Property manager

Three Florida statute sections that define association vocabulary, 468.431 for managers and 720.301 and 718.103 for associations and their boards, do not define property manager. The phrase is used in its plain sense, and it covers a wide range of arrangements.

What 468.431(4) defines instead is the community association manager: "a natural person who is licensed pursuant to this part to perform community association management services." Section 468.431(3) separately defines the management firm in that business. The licensed role has its own entry under community association manager, and the title property manager alone does not say whether a person holds that license.

The associations those definitions reach are listed in 468.431(1), from a lot for a home to a condominium unit. The association that operates a community of parcels is described under homeowners association.

Outside any association, the phrase is used just as loosely. A seasonal resident who spends part of the year away may hire someone to look after a house, and that person may be called a property manager too.

Florida Statutes 468.431(2) draws the working line. Community association management is a list of practices done for remuneration for associations with more than 10 units, or with an annual budget above the threshold the subsection sets. Funds, budgets and meetings are on that list, and so is "coordinating or performing maintenance for real or personal property and other related routine services involved in the operation of a community association."

The same subsection then sets two kinds of people outside the licensing requirement: "A person who performs clerical or ministerial functions under the direct supervision and control of a licensed manager or who is charged only with performing the maintenance of a community association and who does not assist in any of the management services described in this subsection is not required to be licensed under this part."

The list names both coordinating and performing maintenance. What the exemption sets aside is a person charged only with performing the maintenance who assists in none of the listed management services. Where a particular property manager falls is a question 468.431's definitions answer, not the job title.

On an exterior job, the person who arranges a roof or window cleaning at a condominium is not always the unit owner. Who orders that work is answered under who is responsible for roof cleaning in a condo and who cleans exterior windows in a condo.