Who is responsible for roof cleaning in a condo?

In Chapter 718, Florida's condominium statute, section 718.113(1) opens: “Maintenance of the common elements is the responsibility of the association, except for any maintenance responsibility for limited common elements assigned to the unit owner by the declaration.”

The half before the comma sets the rule: the association maintains the common elements, which the unit owners hold in undivided shares. The word except is where the question of who is responsible for roof cleaning actually turns, because it hands the next move to the declaration of condominium. The same subsection adds that the association must provide for the maintenance, repair and replacement of the condominium property it is responsible for “pursuant to the declaration of condominium.”

Neither half names a roof. Common elements are the portions of the condominium property not included in the units, and the declaration specifies the units, so which roof areas are common elements is written in that document. Whether the building is a condominium in the first place is sorted out under whether a condo roof can be cleaned, and the short version of the association rules sits with the Florida rules that touch a roof cleaning.

The exception works through one defined category, and the definition sends you straight back to the declaration.

Section 718.103(22) describes limited common elements as common elements “reserved for the use of a certain unit or units to the exclusion of all other units, as specified in the declaration.” They stay common elements. What changes is who may use them, and with that, who a declaration may make responsible for their upkeep.

The statute gives no list of building parts that qualify. A given declaration may reserve some roof areas to particular units, or none, so the category exists on paper before anyone asks whether a roof cleaning falls inside it.

Section 718.113(1) does not stop at the exception. It spells out the choices a declaration has.

The subsection says the declaration may provide that certain limited common elements “shall be maintained by those entitled to use the limited common elements or that the association shall provide the maintenance, either as a common expense or with the cost shared only by those entitled to use the limited common elements.” Laid out, that is three arrangements:

• The unit or units entitled to use the limited common element maintain it themselves.
• The association maintains it, and the work is a common expense of the whole condominium.
• The association maintains it, and only the units entitled to use it share the cost.

Which of the three a building uses for any roof area, if it uses any, is a reading of its declaration. In two of the three the association still arranges the work.

Where the association is responsible, the statute also says how it acts and what it keeps.

A condominium association is the entity responsible for operating the common elements, and its board of administration is the body responsible for running it. Section 718.111(3)(a) says the association “may contract, sue, or be sued with respect to the exercise or nonexercise of its powers,” and that those powers include “the maintenance, management, and operation of the condominium property.” Ordering a roof cleaning on common elements is therefore the board's or its manager's step, taken under the declaration.

Under 718.111(12), contracts for work to be performed are official records, bids must be kept at least 1 year after they are received, and the official records are open to inspection by any association member. Where a board works through a manager, Florida Statutes 468.431(4) defines a community association manager as “a natural person who is licensed pursuant to this part to perform community association management services.”

Two other subjects sit next to a condominium roof, and each has its own document.

Section 718.111(11)(a) says, “Every condominium association shall have adequate property insurance as determined under this paragraph, regardless of any requirement in the declaration of condominium for certain coverage by the association.” That policy is the association's and separate from a unit holder's own, which 627.4133(2) names as a distinct policy type; what either covers is a question for the association and its agent, and for the unit holder's own insurer.

Where a condominium roof sits above windows or balcony glass, a second document applies. The National Glass Association's cleaning paper FB01-00 says that for laminated glass nothing corrosive such as solvents, acids, bases or other chemicals is to be used, and its examples of materials that may cause harm include “Bleach (or other solutions containing sodium hypochlorite).” PGT says its hurricane windows and doors are made with laminated glass, and Cardinal says its Sea-Storm glass is used in hurricane-resistant windows and doors. Impact windows are built with laminated glass, so keeping a roof cleaning solution off the glass below is a technical requirement of the job. Balcony glass has its own answer under whether windows can be cleaned on a condo balcony.