There are some very good reasons why community associations prohibit residents and their guests from feeding wildlife. Crocodiles, crocodiles, birds, iguanas, snakes, raccoons, possums, stray cats and other animals exist more than just nuisance and inconvenience. They can create dangerous, unsanitary and destructive conditions and have costly impacts.
The best approach for the community is to ban all types of feeding. The majority of the association’s members comply with such prohibitions, but some refuse to comply.
If reasonable enforcement measures do not work, apartment and homeowners associations can resort to legal action to enforce animal feeding.
The Boca Terrace Mansion, which seemed to have seemed like that, has been trying to force unit owners to stop supplying ducks and other wildlife since June 2019. Her wildlife feeding violated community governance bylaws and she had to stop.
That notice and subsequent enforcement action failed to halt feeding, and the association filed an arbitration petition with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) in October 2019 to enforce the ban.
Bleke responded to the arbitration by showing that by the end of November 2019 it had stopped feeding ducks and other animals, but that was not the case. In January 2020, the association submitted an affidavit from the president and manager indicating that feeding was ongoing.
Since Bleke did not appear at subsequent arbitration hearings, in June 2020, the state agency concluded that there was substantial evidence of violating community governance bylaws. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation said she must stop feeding all and determined in November 2020 that she must pay the association’s attorneys’ fees and related costs of approximately $2,000.
It should end the entire episode, but it wasn’t. By March 2022, the director sued Breke and sought an injunction to enforce an arbitration order.
In October 2022, both parties calmed down. The settlement agreement provided that she granted all claims against her and agreed that if the association continues to feed, she is entitled to an injunction and all additional legal fees.
Again, this contract was not sufficient to force Breke to stop feeding.
On January 14, 2025, the association filed a second lawsuit on suspicion of breach of contract. The second lawsuit calls for an injunction that forces her to stop feeding, pay the association’s legal fees and allow further relief that the court deems fair.
The case is reminiscent of a 2020 ruling in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. This culminated with homeowners who agreed to pay $53,000 to settle the lawsuit by the Ibis Golf and Country Club and stopped feeding vultures, crocodiles and other wildlife.
In that case, homeowner Irma Acosta Arya has been attracting herds of vultures and raccoons, alligators and bobcats since 2016.
Animals vomit and defecate throughout the community and across adjacent facilities. The judge found that Aliya was emptied the court after the association presented a photograph that allegedly showed continued feeding of the animals.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Board, using a night vision camera, took images of nocturnal feeding of alligators and fined them from state law enforcement.
In such cases, the association must use its own enforcement mechanism, just like law enforcement agencies. If their efforts and the FWC’s efforts prove fruitless, they should immediately apply for arbitration with the Ministry of Business and Professional Regulation.
They should also consider filing a lawsuit attempting to force the owner to stop feeding them and pay the association’s legal fees. Otherwise, feeding can be very problematic, such as the possibility of exposing it to legal liabilities, as these cases seem to demonstrate.
Michael L. Hyman, along with the law firm of Seafriedribera in South Florida, has focused on community association law since 1970 and is based in the company’s Coral Gables office. He is the author of the second volume, “Florida Condominium Law and Practice,” and is accredited by Florida Bar as a Community Association legal expert. Contact him at mhyman@siegfriedrivera.com and 305-442-3334.
