Can the building enter your Miami condo when you are away?

Yes, within limits the law and the declaration set. Florida's condominium statute gives every association an irrevocable right of access to each home during reasonable hours when access is necessary to maintain, repair or replace the common elements or any part of the home the association must maintain, and as necessary to prevent damage to the common elements or to another home. Most declarations add the mechanics: the owner leaves a key or a code with management, the association may enter in an emergency without notice, and routine entry comes with notice stated in the rules. What the law does not do is make the association the owner's caretaker. Checking a closed home, running the taps, watching the humidity and closing the shutters are services under the management agreement or the house rules, or they are nobody's, and the owner's insurance policy has its own view of a home left empty. The buyer reads three documents before closing: the declaration's access clause, the house rules on keys and absences, and the owner's policy.

The statute is specific and short. The association has an irrevocable right of access, exercised during reasonable hours, for three purposes: maintenance, repair or replacement of the common elements; maintenance, repair or replacement of any part of a home the declaration makes the association's to maintain; and preventing damage to the common elements or to another home. An emergency, water coming through a ceiling, is the third purpose and the hours cease to matter. The law does not require notice in an emergency and leaves routine notice to the declaration and the rules, which is where buildings differ. It also lets the association take the steps a named storm requires on the building's exterior, which can include the shutters and the balcony. Read condominium documents: the five sections, how to read the amenity rules before buying a Miami condo and what a new Miami condo requires before you can move in.

The declaration or the house rules of most Miami towers require the owner to leave a key, a code or a credential with management, and some refuse an owner the right to change the lock without lodging the new key. In a building with a smart home system the credential can be electronic: Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami publishes a Savant smart home with concierge access, which is the concierge seeing and, as far as the rules allow, operating the home's systems. In a building with staff who know the household, Six Fisher Island publishes a residential butler and an on-site general manager, the key sits with people rather than a desk. The questions for management are who may take the key out, under what authority, whether every entry is logged and the log available to the owner, and whether the owner is told the same day. Read operational due diligence at Waldorf Astoria, is Six Fisher Island lock and leave, physical security at Waldorf Astoria and household staff at Six Fisher Island.

Two things, in order: the entry and the bill. The entry is the emergency purpose: the association or its manager opens the home to stop the water, and the owner learns of it afterwards. The bill is divided by the statute's insurance rules and the declaration. The association's policy insures the building as built, including the home's boundaries; the owner insures what is inside them, the floor coverings, wall and ceiling coverings, cabinets, fixtures, appliances and personal property, and carries loss assessment coverage for the association's deductible. Who repairs what after a leak follows the same line, and the declaration can shift it. An owner away for months buys the owner's policy with that split in mind and reads its vacancy clause, because a policy can limit cover for a home empty beyond a stated number of days unless the building, or a service, checks it. Read Miami condo insurance, climate, insurance and the Miami buyer, loss assessment coverage at Waldorf Astoria and water intrusion at Delano.

Whoever the owner has arranged, which in many buildings is nobody unless a service is bought. The association's duty runs to the building: the exterior, the common elements and the steps a named storm requires, which the rules may extend to balcony furniture and shutters the association controls. Inside the home, the owner's own shutters, the water main, the air conditioning set point and the refrigerator are the owner's. Some buildings publish the service: Caretta in Juno Beach publishes lock-and-leave services among its 24/7 concierge and maintenance list; Olara publishes a resident manager and a 24 hour doorman; where no service is published, the management company may offer an absence program under a separate agreement and fee. The question for management before closing is what the building does for an empty home when a storm is named and what it costs. Read flood zone and evacuation at Waldorf Astoria, generator coverage and storm resilience at Six Fisher Island, what are the amenities at Caretta and closing a Miami condo during hurricane season.

The declaration and the rules state the notice for routine entry, a pest treatment, a riser inspection, a shutter check, and the practice of the building fills in the rest. Before closing, the owner asks management in writing: the notice period for non-emergency entry; whether entries are logged and the log shared; who may authorise entry and whether a contractor may enter without staff; whether the building offers an absence inspection, how often and at what fee; what the building does inside a home when a storm is named; and how a medical or security emergency involving a guest or staff in the home is handled. The answers go into the ownership file beside the declaration, the owner's policy and the management agreement. Read the first year of owning a Miami condo, owning from abroad: property management, the ownership file for a Downtown Miami branded condo and the ownership file for a Fisher Island condo. The desk reads the access clause and the rules with the buyer before closing; the words of the declaration are counsel's.