[Kiltema]

Thanks folks for taking the time to reply.
I do intend to rent before buying any type of property in Florida.

Of all the issues brought up about living in a condo in the previous posts, the one about paper thin walls is probably the most important. I spent years living in apartments, so know first hand about the troubles that goes with noisy neighbors and inadequate barriers to protect from the noise.

The Special Assessments issue is also a biggie.
Is there any way that I could protect myself from unreasonable assessments or drastic increases in monthly maintenance charges?
I hear stories of people living in condos only to see maintenance getting increased to offset the vacancies in the complex.

[boxus]

No, there is no way to escape the special assessments and increases in fees.

Some people like this stuff, I have no idea why, it is not that I mind it, it is that I do not like the power these condo/HOA organizations have over your property. To be part of an organization that can seize you home over one dollar is not anything I want to be part of, or for HOA's, to tell you how to micromanage your own property.

Everyone loves throwing out the extremes like "without an HOA you will have a neighbor with a purple house and ten broke down cars in their yard." Ok, fine, but why then there are rules about things like' how many trees to have; color of flowers and where to plant them; types of outdoor plants; color of house, and not talking about bright pink but what shade of a brown; fence type; if you can bbq or not; and other useless garbage. Then you have the busy body knocking on your door at 6:30 in the morning asking you something about your curtains because they do not conform to the rules. Or knock on your door at 1:00pm asking if you are going to take your garbage cans up never mind you had duty the night before and got home at 7:00am before the garbage people and actually had the nerve to go to sleep and not wait to get your garbage cans, or you did not set your alarm to do so.

[theredsnowman]

Originally Posted by boxus

No, there is no way to escape the special assessments and increases in fees.

Some people like this stuff, I have no idea why, it is not that I mind it, it is that I do not like the power these condo/HOA organizations have over your property. To be part of an organization that can seize you home over one dollar is not anything I want to be part of, or for HOA's, to tell you how to micromanage your own property.

Everyone loves throwing out the extremes like "without an HOA you will have a neighbor with a purple house and ten broke down cars in their yard." Ok, fine, but why then there are rules about things like' how many trees to have; color of flowers and where to plant them; types of outdoor plants; color of house, and not talking about bright pink but what shade of a brown; fence type; if you can bbq or not; and other useless garbage. Then you have the busy body knocking on your door at 6:30 in the morning asking you something about your curtains because they do not conform to the rules. Or knock on your door at 1:00pm asking if you are going to take your garbage cans up never mind you had duty the night before and got home at 7:00am before the garbage people and actually had the nerve to go to sleep and not wait to get your garbage cans, or you did not set your alarm to do so.

Yeah, I'd take the neighbor with the purple house and the 10 junk cars over the HOA, freedom!

[randian]

Originally Posted by doggiebus

During a hurricane the higher you go from ground level the higher the wind speed is, fyi. So if a hurricane is coming and they say the windspeed is at 80mph on the news, the wind speed will be much higher at the 10th floor. The higher you go from ground level then the less you will have to worry about flood if you will be near the coast.

Kind of a tradeoff, isn't it. More windspeed, but that wind usually won't be throwing objects into your windows to break them like it would near ground level. Objects are much more dangerous to your windows than the wind itself.

Water damage is still possible if a condo above you has its windows broken and that water leaks down to your unit. I had a unit above me have a flood in its bathroom that flooded my unit too. Thousands of dollars in damage to carpeting, drywall, and electric. I had to entirely redo my bathroom.