Posts Written by Ted Hamilton

With the excess of information at everyone’s finger tips, sometimes making any decision seems more complicated these days. Choosing the right lawyer in Florida for your needs is no exception. We are no longer flipping through the yellow pages or relying on radio ads to determine who to turn to if we have a legal problem. Instead, we turn to internet searches and the volumes of information that comes up on our screens. But how do you know if the first lawyer on the list is the best, or merely the one that paid the most to have their website pop-up first? What information should you be looking for when determining which lawyer will meet and may be even exceed your needs?

A couple of Board members resigned last year because they were angry about a Board decision. Now, they are running for the Board again. They are investors, and are only concerned about protecting their investments. Is that a conflict of interest? Do we have to put them on the ballot?

A recent appellate court decision serves as a useful reminder of the issues that may arise and need to be considered in enforcing and interpreting recorded covenants that impact the use of real property, such as a declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions for a subdivision. In the case of Leamer v. White (issued on January 27, 2015), Florida’s First District Court of Appeal was asked to interpret a use restriction at issue in a dispute between neighboring owners of townhomes, one of whom had installed a lighting system that may have potentially impacted the other neighbor and their lot without first seeking the requisite approval for the lighting system from an architectural review board as set out in the recorded covenants for the property.

Most people have at one time or another been a tenant in a residential property. Security deposits for the lease of a residential property are not uncommon in Florida. Such deposits are typically paid to landlords to be held as security for damage that may caused to the property by the tenant or in the event of the tenant’s failure to pay rent.

Now that wedding bells are ringing in the state of Florida for same-sex couples, these individuals have some additional planning to add to their list apart from wedding planning. Estate planning will now be a critical piece to discuss between partners since they will also be subject to Florida statutes dealing with spousal rights in the event of the death of one spouse.

Often a creditor, in the attempt to collect on a judgment will find the judgment debtor has placed some or all assets into a joint bank account held with the judgment debtor’s spouse or the assets have been transferred in some way to a spouse. This may seem like a lost cause, but our recent experience has proven otherwise.

If a community or homeowner’s association member does not vote at all, does that count as a “no” vote? Answer provided by homeowner association law expert Ellen Hirsch de Haan of the Wetherington Hamilton law firm.

We have our community association manager sign communications as the association’s agent. Did new law change that in any way? Is this still a part…

I heard that the law changed and the Board can now discuss association business by email. Is that true? Can we now use email to…