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 on or after the date control of the association is transferred from the developer to the unit owners or must be services or items provided for in the condominium documents or bylaws.

(b)  The common expenses of a condominium within a multicondominium are the common expenses directly attributable to the operation of that condominium. The common expenses of a multicondominium association do not include the common expenses directly attributable to the operation of any specific condominium or condominiums within the multicondominium. This paragraph is intended to clarify existing law and applies to associations existing on the effective date of this act.

(c)  The common expenses of a multicondominium association may include categories of expenses related to the property or common elements within a specific condominium in the multicondominium if such property or common elements are areas in which all members of the multicondominium association have use rights or from which all members receive tangible economic benefits. Such common expenses of the association shall be identified in the declaration or bylaws as originally recorded or as amended under the procedures provided therein of each condominium within the multicondominium association. This paragraph is intended to clarify existing law and applies to associations existing on the effective date of this act.

(d)  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. If the declaration does not provide for the cost of a master antenna television system or duly franchised cable television service obtained under a bulk contract as a common expense, the board may enter into such a contract, and the cost of the service will be a common expense but allocated on a per-unit basis rather than a percentage basis if the declaration provides for other than an equal sharing of common expenses, and any contract entered into before July 1, 1998, in which the cost of the service is not equally divided among all unit owners, may be changed by vote of a majority of the voting interests present at a regular or special meeting of the association, to allocate the cost equally among all units. 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 non-hearing-impaired or sighted person, or any unit owner receiving supplemental security income under Title XVI of the Social Security Act or food stamps as administered by the Department of Children and Family Services pursuant to s. 414.31, 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.

(e)  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.

(f)  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 payment of the common expenses of a condominium shall be collected by assessments against the units in that condominium in the proportions or percentages provided in that condominium's declaration. In a residential condominium, or mixed-use condominium created after January 1, 1996, each unit's share of the common expenses of the condominium and common surplus of the condominium shall be the same as the unit's appurtenant 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.

(4)(a)  Funds for payment of the common expenses of a condominium within a multicondominium shall be collected as provided in subsection (2). Common expenses of a multicondominium association shall be funded by assessments against all unit owners in the association in the proportion or percentage set forth in the declaration as required by s. 718.104(4)(h) or s. 718.110(12), as applicable.

(b)  In a multicondominium association, the total common surplus owned by a unit owner consists of that owner's share of the common surplus of the association plus that owner's share of the common surplus of the condominium in which the owner's unit is located, in the proportion or percentage set forth in the declaration as required by s. 718.104(4)(h) or s. 718.110(12), as applicable.

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; s. 4, ch. 98-322; s. 55, ch. 2000-302; s. 11, ch. 2002-27.