The Florida Senate

718.115  Common expenses and common surplus.--

(1)

(a)  Common expenses include the expenses of the operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, or protection of the common elements and association property, costs of carrying out the powers and duties of the association, and any other expense, whether or not included in the foregoing, designated as common expense by this chapter, the declaration, the documents creating the association, or the bylaws. Common expenses also include reasonable transportation services, insurance for directors and officers, road maintenance and operation expenses, in-house communications, and security services, which are reasonably related to the general benefit of the unit owners even if such expenses do not attach to the common elements or property of the condominium. However, such common expenses must either have been services or items provided from the date the control of the board of administration of the association was transferred from the developer to the unit owners or must be services or items provided for in the condominium documents or bylaws.

(b)  If so provided in the declaration, the cost of a master antenna television system or duly franchised cable television service obtained pursuant to a bulk contract shall be deemed a common expense, and if not, such cost shall be considered common expense if it is designated as such in a written contract between the board of administration and the company providing the master television antenna system or the cable television service. The contract shall be for a term of not less than 2 years.

1.  Any contract made by the board after the effective date hereof for a community antenna system or duly franchised cable television service may be canceled by a majority of the voting interests present at the next regular or special meeting of the association. Any member may make a motion to cancel said contract, but if no motion is made or if such motion fails to obtain the required majority at the next regular or special meeting, whichever is sooner, following the making of the contract, then such contract shall be deemed ratified for the term therein expressed.

2.  Any such contract shall provide, and shall be deemed to provide if not expressly set forth, that any hearing impaired or legally blind unit owner who does not occupy the unit with a nonhearing impaired or sighted person may discontinue the service without incurring disconnect fees, penalties, or subsequent service charges, and as to such units, the owners shall not be required to pay any common expenses charge related to such service. If less than all members of an association share the expenses of cable television, the expense shall be shared equally by all participating unit owners. The association may use the provisions of s. 718.116 to enforce payment of the shares of such costs by the unit owners receiving cable television.

(c)  The expense of installation, replacement, operation, repair, and maintenance of hurricane shutters by the board pursuant to s. 718.113(5) shall constitute a common expense as defined herein and shall be collected as provided in this section. Notwithstanding the provisions of s. 718.116(9), a unit owner who has previously installed hurricane shutters in accordance with s. 718.113(5) or laminated glass architecturally designed to function as hurricane protection which complies with the applicable building code shall receive a credit equal to the pro rata portion of the assessed installation cost assigned to each unit. However, such unit owner shall remain responsible for the pro rata share of expenses for hurricane shutters installed on common elements and association property by the board pursuant to s. 718.113(5), and shall remain responsible for a pro rata share of the expense of the replacement, operation, repair, and maintenance of such shutters.

(d)  If any unpaid share of common expenses or assessments is extinguished by foreclosure of a superior lien or by a deed in lieu of foreclosure thereof, the unpaid share of common expenses or assessments are common expenses collectible from all the unit owners in the condominium in which the unit is located.

(2)  Except as otherwise provided by this chapter, funds for the payment of common expenses shall be collected by assessments against unit owners in the proportions or percentages provided in the declaration. In a residential condominium, or mixed-use condominium created after January 1, 1996, unit owners' shares of common expenses and common surplus shall be in the same proportions as their ownership interest in the common elements.

(3)  Common surplus is owned by unit owners in the same shares as their ownership interest in the common elements.

History.--s. 1, ch. 76-222; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 7, ch. 84-368; s. 1, ch. 88-148; s. 11, ch. 90-151; s. 8, ch. 91-103; s. 3, ch. 91-116; ss. 5, 8, ch. 91-426; s. 5, ch. 92-49; s. 9, ch. 94-350; s. 3, ch. 96-396.