## Facts

- Tiffany Plaza is a 42-unit beachfront condominium in Longboat Key, Florida.
- The sand and beach area between the condominium and the Gulf’s mean high-water line was treated as a condominium common element under the declaration and Florida condominium law.
- The declaration assigned the association responsibility for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of common elements, and also contained a provision addressing alterations/improvements to common elements, including an asserted cost-exemption for dissenting owners.
- Due to erosion concerns, the association proposed construction of a rock revetment on the beachfront common element to protect the property.
- At a February 7, 1981 annual meeting, a majority of members approved the revetment, and the board imposed a pro rata assessment on all unit owners to fund it.
- Six unit owners objected, contending the revetment was an “alteration or improvement” and that the declaration entitled them to be exempt from paying the assessment because they did not approve the project.

## Issues

1. Whether the association could assess all unit owners for construction of a rock revetment as necessary or beneficial maintenance/repair/replacement of common elements despite a declaration provision addressing alterations/improvements and claimed exemptions for dissenters.
2. Whether the declaration’s alteration/improvement provision could be construed to allow a minority of owners to avoid paying for protective work undertaken to preserve common elements.

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the trial court.
- The court held the association could levy the assessment against all unit owners for the revetment’s cost.
- The court treated the revetment, for assessment purposes, as work within the association’s authority to maintain, repair, or replace common elements when undertaken in good business judgment to protect or preserve them.
- The court rejected an interpretation of the declaration that would allow dissenting owners to opt out of funding necessary or beneficial common-element protective work.

## Legal Principles

- Condominium declarations, bylaws, and governing statutes must be read together, and interpretations that defeat the association’s core common-element responsibilities are disfavored.
- When an association, acting in good business judgment, determines that an alteration or improvement is necessary or beneficial to the maintenance, repair, or replacement of common elements, the resulting costs may be assessed pro rata to all unit owners.
- A declaration provision addressing alterations/improvements does not authorize dissenting owners to avoid assessments for work reasonably undertaken to preserve, protect, or maintain common elements.

## Conclusion

The court held that the association’s decision to build a beachfront rock revetment to protect common elements fell within its maintenance-related authority and could be funded through a pro rata assessment on all unit owners, without exemptions for dissenters.


Tiffany Plaza Condo. Ass’n, Inc. v. Spencer, 416 So. 2d 823 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2d Dist. 1982)