A second, purely procedural trap in the same area

Three months later the Second District dismissed part of an appeal in an assessment case for a reason that catches both sides regularly.

In Guerin v. Countryside Imperial Ridge Homeowners Association, Inc., No. 2D2025-2414, decided 15 July 2026 (Kelly, J.), the court affirmed the foreclosure of a recorded lien for unpaid maintenance assessments, late fees and interest — but dismissed for lack of jurisdiction the portion of the judgment awarding fees and costs while reserving on amount:

“An order determining entitlement to attorney's fees and costs without setting an amount is nonfinal and nonappealable.”²

Entitlement without amount is not appealable. An association that wins entitlement and appeals before the amount is set has filed too early; an owner who wants to challenge entitlement must wait for quantification. This is a calendar problem, not a merits problem, and it costs real money when it is missed.

What a board and its counsel should do differently

1. Read the answer for interrelation, not just for denials. A tender defence, a claim that the assessment was improperly levied, a records or fiduciary counterclaim — these now dictate the procedural route. Budget for adjudicating them rather than moving straight for summary judgment.
2. Handle tendered payments carefully. The sworn allegation here was that the association refused to negotiate the cheques. Whatever the merits, an unnegotiated tender is a fact that will be litigated. If a payment is refused — for instance because it is short of accrued fees — document what was received, what was applied, and why, in writing and contemporaneously.
3. Get the payment-application order right. Disputes about whether a payment went to assessments, interest, late fees or attorney's fees are the usual engine of a tender defence.
4. Do not appeal a fee entitlement until the amount is set.

What it means for an owner

Specificity is the whole point. A defence that says “the amount is disputed” is not interrelated with anything. A defence that says “I tendered payment on these dates, in these amounts, and the association returned the cheques” is a factual assertion that has to be resolved.

The same is true of counterclaims. A counterclaim for breach of the declaration must identify the provision and the breach. A fiduciary-duty counterclaim must identify the conduct. Vague pleading gets summary judgment entered against it.

Two adjacent points worth knowing. Florida's fee-shifting in this area is real and runs both ways — the fee exposure in a contested assessment case can quickly exceed the assessments. And Chapter 720 requires pre-suit mediation for defined categories of dispute under s. 720.311; the bill that would have replaced that with arbitration, HB 657, passed the House and died in Senate Rules, so the requirement stands unchanged.

The fee-multiplier problem this sits inside

Reporting by the WFTS investigative team in Hillsborough County has documented what the arithmetic can look like at the small end. In one Riverview subdivision, court records showed a homeowner owing $12,295, of which $9,400 was attorney's fees, against annual dues of $780. Another owner in the same community saw fees rise from $4,100 to $5,100 before settling on an instalment plan.

The same reporting documented that the homeowner was jailed for several days in May 2025 on a civil contempt finding after missing a court date in a covenant case that began with complaints about dead grass, garage-door dents and a dirty mailbox. The association's counsel stated on the record that she “received notices of violations. She disregarded them. Legal action was filed by the Association after she failed to accept the offer to mediate the matter, pre-suit, as is required before a lawsuit can be filed.”³

We have not seen the court file, and this account rests on the outlet's reporting and its review of Hillsborough County records. The category-level lesson is nonetheless clear on both sides: the pre-suit mediation offer is the hinge, and a missed hearing date can convert a covenant dispute into something with a body attached to it. Neither of those is about who was right about the lawn.

What to watch next

Both decisions carry the standard notation that they are not final until disposition of a timely motion for rehearing, and Guerin is recent enough that its rehearing window may only just have closed. Anyone relying on either in a live matter should confirm its current status.

Note also what our review of the year did not find: no verifiable Eleventh Circuit or Florida federal decision on Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claims against unit owners in this window, and no Florida Supreme Court merits opinion on any association issue at all.