Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Florida

I am not sure I picked the appropriate category below. My question is related to liability of an incorporated Property/Home Owners Association with no employees and limited resources.

I am the treasurer of a Property/Home Owners Association that is incorporated. All officers are volunteer. The dirt road that traverses the 1300 acre property is owned and maintained by the property owners on a volunteer basis. We have security gates at all entry points to the subdivision that are accessible only by the proper code entered in the keypad or a gate clicker that is sold to owners only. The local law and emergency services have the gate code, as do FEDEX, UPS, the electric company, garbage pickup personnel and the US Postal delivery person. The gate automatically opens for 1.5 hours in the morning and the afternoon to allow the school bus access to the subdivision to pick up and drop off students. We own no other assets.

Several years ago the owners voted to have General Liability Insurance in the event that someone is injured or suffers vehicle damage on the subdivision road or by the gates. They fear being personally sued in the event of an incident.

Every owner pays a $150 annual fee to the association for the purchase of road material, occasionally paying professionals to grade the road and for the maintenance of the gates. The total annual receipts are approximately $8000 and this amount is barely able to cover annual expenditures for the road and gates.

My questions are, considering the small amount of funds that the association possess;

1. Is liability insurance necessary? Isn't owning the insurance the only incentive that someone would have to sue the association?

2. If a visitor (non-owner) to the subdivision is injured or has their vehicle damaged by the road or a gate, would individual owners be liable for damages?

3. If an owner in the subdivision is injured or has their vehicle damaged by the road or a gate, would the other individual owners be liable for damages?


Asked on 1/15/14, 1:30 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Barry Stein De Cardenas, Freixas, Stein & Zachary

1. the association owns the common land and the gate. if you had someone injured they could sue and get the common land and gate etc if theygot a judgment. Defending a case like that would be expensive as well. All of those costs are covered by the insurance.

2. if the owner's participate in the decisions and the operations, then they could be potentially responsible for the negligence. to the extent that the owners own an undivided interest in common elements they could also all be included in such an action.

3. potentially. insurance likely would not cover this type of damage as the owner is one of the insureds.

I suggest you consult with an insurance agent to discuss what insurances will provide the best coverage AND an attorney familiar with condo law.

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Answered on 1/15/14, 2:04 pm


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