The Daily Business Review has announced its 2022 Legal Awards Honorees and Sachs Sax Caplan Partner Daniel A. Kaskel was among those who received the prestigious award. The Daily Business Review hosts their annual Professional Excellence Awards to recognize distinguished members of the Florida legal community in assorted areas of the law. Mr. Kaskel is being recognized in the Real Estate Transactions Category. Daniel Kaskel is the Chair of the firm’s Real Estate, Corporate, Land Use & Financial Services Group and a member of the Community Associations Practice Group. Mr. Kaskel is among Florida’s handful of double Board Certified attorneys by the Florida Bar, holding certifications in Real Estate Law and Condominium & Planned Development Law. Dan Kaskel practices in the areas of real estate acquisition and development, real estate financing, condominium and homeowner association formation and operation, real estate and commercial lending, retail and office leasing, zoning issues and title insurance matters. He has represented real estate developers and investors in virtually all phases of project financing and development throughout the United States, including bulk acquisition of condominium units, management of distressed properties, development/acquisition/ financing of mixed used communities, shopping centers, residential high rise projects, office parks, assisted living facilities, single family home communities, multi-tiered condominium and townhome communities. He has assisted clients in creating planned unit developments, master property owners associations, and community development districts. He has also represented clients in the structuring and formation of corporate entities and joint venture arrangements. Mr. Kaskel has significant experience in representing borrowers and lenders in connection with commercial loan transactions, including loan work-outs and restructuring. Loans have including construction financing, acquisition and development loans, bridge financing, permanent financing and mezzanine financing. Additionally, he has represented regional and national landlords and tenants in drafting, negotiating and modifying commercial leases throughout the United States. Mr. Kaskel frequently represents out-of-state and foreign purchasers and borrowers in connection with Florida transactions and title insurance matters. Mr. Kaskel has represented national telecommunication carriers, property owners and municipalities in connection with drafting and negotiating telecommunications leases and counseling on zoning matters relating to telecommunication uses. Previously, Mr....

As a Community Association attorney, one of the unintended benefits that we've seen through COVID is the ability for people to participate in their community associations remotely. Typically, one of the impediments that community associations have historically faced is apathy. There are always those folks who don't show up, therefore you can't get anything done simply due to a lack of participation. However, through COVID, once everything went remote, including association operations, people started to participate more, which allowed for the opportunity for associations to start proposing a number of important things that could realistically get passed. One of the mechanisms we've seen an uptick in is the use electronic voting resolutions to allow people to participate and vote in an electronic fashion. Again, this removes some of the apathy because there's no longer the need to show up at a meeting at a certain time to cast a vote. People can do it at their leisure in advance. Overall, as community association lawyers, we've found that participation as a whole through COVID, and now turning the corner post COVID, has seen a significant uptick and is finally allowing associations to actually get meaningful work done that before this, they just simply were unable to do. Having Trouble Engaging Homeowners in Your Community Association? Check out these helpful tips from community association management giant, GrandManors:   1. Welcome New Homeowners. A welcome package from the community association should include a letter of welcome that you or another HOA board member has signed, information about how they can get involved in the HOA, and a small gift. The gift should have a connection to your community, such as a gift card to a nearby coffee shop, a refrigerator magnet with key community information, or a coffee mug with the HOA logo.   2. Organize Social Events. Consistently, studies have shown most Americans don't know their neighbors. Your homeowners have more motivation to get involved if they're at least acquainted with their neighbors. Your association can foster social connections by hosting at least one community-wide social event each year. Some associations throw a holiday party or a summer picnic....

As community association attorneys, one of the problems we face quite often with our association clients is how to prevent violations of the governing documents and rules of the communities. How do we prevent the homeowner from painting their house pink? How do we prevent people from hanging towels outside on the common element rails and doing other things that really are violations of the rules and regulations and the governing documents? And what a lot of board members and managers don't realize is that associations are sort of mini-democracies. What does that mean, exactly? There's a certain level of “due process” that associations must follow if they're going to fine somebody or if they're going to suspend somebody’s right to use the pool, or their right to use the tennis court. And one of the things that's common among both the Condominium Act and the Homeowners Association Act, is the fact that an association must establish a committee of non-board member owners who will hear complaints that the board has imposed regarding violations of the governing documents. This group serves as an independent body that decides whether they're going to uphold or approve the board's actions and decisions in relation to imposing fines and suspensions. Furthermore, both Acts require that the owner who was in violation and subject to a board-levied fine or suspension be provided with at least 14 days’ notice as well as the opportunity to be heard before this committee to present their case. This gives the person in violation a chance to present their opinion and present their evidence of why they think that the fine and the suspension should not be imposed. Only then, when it's all said and done, can the committee ultimately decide whether to approve or reject the fine or suspension. What we often face as association lawyers are situations where perhaps that procedure wasn't followed, where a board or managers just decided that this person violated the governing documents, and the violating party all of a sudden has a $1,000 fine on their account. When they come to us to try...