HB 0589 2004
1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to marketable record titles to real
3	property; amending s. 712.01, F.S.; defining terms;
4	amending s. 712.03, F.S.; providing that marketable record
5	title does not affect certain interests that have been
6	reinstated or that arise out of documents relating to the
7	creation of condominiums or cooperatives; amending s.
8	712.06, F.S.; providing requirements for the reinstatement
9	of certain covenants or restrictions by the filing of
10	statutory notice; amending s. 712.09, F.S.; extending the
11	30-year vesting period for creating marketable title;
12	providing for reinstating certain covenants or
13	restrictions that have been extinguished; amending s.
14	720.301, F.S.; providing applicability of certain
15	definitions; creating s. 720.313, F.S.; providing for the
16	reinstatement of certain extinguished covenants or
17	restrictions; providing applicability; providing an
18	effective date.
19
20	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
21
22	Section 1. Section 712.01, Florida Statutes, is amended to
23	read:
24	712.01 Definitions.--As used in this chapter, the term
25	law:
26	(1) The term "Person" as used hereindenotes singular or
27	plural, natural or corporate, private or governmental, including
28	the state and any political subdivision or agency thereof as the
29	context for the use thereof requires or denotes and including
30	any homeowners' association.
31	(2) "Root of title" means any title transaction purporting
32	to create or transfer the estate claimed by any person and which
33	is the last title transaction to have been recorded at least 30
34	years prior to the time when marketability is being determined.
35	The effective date of the root of title is the date on which it
36	was recorded.
37	(3) "Title transaction" means any recorded instrument or
38	court proceeding which affects title to any estate or interest
39	in land and which describes the land sufficiently to identify
40	its location and boundaries. Recorded amendments to covenants or
41	restrictions, as defined in subsection (6), are deemed "title
42	transactions," as are the recordation of amended, restated, or
43	amended and restated covenants or restrictions. However, to be
44	effective as a title transaction, such amendments, restatements,
45	or amendments and restatements must reference, by citation to
46	official record book and page of the land records of the county
47	where the property is located, the covenant or restriction
48	affected thereby, or must describe the land affected by the
49	covenant or restriction sufficiently to identify its location
50	and boundaries.
51	(4) The term"Homeowners' association" means a homeowners'
52	association as defined in s. 720.301, or an association of
53	parcel owners which is authorized to enforce covenants or use
54	restrictions against a parcel or the parcel owner or occupant by
55	an assignment of enforcement rights, by ownership of property
56	subject to such covenants or restrictions, or by other means
57	that are imposed on the parcels.
58	(5) The term"Parcel" means real property which is used
59	for residential purposes that is subject to exclusive ownership
60	and which is subject to any covenant or restriction that is
61	enforceable by ofa homeowners' association.
62	(6) The term"Covenant or restriction" means any agreement
63	or limitation, including, but not limited to, use restrictions,
64	contained in a document recorded in the public records of the
65	county in which a parcel is located which subjects the parcel to
66	any use restriction which may be enforced by a homeowners'
67	association or which authorizes a homeowners' association to
68	impose a charge or assessment against the parcel or the owner of
69	the parcel or which may be enforced by the Florida Department of
70	Environmental Protection pursuant to chapter 376 or chapter 403.
71	Section 2. Subsection (2) of section 712.03, Florida
72	Statutes, is amended, and subsection (9) is added to that
73	section, to read:
74	712.03 Exceptions to marketability.--Such marketable
75	record title shall not affect or extinguish the following
76	rights:
77	(2) Estates, interests, claims, or charges, or any
78	covenant or restriction, preserved or reinstatedby the filing
79	of a proper notice in accordance with the provisions of s.
80	712.06 hereof.
81	(9) Estates, interests, claims, rights, obligations, or
82	charges arising out of a declaration of condominium or the
83	cooperative documents creating or governing a cooperative, any
84	exhibits thereto, or amendments to any of the foregoing.
85	Section 3. Paragraphs (a) and (d) of subsection (1) of
86	section 712.06, Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
87	712.06 Contents of notice; recording and indexing.--
88	(1) To be effective, the notice referred to in s. 712.05
89	shall contain:
90	(a) The name or description of the claimant or the
91	homeowners' association desiring to preserve or restateany
92	covenant or restriction and the name and particular post office
93	address of the person filing the claim or the homeowners'
94	association.
95	(d) A statement of the claim showing the nature,
96	description, and extent of such claim or, in the case of a
97	covenant or restriction, a copy of the covenant or restriction,
98	except that it shall not be necessary to show the amount of any
99	claim for money or the terms of payment. A homeowners'
100	association, as defined in s. 712.01(4), which preserves or
101	reinstates covenants or restrictions as provided in paragraph
102	(b) shall not be required to rerecord such covenant or
103	restriction, provided that the notice recorded by the
104	homeowners' association complies with paragraphs (a)-(c).
105	Section 4. Section 712.09, Florida Statutes, is amended to
106	read:
107	712.09 Extension of 30-year period.--
108	(1)If the 30-year period for filing notice under s.
109	712.05 shall have expired prior to July 1, 2006 1965, such
110	period shall be extended to July 1, 2006 1965. However, if the
111	filing occurs after the 30th anniversary of the initial
112	recordation of a covenant or restriction that has not been
113	extended as provided in s. 712.05(1) or subsection (2), such
114	covenant or restriction may be reinstated if it has been
115	routinely enforced by the homeowners' association. Enforcement
116	includes levying and collecting assessments or maintaining
117	common property pursuant to covenants or restrictions.
118	Reinstatement of an extinguished covenant or restriction must be
119	approved in writing by a majority of all voting interests of the
120	association present or represented by limited proxy at a noticed
121	association meeting at which a quorum is present.
122	(2) If a homeowners' association has placed on record a
123	title transaction as described in s. 712.03(3), such title
124	transaction is deemed properly recorded for the purpose of
125	serving as a root of title as defined in s. 712.01(2). The 30-
126	year preservation of the covenants or restrictions and governing
127	documents to which the title transaction relates, whether or not
128	amended or restated, applies based upon the date of recordation.
129	Section 5. Section 720.301, Florida Statutes, is amended
130	to read:
131	720.301 Definitions.--As used in this chapter ss. 720.301-
132	720.312, the term:
133	(1) "Assessment" or "amenity fee" means a sum or sums of
134	money payable to the association, to the developer or other
135	owner of common areas, or to recreational facilities and other
136	properties serving the parcels by the owners of one or more
137	parcels as authorized in the governing documents, which if not
138	paid by the owner of a parcel, can result in a lien against the
139	parcel.
140	(2) "Common area" means all real property within a
141	community which is owned or leased by an association or
142	dedicated for use or maintenance by the association or its
143	members, including, regardless of whether title has been
144	conveyed to the association:
145	(a) Real property the use of which is dedicated to the
146	association or its members by a recorded plat; or
147	(b) Real property committed by a declaration of covenants
148	to be leased or conveyed to the association.
149	(3) "Community" means the real property that is or will be
150	subject to a declaration of covenants which is recorded in the
151	county where the property is located. The term "community"
152	includes all real property, including undeveloped phases, that
153	is or was the subject of a development-of-regional-impact
154	development order, together with any approved modification
155	thereto.
156	(4) "Declaration of covenants," or "declaration," means a
157	recorded written instrument in the nature of covenants running
158	with the land which subjects the land comprising the community
159	to the jurisdiction and control of an association or
160	associations in which the owners of the parcels, or their
161	association representatives, must be members.
162	(5) "Developer" means a person or entity that:
163	(a) Creates the community served by the association; or
164	(b) Succeeds to the rights and liabilities of the person
165	or entity that created the community served by the association,
166	provided that such is evidenced in writing.
167	(6) "Governing documents" means:
168	(a) The recorded declaration of covenants for a community,
169	and all duly adopted and recorded amendments, supplements, and
170	recorded exhibits thereto; and
171	(b) The articles of incorporation and bylaws of the
172	homeowners' association, and any duly adopted amendments
173	thereto.
174	(7) "Homeowners' association" or "association" means a
175	Florida corporation responsible for the operation of a community
176	or a mobile home subdivision in which the voting membership is
177	made up of parcel owners or their agents, or a combination
178	thereof, and in which membership is a mandatory condition of
179	parcel ownership, and which is authorized to impose assessments
180	that, if unpaid, may become a lien on the parcel. The term
181	"homeowners' association" does not include a community
182	development district or other similar special taxing district
183	created pursuant to statute.
184	(8) "Member" means a member of an association, and may
185	include, but is not limited to, a parcel owner or an association
186	representing parcel owners or a combination thereof.
187	(9) "Parcel" means a platted or unplatted lot, tract,
188	unit, or other subdivision of real property within a community,
189	as described in the declaration:
190	(a) Which is capable of separate conveyance; and
191	(b) Of which the parcel owner, or an association in which
192	the parcel owner must be a member, is obligated:
193	1. By the governing documents to be a member of an
194	association that serves the community; and
195	2. To pay to the homeowners' association assessments that,
196	if not paid, may result in a lien.
197	(10) "Parcel owner" means the record owner of legal title
198	to a parcel.
199	(11) "Voting interest" means the voting rights distributed
200	to the members of the homeowners' association, pursuant to the
201	governing documents.
202	Section 6. Section 720.313, Florida Statutes, is created
203	to read:
204	720.313 Extinguished covenants or restrictions; amendments
205	or reinstatement.--
206	(1) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary,
207	a covenant or restriction in the governing documents of a
208	homeowners' association that has been extinguished pursuant to
209	chapter 712 may be reinstated if it has been routinely enforced
210	by the homeowners' association. Enforcement includes levying and
211	collecting assessments or maintaining common property pursuant
212	to covenants or restrictions. Reinstatement of an extinguished
213	covenant or restriction must be approved in writing by a
214	majority of all voting interests of the association present or
215	represented by limited proxy at a noticed association meeting at
216	which a quorum is present.
217	(2) Recorded amendments to the governing documents of a
218	homeowners' association or recorded restated governing documents
219	that specifically reference the official record book and page
220	number of the land records of the county where the property is
221	located, or that sufficiently identify the locations and
222	boundaries of the property affected by the amendments or
223	restatements, are title transactions as defined in s. 712.01(3),
224	for the purposes of extending the 30-year root of title period
225	set out in chapter 712.
226	(3) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary,
227	if, because of prior extinguishment, title policies have been
228	issued without an exception for the covenants or restrictions in
229	the governing documents to which the title transaction relates,
230	which covenants or restrictions are reinstated pursuant to this
231	section, title policies issued prior to the effective date
232	hereof are deemed to have included the governing documents for
233	the covenants or restrictions as exceptions to title.
234	Section 7. This act shall take effect July 1, 2004.