Does a Miami condo association have to approve you as a buyer, and can it say no?

Only if the declaration gives it the right, and most Miami declarations do. The approval right is a clause in the condominium documents, not a statute, so a building whose declaration is silent cannot screen anyone, and a building whose declaration grants the right applies it to every transfer the clause covers. A first sale from the developer is usually exempt, so a buyer of a new home seldom meets the application until the day they sell or let it. Where the right exists, Florida's condominium statute limits what the association may charge, how long it may take and what it may not consider, and the lawful way for an association to say no is usually a right of first refusal: it refuses the buyer only by buying the home itself, or producing another buyer, on the same terms. A refusal for who the buyer is, as opposed to what the application shows, is the kind the fair housing laws forbid.

From the declaration of condominium and the bylaws, which the developer writes before the first sale and the owners can amend afterwards. A buyer reads the transfer clause in the five sections of the condominium documents before the contract: whether sales, leases or both need approval; whether the developer's own sales are exempt, which they usually are while the developer is selling; whether a transfer to a spouse, a trust or an heir is exempt; and what happens if the association does not answer in time, which in most declarations is deemed approval. The clause survives turnover, and the owners who take the board from the developer inherit it with everything else. Read the five sections of the condominium documents, when the developer hands a Florida condo association to its owners and buyer and tenant approval at Waldorf Astoria.

Identity, the names of everyone who will live in the home, the contract, references, consent to a background and credit check, and, for a company or a trust, the people behind it. The statute caps the fee an association may charge for the screening at a figure it sets per applicant, with a married couple or a parent and dependent child counted as one, and forbids charging it where the declaration does not require approval. The statute also sets the clock: an association that has the right to approve must act within the period the documents set, and a buyer who hears nothing by the deadline reads the deemed-approval clause with counsel rather than assuming. The credit and background checks are the buyer's to pass, which is why a foreign buyer without a US file brings bank references and a US buyer with an old dispute brings the explanation to the application rather than to the board meeting. Read what a US bank asks a foreign buyer, buying without US credit history and buyer and tenant approval at Olara.

In two ways, one lawful and one not. The lawful refusal in most Florida declarations is the right of first refusal: the association may decline the buyer only by stepping into the contract itself, or by producing a buyer who will, at the same price and on the same terms, within the time the declaration allows, so the seller is never left without a sale. Some declarations allow a refusal for cause stated in the documents, such as a false application, a criminal record of a kind the documents name, or an intended use the rules forbid, and those grounds are read closely because a refusal outside them is a lawsuit. The unlawful refusal is for a protected characteristic, which federal and Florida fair housing laws forbid an association to consider: race, colour, religion, national origin, sex, familial status and disability, with further categories under local ordinance. A buyer who suspects the second kind calls counsel; a buyer facing the first kind reads how long the association has to exercise it. Read buying a condo in Miami to rent out, who can live in your Miami condo besides you and buyer and tenant approval at Six Fisher Island.

Usually nothing, until later. A sale from the developer is exempt under most declarations, so the buyer of a new condominium closes without an application. The clause applies the first time the home is let, which many owners of a new home do in the first year, and the first time it is sold, which is why a buyer who means to rent reads the tenant approval process now, including the fee, the clock and whether the association may refuse a tenant without a right of first refusal. The other time it applies early is an assignment: a buyer who takes over another buyer's pre-construction contract is not buying from the developer, and the developer's consent to the assignment is a separate question from the association's approval of the new owner at closing. Read can you assign a pre-construction contract, buying a Miami pre-construction contract from another buyer and what a condo estoppel certificate tells a Miami buyer.

Through the people. An application from a limited liability company or a trust asks for the members, managers or trustees and beneficiaries who will occupy the home, and screens them as it would an individual; a declaration may also require the entity to name one household as the occupant and may limit how often that designation can change. A foreign buyer is screened on the same form, with references from a bank at home standing in for a US credit file, and a buyer from a country the United States sanctions, or one of the countries Florida's own property law names, has a separate legal question before the application. None of this is a reason to buy in a personal name; it is a reason to prepare the file before the contract. Read buying a Miami condo through an entity, can a foreigner buy property in the United States and LLC, trust or personal name.

Three things. Read the transfer clause and the leasing clause of the declaration, and the house rules on guests, before the contract. Ask the developer's manager for the current application form, the fee and the association's stated turnaround, because the form in use is the real rule. And if the buyer is an entity, a trust or a foreign national, assemble the people file now so that the first tenant or the eventual sale is not held by a question nobody asked. Read documents before closing on a new Miami condo and how to read the amenity rules before buying a Miami condo. The desk reads the transfer and leasing clauses of each building with the buyer before the reservation and holds the current application forms.