1st DCA 1990), a Florida appellate court held that limited common elements, such as balconies and patios, may fall under the responsibility of the association and not the unit owners. The ruling in Cedar Cove categorizes balconies as common elements rather than limited common elements.
Maintenance, repair, and replacement of a limited common element is usually the responsibility of the association except to the extent the declaration shifts that duty to the unit owner.
Common elements are owned in undivided shares by all inium unit owners as tenants in common and include portions of the inium shared or used in common by the inium's residents. Examples of common elements are: Building structural components and systems. Lobbies.
The Act defines a inium as “that form of ownership of real property created pursuant to this chapter, which is comprised entirely of units that may be owned by one or more persons, and in which there is, appurtenant to each unit, an undivided share in common elements.” As the shares are undivided, the separate ...
Ing to the statute and the governing documents, the association is responsible for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of items within the common elements of an association.
In Florida, the statute of limitations for breach of contract (such as violating your HOA covenants) is five years. The time period within which the HOA could enforce the covenant has expired, at least as it pertains to those patios that were built more than five years ago.
What Is a Limited Common Element? The same Florida statute defines “limited common elements” as “those common elements which are reserved for the use of a certain unit or units to the exclusion of all other units, as specified in the declaration” (22).
The state law, passed in 2022, requires associations to have sufficient reserves to cover major repairs.
Kitchen appliances within the units are not considered part of the common elements of a inium project since they are typically owned and maintained by individual unit owners. Swimming pools and greenbelt areas are examples of common elements as they are shared facilities within the inium project.