Miami Rep. Juan Porras, the bill\u2019s sponsor, called it \u201ca culmination of frustration and feedback\u201d he has heard from residents across Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouse Bill 657 directly addresses the lack of oversight, the lack of transparency and accountability (for) those that live in homeowners\u2019 associations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
More than 60% of Florida\u2019s homes are within homeowners\u2019 associations, he added, accounting for more than 8 million homeowners.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an issue many know has long existed<\/a>, and one Florida\u2019s former condominium ombudsman, Spencer Henning, detailed before a Senate committee more than two years ago. The way laws are currently written \u2014 even with legislation recently passed \u2014 wrongdoers on condo and homeowner boards have wide loopholes through which to evade punishment or removal, rendering the state agency responsible for their oversight, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), a \u201ctoothless tiger<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Porras\u2019 bill doesn\u2019t aim to do corrective dentistry, but rather supplant the current system with one reliant on the courts. He explained the bill as having three major effects.<\/p>\n First, it would address transparency issues by creating a state-funded court process to address condo and HOA disputes, which would replace an existing pre-lawsuit mediation process required today.<\/p>\n Second, it would provide processes for the dissolution of HOAs. Porras stressed it wouldn\u2019t be one-size-fits-all, and there would be several necessary steps \u2014 petition gathering, an election and final approval by a judge \u2014 before an organization could be terminated.<\/p>\n And third, the measure would address a lack of accountability that malfeasant HOA board members now enjoy by mandating that HOAs include Kaufman language<\/a> in their governing documents that require organization bylaws to change in accordance with changes in state law automatically.<\/p>\n For HOAs already in operation, the bill would empower homeowners to compel a vote to amend their governing documents to include the Kaufman language.<\/p>\n Close to a dozen residents spoke about HB 657 during the Wednesday meeting, all but two of them in favor of it. Most detailed frustrating, arduous and often expensive disputes with their HOAs that led to severe financial difficulties, as board members evaded accountability and, in some cases, retaliated against constituents who challenged their authority.<\/p>\n Kimberly McDaniel of the HOA Reform League<\/a>, which represents thousands of homeowners across Florida, shared how fighting her HOA and \u201cfabricated claims\u201d its members made about her has cost her more than $26,000. She said they\u2019re now pursuing foreclosure on her home, which is fully paid for, and she\u2019s unable to sell or refinance the property.<\/p>\n Jenny Donovan, a St. Johns County resident, spoke of how \u201creasonable questions\u201d her family asked led to \u201cyears of harassment, isolation and intimidation\u201d by the two-member HOA board that oversees her neighborhood.<\/p>\n Other similarly troubling stories followed.<\/p>\n Two residents opposed the legislation, including Coral Springs resident Jonathan Gonzalez, who opened his testimony by complaining that he\u2019d been \u201cterrorized\u201d by his condo association. His dispute with the organization made news in 2023<\/a>, when he was accused of yelling profanities at association members and spitting at workers \u2014 accusations he denied.<\/p>\n Gonzalez argued that while appearing well-intentioned on its face, HB 657 is actually a Trojan horse bill that would strip homeowner protections and open properties to being bought up by large corporations with little concern for residents.<\/p>\n He pointed to the Kaufman language portion, which, if approved, would \u201chand over a blank check to (the) Legislature\u201d to write future laws undermining homeowner rights. The dissolution portion, meanwhile, could leave properties without management and upkeep, leading to devaluation and a \u201cfire sale environment\u201d for opportunistic real estate investors.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bill isn\u2019t designed to save homeowners; it\u2019s designed to destabilize us so corporations can move in,\u201d he said, calling instead for lawmakers to properly empower DBPR so it can enforce the law. \u201cIf the DBPR could regulate my hair stylist or my Realtor, why can\u2019t a state agency regulate the people who have the power to foreclose on my home?\u201d<\/p>\n Several members of the panel expressed related concerns. Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, a former Parkland Mayor, said that while she appreciates Porras\u2019 efforts to tackle the issue \u2014 about which she gets calls \u201call the time\u201d \u2014 a provision in the bill allowing an HOA dissolution process to begin with petition approval of just 20% of homeowners could be abused.<\/p>\n Dania Beach Republican Rep. Hillary Cassel said she\u2019s represented several homeowners in HOA disputes while working as a lawyer, and many in her profession simply don\u2019t take those kinds of cases because they\u2019re complicated, work-intensive and can take years to conclude.<\/p>\n St. Petersburg Democratic Rep. Lindsay Cross concurred with Hunschofsky\u2019s assessment, calling the 20% threshold \u201ca pretty low bar.\u201d She added that the bill\u2019s elimination of pre-suit mediation could increase costs for homeowners, who, as Cassel noted, already have a tough time getting legal representation.<\/p>\n Miami Gardens Democratic Rep. Felicia Robinson thanked Porras for working to address the issue, which is a major<\/a> problem<\/a> in Miami-Dade County<\/a>, but questioned whether it will solve things. Florida should strengthen its agencies to enforce the law, she said, not place the burden on residents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to have true regulation when it comes to our HOAs, and I\u2019m not sure this is going to do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rep. Michelle Salzman, an Escambia County Republican and the committee\u2019s Chair, called the HOA issue the true \u201celephant in the room\u201d when it comes to property costs \u2014 more impactful than property insurance and property taxes.<\/p>\n She urged committee members who had doubts to vote for HB 657 with an understanding it will be fine-tuned as it progresses through three more stops in the House before reaching a floor vote.<\/p>\n \u201cHow many Floridians have access to three branches of government? All of them. How many HOA members have access to three branches of government? Zero,\u201d she said. \u201cThey get no recourse at all. None. You heard story after story today from people that are losing their homes to greed, to developers, to bad actors. How do we correct bad actors when we sit back and say, \u2018It\u2019s not perfect\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n Porras has been working to improve the bill. On Wednesday, he presented and received approval for seven amendments<\/a> dealing with technical changes, conflicts of interest and dissolution processes.<\/p>\n He acknowledged that the bill still isn\u2019t perfect, but called it a step in the right direction. He also defended the plan to replace the DBPR process with one dependent on the courts, contending that he and most homeowners don\u2019t trust the agency to do a better job under Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not to say it will never happen,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will have a new administration in DBPR (and) I am hopeful \u2026 that they\u2019ll take this issue seriously after we have a new Governor, not to point fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n HB 657 will next go to the House Civil Justice and Claims Committee<\/a>. A similar Senate (SB 1498<\/a>) bill by Fleming Island Republican Sen.\u00a0Jennifer Bradley\u00a0awaits a first committee hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A House proposal that would substantially change how Florida handles legal matters involving homeowners\u2019 associations has cleared its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1447,62997,43501,5967,12658,62998,28,30,29,62999,63000,1042,63001,32675,30775,15902,8188,63002,39855,63003,63004],"class_list":["post-127316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-christine-hunschofsky","tag-community-association-court","tag-community-associations","tag-dbpr","tag-department-of-business-and-professional-regulation","tag-felicia-robinson","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hb-657","tag-hillary-cassel","tag-hoa","tag-hoa-dissolution","tag-hoa-reform","tag-hoas","tag-homeowners-associations","tag-juan-porras","tag-kaufman-language","tag-lindsay-cross","tag-michelle-salzman","tag-spencer-henning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Florida_Politics_and_Influence_Magazine_728x90.jpg\")
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<\/a>Miami Rep. Juan Porras included the HOA bill among his 2026 legislative priorities<\/a> in a pre-Session interview with Florida Politics. Image via Florida House.<\/p>\n