While Clayton & McCulloh encourages ingenuity and invention on the part of their clients (with the advice of counsel, of course), the following scenario is an example of what the great Charlie Murphy would probably call “line stepping.”

A military family in Tampa returned to their home last month to find presumptive squatters living in their home.  The solution was simple, they thought: call the Sheriff, report the problem, and get the squatters out.  However, upon reporting the squatters, the family found out that a) the squatters had a “lease” (unsigned, as it turned out), and b) that the management company for their homeowner’s association had been collecting $1,000.00 a month in rent from the squatters.  The Association informed a local reporter that the family was behind $6,000.00 on their dues and that Florida law allowed the Association to collect rent.

Indeed, it is true that homeowner’s associations (and condo associations) may collect rent from tenant occupants of a property if the homeowner has fallen behind on their dues.  Florida Statute 720.3085(8)(a) reads as follows (Florida Statute 718.116 provides virtually identical rights to condo associations): 

“If a parcel is occupied by a tenant and the parcel owner is delinquent in paying any monetary obligation due the association, the association may demand that the tenant pay to the association the subsequent rental payments . . .”.

However, the present case is one where the tenants did not have a legitimate agreement with the homeowners; all they had was an unsigned lease.  Without a signed lease, the occupants of the property were not “tenants” under the law and the Association was not legally entitled to collect rent from them.  In addition, the Association, by violating the law, was subjecting itself to the bad press involved with abrogating the rights of a military family and potentially subjecting themselves to liability if the illegal occupants caused damage to the home.

Although Associations are eager to recover their assessments, Clayton & McCulloh always recommend consulting an attorney before pursuing any novel collection methods.