When a cooperative member dies, the board's first instinct is usually to look up the rule in the statute. There is no rule. Chapter 719 does not address death, succession, personal representatives, heirs, devisees or estate administration at any point. What fills the gap is the proprietary lease and bylaws, the Florida Probate Code, and a homestead question that Florida law has left genuinely unresolved for cooperatives. The board's job is to keep the unit current and the process documented while the estate works.
What passes, and why it is two things
A cooperative member holds a cooperative parcel: the shares or other evidence of ownership in the association, together with the lease or other muniment of title or possession to the unit. § 719.103(14). A unit owner is the person holding both. § 719.103(27). At death, both legs pass into the estate, and both have to end up in the same hands at the end of the administration or the resulting owner is not a unit owner at all.
That matters for the transfer clause. Many proprietary leases and bylaws condition association approval on a "sale" or a "conveyance," language that does not obviously reach a transfer by will or by intestacy. Others use "transfer" and expressly carve out or expressly include transfers on death. Read the clause before telling a personal representative that the association must approve the devisee, because if the clause does not reach the transaction, the board has no approval power over it and saying otherwise creates exposure of its own. Our guide to cooperative transfer and purchaser approval covers how far these clauses normally go.
Where the clause does reach a devisee or an heir, the board still applies the same written criteria it applies to any other applicant, and the same fair housing limits apply. What the board cannot do is apply a stricter standard because the applicant inherited rather than bought.
Watch also for how the shares are titled. A membership held jointly with right of survivorship, or by a trustee under a revocable trust, or subject to a transfer-on-death designation the documents permit, may pass outside probate entirely. The certificate and the association's own roster, which § 719.104(2)(a)5. requires the association to maintain, are the first two documents to pull.
Who the board deals with during administration
Until letters of administration issue, nobody has authority to act for the estate. A surviving spouse, an adult child, or a neighbor holding a key is not the association's counterparty, however helpful they are being. Once a personal representative is appointed, that person acts for the estate and is the party the association corresponds with.
- Ask for a copy of the letters of administration, not just a death certificate. The letters are the proof of authority.
- Get a mailing address for the personal representative and the name of the estate's counsel, and record both in the association's roster and files.
- Send assessment invoices and every statutory notice to the personal representative at that address from then on.
- Do not release the unit, keys, or access to anyone who has not shown authority, and document who has access and when.
- If the association receives a formal notice of administration or a creditor notice, route it to counsel the day it arrives. Claim deadlines in probate are short and unforgiving.
Where no probate has been opened and nobody comes forward, the association is in a harder position. The practical answer is usually a collection action once the delinquency justifies it, which forces someone to appear, or a petition by the association itself. That is counsel's call, not the board's.
Occupancy while the estate is open
Probate can run for many months. Somebody is often living in the unit during that time, and the board has to decide what that occupancy is.
- A surviving co-owner who was already a member continues as a member. Nothing changes.
- A surviving spouse or family member who was an approved occupant under the documents generally continues in that status, subject to whatever the documents say.
- Someone moving in after the death is a new occupant. If the documents require approval of occupants, the estate has to seek it, and the board evaluates it under its normal criteria.
- A tenant under an existing sublease continues under that sublease. Section 719.105(3) continues to give the tenant the use rights in association property.
- The personal representative renting the unit to produce income is a sublease, and it requires whatever approval the documents require for any other sublease.
The common error is to treat a post-death occupancy as temporary and therefore outside the rules. It is not. The clearest course is a short written exchange with the personal representative confirming who is in the unit, on what basis, and for how long, and confirming that the community rules continue to apply. If the situation drifts, the association's enforcement authority under § 719.303(1) reaches occupants and invitees as well as owners.
Assessments keep running
Death does not suspend the obligation to pay. Section 719.108(1) makes a unit owner, regardless of how title is acquired and including a purchaser at a judicial sale, liable for all rents and assessments coming due while that owner is in exclusive possession. On a voluntary transfer, the new owner is jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for the previous owner's unpaid share up to the time of transfer.
Two consequences follow. Amounts that accrued before the death are a claim against the estate and should be presented in the probate as counsel directs. Amounts accruing after the death continue to be the unit's obligation, and they follow the parcel to whoever ends up with it.
Run the ordinary collection process on the ordinary timetable, addressed to the personal representative. Section 719.108(3) sets the default interest rate at 18 percent per annum where the documents are silent, allows an administrative late fee of the greater of $25 or 5 percent of each delinquent installment where the documents provide for one, and requires that payments be applied first to interest, then to the late fee, then to costs and reasonable attorney fees, and last to the delinquent assessment. Before the association may require payment of attorney fees related to a past due assessment it must deliver a written notice of late assessment giving 30 days to pay without fees. A lien may not be filed until 45 days after a notice of intent to record a claim of lien has been delivered.
Boards sometimes hold off on all of this out of sympathy, and then find that eight months of arrears accrued while nobody did anything. Waiving late fees is a decision the board can make and document. Not sending the statutory notices is not. See maintenance fee collection for the sequence.
One more item the estate's counsel will ask for: an estoppel certificate. Under § 719.108(6) the association must issue one within 10 business days of a written or electronic request from a unit owner or a mortgagee, or their designees, and the fee is capped. Treat the request as a deadline on the calendar, because the certificate is usually on the critical path to closing the estate's sale.
The homestead question, and why it is not settled
Florida homestead does three separate things: it exempts the home from most creditors under Article X, section 4 of the Florida Constitution; it restricts how the home may be devised when there is a surviving spouse or minor child; and it supports an ad valorem tax exemption. Whether a cooperative unit is homestead has never been clean.
For property tax purposes it is settled and favorable: § 196.031 extends the homestead exemption to a tenant-stockholder or member of a cooperative corporation who is entitled by reason of stock ownership or membership to occupy an apartment, where that interest is evidenced in the records of the clerk of the circuit court.
For constitutional homestead the history is messier. In In re Estate of Wartels, 357 So. 2d 708 (Fla. 1978), the Florida Supreme Court held that a cooperative apartment did not qualify as homestead, on the reasoning that the interest was not an interest in realty. The Third District followed Wartels in later cases while questioning whether it still made sense, and a conflict developed with the Second District's treatment of condominiums.
Then the Legislature moved. Chapter 2021-91, the 2021 cooperative and condominium bill, amended the definition of "unit" in Chapter 719 to add the sentence that now appears at § 719.103(26): "An interest in a unit is an interest in real property." Practitioners read that as removing the premise Wartels rested on. That is a reasonable reading. It is not a holding, and we are not aware of a Florida appellate decision since 2021 squarely deciding whether a cooperative unit is now constitutional homestead.
The practical posture for a board is narrow and safe: keep collecting, keep the records, respond to the personal representative, and take no position on whether the unit is homestead or on who is entitled to it.
A working checklist for the board
- Record the date of death and the source of the information in the file, and stop sending correspondence addressed to the decedent.
- Pull the membership certificate, the proprietary lease, the roster entry and the transfer clause. Determine how the shares are titled and whether the clause reaches a transfer on death.
- Request the letters of administration and the personal representative's address and counsel.
- Continue billing and continue the collection sequence on schedule, addressed to the personal representative.
- Confirm in writing who is occupying the unit, on what basis, and that the rules continue to apply.
- Route any probate notice, creditor claim question or homestead question to association counsel immediately.
- Calendar the estoppel certificate deadline the moment a request comes in.
- When a devisee or purchaser applies, run the ordinary approval process on the ordinary criteria, and keep the application file out of the general official records under § 719.104(2)(c)2.
None of this requires the board to become an expert in probate. It requires the board to identify who has authority, keep the money moving, and stop short of deciding questions that belong to the court. Where the estate has stalled and the arrears are growing, the association's lien and foreclosure remedies under §§ 719.108(4) and (5) remain available, and our guide to cooperative liens and remedies sets out how they work. Also confirm early whether the parcel secures a share loan, because the lender's recognition agreement may give it notice and cure rights that change the sequence; see share loans and recognition agreements.
Frequently Asked Questions About Cooperative Succession and Estates
Can we require the deceased member's children to apply for approval?
Only if your documents say so. Chapter 719 does not address transfers on death at all, and a transfer clause written around a "sale" may not reach a devise or an intestate succession. Read the clause first. Where it does reach the transfer, apply the same written criteria you apply to any other applicant, with the same fair housing limits.
Do assessments stop when the member dies?
No. Section 719.108(1) makes the owner liable for rents and assessments coming due while in exclusive possession, and on a voluntary transfer the new owner is jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for amounts unpaid up to the transfer. Bill the personal representative, keep the collection sequence on schedule, and present pre-death amounts in the probate as counsel directs.
Who do we deal with before a personal representative is appointed?
Nobody with authority. Keep billing to the unit, do not release keys or access to anyone who has not shown authority, and ask for the letters of administration rather than just a death certificate. If no probate is opened and the arrears grow, the collection process itself usually forces someone to appear.
Can a family member live in the unit while the estate is open?
It depends on your occupancy provisions. A person already approved as an occupant generally continues. Someone moving in after the death is a new occupant and needs whatever approval the documents require. Get the arrangement in writing with the personal representative, including who is in the unit and that the rules continue to apply.
Is a Florida cooperative unit homestead property?
For the property tax exemption, yes: § 196.031 reaches a tenant-stockholder or member of a cooperative corporation. For constitutional homestead, it is unsettled. In re Estate of Wartels held in 1978 that a cooperative was not homestead, and the Legislature amended § 719.103(26) in 2021 to say an interest in a unit is an interest in real property. No board should decide this question.
How fast do we have to issue an estoppel certificate to the estate?
Within 10 business days after receiving a written or electronic request from a unit owner or a mortgagee, or their designee, under § 719.108(6). The fee is capped by statute, and the certificate is usually on the critical path to closing the estate's sale, so put the deadline on the calendar the day the request arrives.
Contact Hamilton Mikes
Hamilton Mikes advises cooperative boards on transfers after a member's death, coordinates with estate counsel, and handles collection and lien work against units caught in a stalled administration. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Governing Documents page.
Statutes and authorities referenced
- § 719.103(14), (26), (27), Fla. Stat. (cooperative parcel; a unit interest is an interest in real property; unit owner)
- § 719.104(2)(a)5., Fla. Stat. (current roster of unit owners and mailing addresses)
- § 719.104(2)(c)2., Fla. Stat. (transfer approval information not accessible to members)
- § 719.105(3), Fla. Stat. (tenant's use rights during a lease)
- § 719.106(1)(i), Fla. Stat. (transfer approval fee cap)
- § 719.108(1), Fla. Stat. (liability for rents and assessments; joint and several liability on voluntary transfer)
- § 719.108(3), Fla. Stat. (interest, late fee, application of payments, notice of late assessment)
- § 719.108(4), (5), Fla. Stat. (claim of lien and 45-day notice of intent; foreclosure like a mortgage)
- § 719.108(6), Fla. Stat. (estoppel certificate; 10 business days)
- § 719.303(1), Fla. Stat. (compliance by owners, tenants and invitees; damages and injunctive relief)
- § 196.031, Fla. Stat. (homestead tax exemption; tenant-stockholder or member of a cooperative corporation)
- Art. X, § 4, Fla. Const. (homestead exemption and devise restrictions)
- Chapters 732 and 733, Fla. Stat. (intestate succession and devise; probate administration)
- Ch. 2021-91, Laws of Fla. (SB 630; amendment to the definition of "unit" in Ch. 719)
- In re Estate of Wartels, 357 So. 2d 708 (Fla. 1978)