficult years. You can ask their references about what is important as a landlord—did they pay rent on time, respect the premises, etc. —and then ask the tenant for additional specifics as to why their credit score might be low.

Hurricane Michael has been labeled the “third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the United States.” As of November 26, more than 43 deaths in Florida have been linked to the disaster, with 23 of them all hitting Bay County alone. On Thanksgiving Day, thousands of Floridians remained homeless because they lost everything to the hurricane.

In addition to taking human lives, Hurricane Michael has done significant damage to Florida’s panhandle crops, which will inevitably involve a number of complicated insurance claims to be filed, as we discuss below.

Crop Producers Hardest Hit

When the hurricane hit, bell pepper, squash, and tomato producers were only approximately five days into their season, and were the hardest hit, which included approximately 200 acres of bell peppers and anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 acres of tomatoes. According to reports, these producers lost approximately 90 percent of their crops. In addition, starting over with their crops has been tremendously difficult because the crop stakes were reportedly blown over and exposed to sun damage, and many of the packinghouses were also significantly damaged from the hurricane, leaving producers with nowhere to go to pack their products.

Any divorce finalized after December 31 will not be able to take advantage of the tax deduction, which was eliminated in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The deduction disappearing has a number of couples rushing to get things finalized before 2019 arrives, as payers (in the higher income tax bracket) will no longer be able to deduct the payments on their annual returns, while recipients will no longer be paying taxes on alimony as income.

In fact, payers will now owe the Internal Revenue Service taxes on the amount paid, while recipients will owe nothing. According to reports, last year alone, close to 600,000 taxpayers claimed deductions for close to $13 billion in alimony paid the previous year. The elimination of the deduction was reportedly intended to offset budget deficits created by lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent.

And unfortunately, however, couples’ needing to come to an agreement isn’t the only hurdle: There must also be enough judges—and time—to sign off on divorce agreements before the end of 2018 in order for couples to take advantage of the alimony deduction. 

On December 5, Florida-based Citizens Property Insurance Corporation announced that it would be paying a number of appraisers to review various hurricane insurance lawsuits and disputes related to Hurricane Irma and expediting settlement and resolutions of these disputes. Reportedly, if the appraisers cannot come to an agreement, Citizens will resort to paying “umpires” to make binding decisions.

According to the company’s chief claims officer, the goal is to settle about 6,500 lawsuits. Still, only a reported 60 plaintiffs have accepted offers from the company since it started contacting plaintiff’s’ attorneys in mid-October, possibly because a number of claimants may realize that they will not be offered what they need directly from the company.

Hurricane Irma, Citizens Property Insurance, and Current Claims

Hurricane Irma significantly affected Citizens Property Insurance, as a number of Florida property owners had policies with the company. According to reports, just between January and October 2018, there was a 71 percent increase in lawsuits against the company, with more than 1,100 lawsuits filed each month. Of the current 6,500 open Hurricane Irma lawsuits, 84 percent reportedly involve disputes concerning how much money it will take to bring properties back to pre-loss conditions. These involve cases where Citizens either made inadequate payments to policyholders or decided that no payment was due because damage costs did not exceed deductible amounts. 89 percent of the thousands of open lawsuits originated from Broward and Miami-Dade counties, which are home to approximately 51 percent of Citizens’ policyholders.

Some of the many landlord-tenant legal issues that we deal with have to do with landlords who are ready to sell their property that is currently being rented by tenants. Below, we discuss some of the options that you as a landlord have to do so; based on what type of lease agreement you have with your tenants; and how to deal with any bumps that might come along during the process:

Month-To-Month Leases

A month-to-month lease is arguably the best situation for a landlord because you usually only have to provide between 30 and 60 days notice to your tenants. However, first and foremost, you must ensure that you abide by the terms of your lease, including any particular provisions that were put in. Not only is it the law, but being respectful and keeping your tenant(s) informed can only help you with the selling process.

That being said, make sure you also ‘dot the i’s and cross the t’s,’ and put everything in writing, including a reminder of what date their lease ends and the date by which the tenant(s) need to move out and return the keys to you.

As family law attorneys who assist a number of clients going through divorce in Florida each year, we frequently hear clients tell us that they decided to get a divorce because they experienced ‘the last straw,’ or, conversely, that they felt blindsided by their partner, who said that something triggered ‘the law straw’ and made them want a divorce.

What is the law straw, and what triggers it? Below, we discuss some advice from the experts on its origins with respect to divorce:

The last straw is often more a culmination of realizations and issues over time as opposed to the dramatic event or fight that is sometimes portrayed in the movies. It is often a symptom of a series of ongoing issues or breakdowns in the marriage until, one day; one person decides that it is more painful to stay in the marriage than to leave. In other words, the last straw can be the result of an emotional realization as opposed to a major event.