Florida lawmaker weighs abolishing HOAs across state as residents fed up with sky-high fees and legal woes

Date:2025-08-27 04:23:38 Category:US Views:1 Comment:0

Homeowners associations could become a thing of the past if one South Florida politician has his way.

State Representative Juan Carlos Porras (R-Miami) says he’s considering filing legislation that he hopes will abolish HOAs statewide at the next legislative session.

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“You know, it might just be time we take a look if HOAs are really even necessary,” Porras told WPTV. “Maybe we should just do away with homeowners associations as a whole.”

With increases in HOA fees and special assessments since the Surfside condominium collapse in 2021, many Florida residents are finding themselves at their wits' end. Porras says he spoken to so many frustrated homeowners that he's now questioning whether the current HOA system still makes sense.

‘It was a failed experiment’

HOAs are resident-operated organizations that create and enforce rules in a community, which often consists of townhomes or condominiums. When you move into a property in one of these communities, you must agree to abide by the rules of the association and, in many cases, pay an HOA fee.

As WPTV reports, more than 40% of Florida residents live in a community with an HOA or condominium owners association. With Florida’s population topping 23 million, that’s more than nine million residents living in one of these communities.

Among that large cohort, many have grown frustrated with the rising fees and costly legal disputes. Porras, who has been advocating for HOA reform for two years, has lost faith in the current system — especially in areas like Miami-Dade County, where residents pay high fees without seeing significant community benefits.

"It [HOAs] was a failed experiment, to be quite honest," said Porras. “In Miami-Dade County, where I live, it’s just a bunch of houses. The HOA doesn’t really maintain anything other than the grass in some areas. And yet, you’re being charged $500, $600 plus a month. In reality, you don’t see a lot of that money going back to your community.”

"Even in my district, one of the largest organized crime busts in the state’s history occurred with our HOA, The Hammocks," Porras told FOX 29 in May. "They stole millions of dollars from our residents."

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Statewide anger at overbearing associations

According to recent data from Frontdoor, almost 70% of American homeowners indicated that they would prefer to buy a new home in a community without an HOA.

Frustration with HOAs in Florida has been well documented over the years. Take Sharon Siebert, for example. Siebert lives in Sandalwood Lakes in Palm Beach County, where monthly HOA fees have risen to $700 a month for some residents. When Siebert fell ill and found herself out of work, she fell behind on her HOA fees and nearly lost her home.

“I understand that it’s a business, I understand that the business is to make sure the properties are maintained,” Siebert shared with WPTV. “But at the same time, when you’ve been here a long time and always maintained your property, it’s difficult when you find yourself in a tough situation and there’s no help.”

And then there’s Irena Green, who lives in the Creek View subdivision of Tampa’s Hillsborough County. Green found herself in a dispute with the HOA over her brown grass, which was the result of mandatory watering restrictions due to drought. The dispute escalated when Green accidentally missed a court appearance and spent a week in jail for contempt of court.

“I bought seeds and watered my grass to comply,” Green told WPTV. “It makes me feel horrible. I work hard to buy this home for me and my kids in a better neighborhood and environment, and to be taken to jail and to be treated like that for brown grass at my own home... that’s horrible.”

What’s next?

Whether Porras’s bill gains traction in Florida’s legislature remains to be seen, but one thing is certain — with more than nine million Florida residents living in HOA communities, this proposal to eliminate them would be a massive legal, political and financial undertaking.

Porras has acknowledged that his plan will not include condominium owners associations, as these multifamily buildings are said to be more complex. Instead, Porras wants to abolish single-family HOAs.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has yet to weigh in on Porras’s plan, but the governor shared a quick comment on HOAs with Fox 29 in May.

“There needs to be more transparency in the HOAs, and maybe local governments should have more control over how they manage things.”