For a Northwest Florida condominium considering new rental restrictions, two questions belong on the agenda: can the declaration be amended, and which owners will the amendment bind? Treating those as the same question can produce an expensive enforcement mistake. The Florida Supreme Court’s Woodside decision is useful background, but it is not a substitute for today’s statute.
What Woodside decided
In Woodside Village Condominium Association v. Jahren, decided January 3, 2002, the Florida Supreme Court upheld declaration amendments restricting leasing against the challenge before it. The amendments limited rentals to nine months within a twelve-month period and prohibited leasing during the first year of ownership. They had received the declaration’s required owner approval. The Court rejected the proposition that purchasing before the amendment necessarily insulated those owners from it. Its analysis distinguished declaration restrictions from ordinary board-made rules and recognized that owners purchase subject to valid amendment provisions.
Read the current statute separately
Section 718.110(13) now provides an important limitation: amendments prohibiting rentals, altering rental duration, or specifying or limiting rental frequency apply only to consenting owners and owners acquiring title after the amendment becomes effective. Consequently, a board should not cite Woodside as blanket permission to impose a new minimum lease term on every existing owner.
The amendment process matters too. Section 718.110 addresses proposal formatting, evidence of adoption, and recording. An amendment becomes effective when properly recorded. If the declaration supplies no amendment method, the statutory default generally requires approval by owners of at least two-thirds of the units, subject to the section’s exceptions. A successful vote alone does not answer every implementation question.
A practical board checklist
- Describe the actual problem before choosing a restriction. Separate parking, noise, occupancy, application processing, and rental duration so that the proposed solution addresses the documented concern.
- Give counsel the recorded declaration and every amendment, rather than a management summary. Ask for a written adoption plan and an explanation of which proposed provisions fall within subsection (13).
- Prepare an ownership-and-consent tracking method before the vote. Keep the supporting title and consent records with the amendment file, with access controls appropriate to the information collected.
- Build implementation instructions for the manager. The instructions should identify the recording date, affected owners, application forms, and the person responsible for resolving uncertain ownership histories.
- Explain the result to owners using examples approved by counsel. Do not promise that all units will immediately operate under identical rental terms.
Consider a proposed change from monthly rentals to annual leases. Before denying an application, management should verify whether that particular owner is bound, rather than relying solely on the new printed rule. Transfer questions and unusual ownership arrangements deserve individual review. This article addresses condominium declarations under Chapter 718, not the different rental-amendment provisions governing homeowners associations.
Reviewed November 4, 2026. Educational information only; obtain association-specific legal advice before acting.