Ten questions every Florida buyer should ask

  1. What is the current monthly fee and what does it cover? Get a line-item breakdown — insurance, reserves, water, landscaping, management, security.
  2. When was the last special assessment, and what was it for? A capital improvement assessment can be a positive sign. A repair assessment from under-funded reserves is a warning.
  3. What does the most recent reserve study say? Compare recommended balance to actual balance. The gap tells you future special assessment risk.
  4. Has the master insurance policy had any major claims? Big past claims drive up future premiums.
  5. Is there pending litigation? Check both as plaintiff and defendant.
  6. What is the rental restriction? Critical if you plan to rent the unit out, even occasionally.
  7. What is the pet restriction? Breed, weight, and number limits matter.
  8. How active is the board? Read the past year of meeting minutes — a healthy board addresses issues, a troubled board postpones them.
  9. Who is the management company? Larger professional management firms tend to run associations more smoothly than self-managed boards.
  10. What recent news exists about this community? Search the community name in Google News, then check our community profile for our news reputation score.

How to interpret litigation history

Litigation involving an HOA falls into a few categories. Some are normal and expected:

  • Assessment collection lawsuits — every association has a few owners who fall behind. A handful per year on a large community is normal.
  • Lien foreclosures — same. Routine collection activity.

Others are warning signs:

  • Construction defect lawsuits — the association is suing the developer or contractor over building defects. Often signals expensive repairs ahead, but also signals the board is being proactive.
  • Owner vs board lawsuits — multiple owners suing the board over governance, fines, or denied modifications signals dysfunction.
  • Discrimination or fair housing complaints — major red flag.
  • Embezzlement or fraud cases — disqualifying.

HOA Agent pulls litigation data from CourtListener (federal and state courts). Every community profile shows the litigation count and links to the underlying cases.

How to read news reputation scores

HOA Agent assigns each community a 1–10 news reputation score based on AI matching of news articles to the community and scoring sentiment and severity:

  • 1–3 (High Risk) — significant negative coverage. Lawsuits, fraud, fines, milestone inspection failures, board scandals. Buy with caution.
  • 4–5 (Under Scrutiny) — mixed coverage. Some negative items but not at the High Risk level.
  • 6–7 (Mixed) — balanced coverage, both positive and negative.
  • 8–9 (Good Standing) — only positive coverage found.
  • 10 (Excellent) — multiple sources of positive coverage with no negatives.

No score (the most common case) means we have not yet matched any news articles to the community. Absence of news is not a problem — most HOAs are below the news threshold and that is fine.

Fee trends and what they mean

Look at the past 5 years of fee history if available. Florida HOAs and especially condos have been under enormous fee pressure since 2022 due to:

  • Insurance premium spikes (often 30–50% per year on condos).
  • Reserve catch-up requirements after SB 4-D.
  • Inflation in landscaping, security, and management labor.

A 5–10% annual increase is normal. A 50%+ jump in a single year is unusual and worth investigating. A flat fee for 5 years is a warning sign — the association is probably under-funding reserves to keep the fee artificially low.

Using HOA Agent for due diligence

HOA Agent is a free public database of every HOA and condo community in Palm Beach County. For any community you can:

  • Search by name, address, or city — try our search.
  • See the current Florida entity status and registration.
  • See the management company on file.
  • See the litigation count from CourtListener.
  • See the news reputation score and underlying articles.
  • See resident reviews and comments.
  • See verified fee data from residents and listing observations.

Detailed reports with full source citations and fee history are available for $2.99 per community.

For real estate agents

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