Today we are going to look at those waterfront houses in behind Waterway Cafe in what is called Pirate’s Cove.

Pirate’s Cove has waterfront homes on streets such as East and West Teach, Avery & Canal roads. This is unincorporated Palm Beach County but has a Palm Beach Gardens mailing address.

Canals shown on the Plat are for the benefit of all lot owners for all lawful recreational purposes. This is decent verbiage BUT I remember that a few years ago someone had anchored a boat in the lake. Not sure if that was a homeowner who could probably make a case for the right to do this.

VERY interesting that the waterfront lots on Canal Rd are NOT shown on this Plat which may be why some, but not all of them, have carved land out of their uplands and over flowed it for a dock but they do not appear to have a right to come and go over the canal as they are not a lot owner in the subdivision. But the Florida Board of Trustees Land Document System web site shows the State as the owner of the lands below the water in these canals EXCEPT the one that goes along the Waterway Cafe lot. Thus, the public has the right to say moor a boat in that lake and the uplands abutters, including those on Canal Rd, have the right to wharf out to the navigable water to a distance of 1/4 of the canal width. And this accounts for why Waterway Cafe does not have boats ties up along the canal that abuts them.

OK, so I’m not sure how many people will read this post but about a month ago I did a blog posting on the Effects of the King Tides on Palm Beach Real Estate. When I wrote this post I could see that the actual recorded water level at high tides at the Lake Worth Pier was over one foot HIGHER than what NOAA predicted. WHY? This is one of the main tide gauges used by NOAA to record tide data. Other tide data in the area at places like the the PGA Bridge or even the Port of Palm Beach is based upon the Lake Worth Pier data with a numerical modifier applied. How could they be off by over a full foot?

I just found the answer in THIS ARTICLE which quotes a Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Research, who notes that: “NOAA’s forecasts on king tides rarely line up with the actual measured high tides. The most recent king tide came in 16 inches higher than NOAA predicted it would. The reasons are a combination of warmer waters at this time of the year, however the The last two king tides also coincided with tropical systems that, although far away from Florida’s coast, played a role in the height of the tides. Hurricane Lorenzo, which became a powerful Category 5 storm thousands of miles away, was roaring through the ocean at the start of the month. For the recent king tide, Subtropical Storm Melissa stomped around New England.”

Even more fascinating as noted in this article is that water has “backed up” in the Gulf of Mexico.

Undate: As of August 2024 there is a ne veriosn of these which are substantially the same as the November 2021 versions EXCEPT they now include language required by the NAR settlement.

UPDATE: As of November 1 2021 the new version (6) of the FAR BAR As-IS is in use.

In Florida there are 2 basic “types” of a contract used to purchase real estate and 2 different version of each of these. There is the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR) forms and the Florida Association of Realtors/Florida Bar Association (FAR/BAR) forms. In these forms one can use the As-Is or non As-Is…what I will call methodology. In an As-Is style contract the Buyer agrees to purchase the property in the As-IS condition after an agreed upon inspection period. In a standard (non As-Is) contract the the Buyer has an inspection and provides copies of report showing item to be repaired by the Seller up to threshold, as in 1.5% of the purchase price for general repairs, 1.5% for to address wood destroying organisms and 1.5% for permit issues.

This As-Is Contract for Residential Sale and Purchase (FAR/BAR “As-Is”) is the most widely used Contract:

The Contract for Residential Sale and Purchase (CRSP)

As-Is rider to the CRSP Contract (Optional)

Contract for Residential Sale and Purchase (FAR/BAR)

Paradise Port is the neighborhood in unincorporated Palm Beach Gardens on the north side of Donald Ross Rd to the west of the intracoastal with waterfront property on Paradise Point Rd, Harbor Lane, Port Circle and Leeward Way.

First, let’s look at the easy one. The houses on Paradise Point Rd. Note that this is NOT a public road and thus public funds can not be expended on the maintenance of it for things like pavement and drainage. The pavement runs over an easement through the lots on this road for 15′ either side of the centerline of the ‘road’. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the waterfront on both sides of the road is riparian. The east side is the intracoastal which is owned by the State of Florida and the federal government has an easement over it. The lots on the west side abut the historic Frenchman’s Creek which the state of Florida owns the bottomage of. Thus, lots on both sides of the road enjoy statutory riparian rights to use the water.

The lots on the east side of Harbor Lane such as 14208 Harbor Lane are also bordering on the historic Frenchman’s Creek and so these too enjoy statutory riparian rights.

The lots on the west side of Harbor Lane as well as those on Port Circle and most on Leeward border upon a man made canal or a/k/a “over flowed lands”.

Now, I would say there’s a problem with the use of the water adjacent to most of these parcels. The language of the recorded plat is silent on who owns the canals. They are not dedicated via language on the plat, as most are in places like North Palm Beach The plat dedicates only the roads and easements shown on it to the perpetual use of the public.

BUT the easement(s) for things like drainage shown on the plat does NOT include the full dimensions of the canals shown there on. It does not address the issue of docks or pilings on this submerged land, floating a boat on it, passing over it to get out to the public waterway nor any dredging of it.

And, just like the folks who thought they lived on the “Earman River” in North Palm Beach found out, if Deitz Enterprises Inc never sold, dedicated or had it taken away by a government agency then the land shown on the plat, such as that which is NOT shown as a drainage easement, is still owned by that entity. As early as a few years ago Dietz was giving explicit easements to the property owners on Paradise Point Road for that roadway to get back and forth to their houses. These folks are still around. Heads Up!

BTW, there are a few lots at the very end of, and those on the north side of, Leeward that also enjoy riparian rights.