How to find Condominium Documents in Florida?
I get this question pretty often. How do I find the recorded documents for a Condominium Owners Association (COA)? First, if you really want to have a FULL and up to date copy of these then call the association or management company as they almost always have a copy they will sell you for +/- $100. Many associations now have these posted on the public area of their websites well. This is done based upon a title search and will (should be anyway) accurate. They typically have these on hand, in the case of a condominium, as Florida law requires a Buyer of real property to be provided with these, should they be requested.
The links below are for properties locating in Palm Beach County but you use a similar throughout the state. Start by looking up the specific property, or even any unit in the same building, at the county property appraiser’s website. Scroll down and click on the Book/Page of the last Warranty Deed. This will link to the clerk of courts website and open up a deed. Now download the image and look at the legal description. It will say some like ‘Unit 321 of the XXX, A Condominium according to the Declarations of Condominium recorded (say Jan 1 1970) and recorded in the Official Book 52, Page 5231.’ Now we have the book and page of the original recorded documents. Next, stay at the Clerk of Courts web site and click on new search. The last tab is a search by “book and page.” Note that one can also search for a recorded plat at this screen for properties in a Home Owners Association but we want to search the ‘Official Record Book’ for the condo docs. And note the format of the search is Book/Page (for our example 52/5231). Now you have the official ORIGIONAL recorded declarations of condominium. What good is it? It has parking lay outs, floor plates (showing the whole floor of a building), basic unit floor plans and the original use restrictions on things like rentals and pets. It also has the official name of the association so you can search for any amendments to the documents. To find all the recorded documents you will again search Clerk of courts web site but this time use the THE SAME LEGAL NAME AS THE ORIGIONAL DECLARATIONS. Any amendments to the condominium will show as CND A (condo amended) or RES (restrictions) or RES A (restrictions amended) for a Home Owners Association.
If you’re looking for a plat then it will have the dimensions of the lot on it and show things like utility easements.
