Florida senators want to end 'forever fees' imposed by some big homebuilders

A recap of the fourth week of the Florida Legislature's 2026 session, plus a preview of week five.

Photo credit: Bob Jagendorf

This is Seeking Rents, a newsletter and podcast devoted to producing original journalism — and lifting up the work of others — about Florida politics, with an emphasis on the ways that big businesses and other special interests influence public policy in the state. Seeking Rents is produced by veteran investigative journalist Jason Garcia, and it is free to all. But please consider a voluntary paid subscription, if you can afford one, to help support our work. And check out our video channel, too.

Editor’s note: The 2026 session of the Florida Legislature is underway, so we have temporarily turned our weekly “Florida in Five” feature into a roundup of news, notes and bill movements from the session.

Key leaders in the Florida Senate want to crack down on a scheme used by some large developers to lock homebuyers into legally murky “forever fees.”

The ploy involves master-planned communities built with recreational facilities such as golf courses, fitness centers and tennis courts, and managed by homeowners’ associations that collect monthly assessments from residents for operations and maintenance.

In some communities built around Florida in recent years, the developers have decided to retain ownership of the recreational facilities for themselves rather than turn them over to the resident-controlled HOA. But they have still bound homebuyers to covenants that compel them to pay monthly “club fees” or “amenity fees” — fees that include an incremental profit margin for the developer and that can continue on in perpetuity.

The strategy rests on a selective reading of Florida’s homeowners’ association laws in which the developer uses the powers of an HOA, like the ability to compel payment of fees under threat of foreclosure, while avoiding some of the corresponding protections for residents — including a requirement that HOA assessments be based on actual expenses and not include a profit markup for a private company.

It’s also probably illegal, under a June 2023 appellate court holding in a case known as Avatar v. Gundel.

That decision, which the Florida Supreme Court allowed to stand, involved a retirement community in Polk County built by a company later sold to Taylor Morrison Homes. But the ruling poses an even bigger threat to another builder: Lennar Corp., which has been fighting similar lawsuits accusing the company of illegally overcharging residents in some of its communities, too.

Lennar, the nation’s No. 2 homebuilder, has spent the last two years lobbying the Republican-controlled Legislature to overturn Avatar v. Gundel. The Miami-based company has even enlisted the help of Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who later became a “consultant” for Lennar.

Those lobbying efforts have been stymied, in large part, by a single legislator: Sen. Jennifer Bradley, a Republican from Fleming Island who is one of the Legislature’s leading experts on HOA and condo association law.

And now she’s going on offense.

The Jacksonville-area lawmaker is sponsoring a bill this session that would eliminate the various legal arguments that homebuilders like Lennar have been using to defend the perpetual profits scheme. The proposed changes, which would cement Avatar v. Gundel into state law, were inserted into Senate Bill 1498 last week during a meeting of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, which Bradley chairs.

During the hearing, Bradley said that some developers are exploiting HOA laws to collect “forever fees” for themselves, and, in doing so, creating an “unfairness that shouldn’t exist.”

“This amendment and this bill will hopefully right that wrong,” she said, just before her bill passed on a 7-0 vote.

Bradley has picked up in an important ally in the cause: Sen. Jim Boyd, a Republican from Bradenton who will become president of the Florida Senate after the fall elections. That makes him one of the most powerful people in the Capitol right now — the sort of person with the juice to get a bill like this passed.

“I think this is a really good fix,” Boyd said during the committee hearing.

Of course, this fight is still a long way from over. While the reforms now seem a good bet to sail through the Florida Senate, they have yet to gain traction in the state House — where some top Republicans tried to side with Lennar last year.

“We’ve got to get our House colleagues to agree with us and get it across the finish line,” Boyd said.

Still, we’re about halfway (hopefully) through a session in which lawmakers may empower the sugar industry to sue its critics into silence, enable a gun company to dodge legal liability in accidents that have injured police officers, and hand massive tax cuts to corporations — all while kicking many working-class Floridians off health insurance and food assistance.

So it’s encouraging to find at least one front in which legislators with power are fighting for the pocketbooks of constituents over the profits of donors.

Eyes wide open

Before we get to the rest of our weekly update from the 2026 session, I wanted to focus for a moment on a truly astonishing story.

The Tampa Bay Times reported last week that Glen Gilzean, a recurring Ron DeSantis appointee, is a finalist to run the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, a taxpayer-funded agency that supports programs for children and families.

Gilzean is probably best known for his brief tenures atop two important agencies in Orlando: The Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office, where Gilzean served as the DeSantis-appointed supervisor from March 2024 to January 2025; and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the entity formerly known as Reedy Creek, which oversees Walt Disney World and where Gilzean was hired by a DeSantis-appointed board to be district administrator from May 2023 to March 2024.

You can find lots of stories and takes about Gilzean’s time leading both agencies. But I wanted to remind readers of two detailed pieces we published right here on Seeking Rents.

One story, written in March 2025, revealed how Gilzean had used his budget at the Orange County elections office to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on campaign-style self-promotion, contracts with personal friends, and payments to allies of Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders in Tallahassee.

The other story, from October 2023, exposed the mass exodus from Disney’s governing district that occurred after Gilzean took over as chief executive — and the scathing appraisals of Gilzean’s leadership that many departing employees gave in their exit interviews.

Maybe take a few minutes to read both.

And then remember that the Juvenile Welfare Board, an agency funded primarily by local property taxes, has a budget of more than $150 million.

Billtrack

In honor of the best show on TV, here’s a look at some of the bills on the move from the past week of session:

• House Bill 103: Eliminates local business taxes levied by cities and counties. Passed the House State Affairs Committee by an 18-5 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 216: Gives business and state officials more reasons to deny unemployment benefits to laid-off workers. Passed the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee by an 11-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 221: Allows companies to pay less than minimum wage to interns, apprentices and other employees in training-type roles. Passed the House Careers & Workforce Subcommittee by an 11-5 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 377: Exempts Philip Morris’ IQOS nicotine device and other heated tobacco products from state cigarette and tobacco taxes. Passed the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee by a 14-2 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 399: Undoes anti-sprawl protections for rural land around
  Orlando and Miami. Passed the House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee by an 11-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 429: Gives prosecutors more ways to designate criminal defendants as gang members, including by citing their use of “gang-related language” on social media. Passed the Florida House of Representatives by a 100-7 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 433: Makes it easier for the sugar industry and other agricultural corporations to sue activists, news organizations and others for “disparagement” of food products and farming practices. Passed the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee by a 14-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 485: Allows someone to obtain a domestic violence injunction against their spouse on the basis of “marriage fraud,” an allegation that they were deceived into marriage by a non-citizen in order to evade immigration law or obtain benefits. Passed the House Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee by a 14-0 vote. (see votes)

• House Bill 627: Permits law enforcement officers to refuse to accept public records requests while they are actively performing law enforcement activities. Passed the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee by a 13-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 641: Forbids state agencies and local governments from requiring that employees refer to co-workers by their preferred pronouns and bars private companies that receive state funding from requiring employees to attend trainings on sexual orientation or gender identity. Passed the House Government Operations Subcommittee by an 11-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 691: Makes it easier for homebuilders to build new subdivisions on farmland adjacent to land zoned for residential development. Passed the House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee by a 16-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 743: Criminalizes anyone who “aids and abets” a doctor providing gender-affirming care to someone under the age of 18 and empowers the attorney general to investigate and prosecute healthcare providers. Passed the House Health Professions & Programs Subcommittee by a 12-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 838: Allows auto lenders to charge “processing fees” when car buyers
  make loan payments by credit card or other forms of electronic payment. Passed the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee by a 10-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 833: Authorizes small private schools to open in any area zoned for commercial or mixed-use development and to operate from a retail store, day care or other business. Passed the House Education Administration Subcommittee by a 13-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 881: Allows Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs to end live horse-racing without losing their licenses for other gambling activities like slots and poker. Passed the House Commerce Committee by a 15-9 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 927: Requires cities and counties to let developers use private contractors to review development applications and to issue building permits earlier in the development process for residential subdivisions. Passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee by a 13-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 989: Expands laws that force Floridians to buy most new cars from middleman car dealers rather than directly from vehicle manufacturers. Passed the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee by a 16-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 919: Renames Palm Beach International Airport after Donald Trump. Passed the House Commerce Committee by a 16-6 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 943: Requires state-run Citizens Property Insurance to create a clearinghouse through which private surplus lines insurance companies could take over policies covering condo buildings and businesses, and allows Citizens to award a no-bid contract to a vendor who would administer the clearinghouse. Passed the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee by a 15-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 981: Orders the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a plan to breach the Rodman Dam and restore the flow of the Ocklawaha River. Passed the House State Affairs Committee by a 23-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 991: Stops university students from using school IDs as identification when they vote. Passed the House Government Operations Subcommittee by an 11-5 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 995: Imposes a number of new restrictions on labor unions representing teachers, bus drivers and other public-sector workers — but not unions representing police officers or firefighters. Passed the House State Administration Budget Subcommittee by an 8-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1001: Forbids local governments from supporting diversity programs and enables the governor to suspend local elected officials who violate the prohibition. Passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee by a 10-5 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1139: Helps developers trying to stop a local government from raising impact fees by requiring that the local government pay the developer’s attorney fees if the developer wins a case in court. Passed the House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee by a 16-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1028: Requires state-run Citizens Property Insurance to create a clearinghouse through which private surplus lines insurance companies could take over policies covering condo buildings and businesses, and allows Citizens to award a no-bid contract to a vendor who would administer the clearinghouse. Passed the Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Committee by an 11-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1066: Orders the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a plan to breach the Rodman Dam and restore the flow of the Ocklawaha River. Passed the Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Committee by a 10-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1118: Allows developers of data centers to have development plans submitted to a city or county sealed and exempt from public-records laws for up to a year. Passed the Senate Community Affairs Committee by a 7-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1134: Forbids local governments from supporting diversity programs and enables the governor to suspend local elected officials who violate the prohibition. Passed the Senate Community Affairs Committee by a 6-2 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1217: Prevents communities from implementing policies meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change, and eliminates local green energy policies that are already on the books. Passed the House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee by a 12-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1220: Allows Walmart or other retailers to set up drone-delivery ports in parking lots without running afoul of local ordinances requiring a minimum
  number of parking spaces. Passed the Senate Transportation Committee by a 9-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1236: Forbids companies that receive state tax incentives or grants from voluntarily recognizing new employee labor unions or from agreeing to remain neutral in union elections. Passed the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee by a 6-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1334: Requires first-time voters to prove their citizenship by providing copies of documents such as a passport or birth certificate in order to register to vote. Passed the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee by a 5-2 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1387: Forbids companies that receive state tax incentives or grants from voluntarily recognizing new employee labor unions or from agreeing to remain neutral in union elections. Passed the House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism
  Subcommittee by an 11-4 vote (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1455: Establishes a right to counsel when law enforcement seeks a risk protection order requiring someone to temporarily surrender their guns. Passed the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee by an 11-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1498: Prevents developers of master-planned subdivisions from locking new homebuyers into never-ending fees that include a profit margin for a private company. Passed the Senate Regulated Industries Committee by a 7-0 vote (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1514: Allows the board of Space Florida to close portions of public meetings in which they will discuss trade secrets. Passed the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs, Space and Domestic Security Committee by a 5-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1544: Blocks anonymous complaints against police officers or prison guards unless they come with corroborating evidence. Passed the Senate Criminal Justice Committee by a 6-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1551: Makes it harder to sue Sig Sauer and other gun manufacturers cases where someone is injured when a gun allegedly fires without anyone pulling the trigger. Passed the House Civil Justice Subcommittee by a 13-4 vote (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1632: Empowers the governor, through the Florida Department of Law
  Enforcement, to designate a group as a “domestic terrorist organization” and
  impose sanctions. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 8-3 vote (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1642: Forbids state agencies and local governments from requiring that employees refer to co-workers by their preferred pronouns and bars private companies that receive state funding from requiring employees to attend trainings on sexual orientation or gender identity. Passed the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee by a 6-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1758: Imposes paperwork requirements and additional red tape on Floridians who get insurance through Medicaid and food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Passed the Senate Health Policy Committee by an 8-3 vote (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 7036: Allows the Florida Department of Education to publish its own textbooks for use in public schools. Passed the Senate Education PreK-12 Committee by a 5-2 vote (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 7040: Allows the governor to continue using the unsupervised emergency management fund that he tapped to finance construction of the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades. Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee by a 12-5 vote (vote sheet)

The week ahead

Tuesday

• The Senate Rules Committee will hear Senate Bill 290, which would make it easier for the sugar industry and other agricultural corporations to sue activists, news organizations and others for “disparagement” of food products and farming practices. The meeting begins at 9 am. (Contact committee members)

• The House Education & Employment Committee will hear House Bill 1471, which would enable the governor, via the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, to designate a group as a “domestic terrorist organization” and impose sanctions. The meeting begins at 9 am. (Contact committee members)

• The House Judiciary Committee will hear House Bill 173, which would prevent teenagers from accessing birth control, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and non-emergency mental health services without permission from a parent. The meeting beings at 9 am. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear Senate Bill 1748, which would make it harder to sue Sig Sauer and other gun manufacturers cases where someone is injured when a gun allegedly fires without anyone pulling the trigger. The meeting begins at noon. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Transportation Committee will hear Senate Bill 1562, which would expand laws that force Floridians to buy most new cars from middleman car dealers rather than directly from vehicle manufacturers. The meeting begins at noon. (Contact committee members).

• The Senate Regulated Industries Committee will hold confirmation hearings on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ newest appointments to the Public Service Commission, the state agency that regulates the electricity rates charged by Florida Power & Light and other monopoly power companies. The meeting begins at noon. (Contact committee members)

• The House Ways & Means Committee will hear House Bill 1177, which would expand tax breaks for aerospace, defense and other companies that negotiate incentive deals through Space Florida. The meeting begins at 4 pm. (Contact committee members)

• The House Budget Committee will hear House Bill 1279, which would cut out-of-state enrollment at the University of Florida and other top-performing public universities to no more than 5 percent of the fall freshman class. The meeting begins at 4 pm. (Contact committee members)

Wednesday

• The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee will hear Senate Bill 632, which would reduce the amount of liability insurance that Uber, Lyft and other rideshare companies must have in place when one of their drivers has accepted a ride but not yet picked up the rider. The meeting begins at 9 am. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee will hear Senate Bill 1562, provided it passes the Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday. The bill would expand laws that force Floridians to buy most new cars from middleman car dealers rather than directly from vehicle manufacturers. The meeting begins at 9 am. (Contact committee members).

• The Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee will hear Senate Bill 1296, which would impose a number of new restrictions on labor unions representing teachers, bus drivers and other public-sector workers — but not unions representing police officers or firefighters. The meeting begins at 3 pm. (Contact committee members)

• The House of Representatives will hear House Bill 1119, which would forbid school districts from considering the artistic or literary merits of books that activists want to have banned from school libraries. The floor session begins at 4 pm. (Contact House members)

Note: The House notices committee meetings two days ahead of time, while the Senate notices them three days in advance. Click here to find the complete daily calendars in the Florida House of Representatives, and click here for the daily calendars for the Florida Senate.

Reading list

• Republican megadonor is behind bill that could affect Florida condo owners (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

• Environmentalists and MAHA Activists Say Bill To Expand Florida’s ‘Food Libel’ Law Will Silence Critics (Reason Magazine)

• Defamation Provision in Florida Farm Bill Draws Pushback From MAHA Advocates (The Epoch Times)

• Will Florida’s ‘veggie libel’ bill chill free speech? What to know (USA Today Network – Florida)

• Sheriff speaks out against gun bill that would shield gun makers over malfunctions (CBS 12 News)

• ‘Big Money’: WPTV finds gun manufacturer Sig Sauer donated $320K to lawmakers before gun bill debate (WPTV)

• Kratom: Advocates tout its properties, but legislators want strict warnings about the herbal supplement (Florida Trident)

• Florida’s Education Department could get into the textbook publishing game (Politico Florida) ($)

• Florida legislators try to moooove cattle into state parks and forests (Florida Phoenix)

• Florida moves to incentivize employers to make it harder for their workers to unionize (Orlando Weekly)

• DeSantis’ Canadian drug import plan in Florida goes from campaign trail to tough realities (Politico Florida)

• Florida starts English-only policy for driver’s license testing (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

• DeSantis spent $573 million on immigration. The feds may never pay Florida back (Florida Trib)

• Potential ICE facility in Orlando: Rickrolls, removed listings and a backlash as a sale appears near (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

• E-mails reveal Epstein’s bid for clemency from former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (Miami Herald) ($)

• Who’s funding campaigns in St. Petersburg, Clearwater opposing city grids? (Tampa Bay Times) ($)