Astroturf Your Backyard? The New Florida Law May Not Protect You

One of the most iconic characters on television is Tool Time Tim’s neighbor Wilson. His sage advice usually guided Tim to make the right decision. While you never saw Wilson’s full face, he was always looking over the fence to talk to Tim.

Imagine one day Wilson looks over the fence to see that Tim, who certainly likes to build, has decided his backyard should be covered with Astroturf and changed into a miniature golf course.

While usually friendly to Tim, he certainly doesn’t like the thought of looking at a Putt Putt course when he talks to Tim.

In their neighborhood covenants, there is a prohibition on artificial grass, so Wilson complains to his board, filing a formal complaint against Tim.

Under a Florida law passed during the 2023 Legislative Session, it would appear that Tim has every right to keep the Putt Putt course.

Here’s the specific language of Florida Statute 720.3045.

Installation, display, and storage of items.—Regardless of any covenants, restrictions, bylaws, rules, or requirements of an association, and unless prohibited by general law or local ordinance, an association may not restrict parcel owners or their tenants from installing, displaying, or storing any items on a parcel which are not visible from the parcel’s frontage or an adjacent parcel, including, but not limited to, artificial turf, boats, flags, and recreational vehicles.

Sounds like an open-and-shut case, right? Tim gets to keep his golf course because it’s not visible without intentionally looking over the fence – like Wilson does every day.

Well, not so fast.

There are many other factors that come into play with this decision and many of them will need to be tested in court before any certainty can come for Tim and Wilson.

The Orlando Law Group has a significant focus on providing homeowner’s associations with all types of legal advice, including interpreting new statutes.

It’s in the Constitution!

While we’re sure that George Washington didn’t have an HOA contract covering Mount Vernon, Washington and the other founders did understand contracts and wrote language into the U.S. Constitution in Article 1, Section 10 that explicitly said the government cannot write a law that breaks a contract – the Contracts Clause.

Read more.