Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

owner liable for the driver's negligence. Id. § 723. [3] See also rule 1.061(c), which provides that

...No lot rental amount may be increased during the term of the lot rental agreement, except: (a) When the manner of the increase is disclosed in a lot rental agreement with a term exceeding 12 months and which provides for such increases not more frequently than annually. (b) For pass-through charges as defined in s. 723.003(9)....

...Subsection (3) provides for a meeting between representatives of the park residents and the park owner, to discuss the reasons for the proposed changes. Subsection (4) provides for mediation to resolve disputes. If the parties ultimately agree, subsection (5) provides for arbitration rather than mediation. Section 723.003, Florida Statutes, provides the meaning to be accorded words and terms used in Chapter 723....

...han six (6) feet to the back parcel line." After a brief evidentiary hearing, the circuit court judge placed an oral decision on the record denying relief to the Association. In justifying its ruling, the court cited the definition of mobile home in section 723.003(3), Florida Statutes (2003): The term "mobile home" means a residential structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is 8 body feet or more in width, over 35 body feet in length with the hitch, built on an integral chassis,...

...2d DCA 1962) (holding that setback was enforceable with regard to carport addition). The circuit court attempted to distinguish the porch from the mobile home on the ground that the porch was permanently affixed to the site and because the porch itself was not a mobile home under the statutory definition in section 723.003(3)....

...The sole function of that definition is to demarcate — together with other pertinent provisions of chapter 723 — the type of properties to which the protections *439 of the Mobile Home Act are applicable. The definition has no application outside the context of chapter 723. See § 723.003 ("Definitions — As used in this chapter, the following words and terms have the following meanings....") (emphasis supplied)....

...COBB and GRIFFIN, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] An ad valorem tax is a tax upon the value of the article or thing subject to taxation. Black's Law Dictionary 51 (6th ed.1990). [2] A similar, but slightly different definition of the term "mobile home" can be found in section 723.003(3), Florida Statutes (1996)....

...Within thirty days after the meeting described in subsection (4), the homeowners may petition the Division of Florida Land Sales, Condominiums and Mobile Homes of the Department of Business Regulation (Division) to initiate mediation of the dispute. § 723.037(5). See § 723.003(1), Fla.Stat....

...Estates Homeowners Association, Inc. (the "Association") have contested the lot rental amount charged by Naples Estates Limited Partnership ("Owner") and have refused to pay a portion of each Participating Homeowner's monthly lot rental amount as defined in Section 723.003(2), Florida Statutes....

...r than payment, and the park owner is entitled to an immediate default. Appellees claim that the assessment of the impact and construction fees are not “rent”. The lease includes “other governmental costs” as “additional rent”, and while section 723.003(10) includes such charges as “pass through charges”, under section 723.037(1) such pass through charges are treated as increases in the “lot rental amount”....

association and the action could not be brought under section 723. 3. That a class action was improper because the

...501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code to be used by such recipient organization's charitable, civic, community, benevolent, religious, or scholastic works or similar activities or, alternatively, to be used as specified in subsection (3). 3 The term "mobile home park" is defined by section 723.003 (6), Florida Statutes, to mean a use of land in which lots or spaces are offered for rent or lease for the placement of mobile homes and in which the primary use of the park is residential. The term "mobile home" is defined by section 723.003 (3), Florida Statutes, to expressly exclude structures originally sold as a recreational vehicle....

...and Carolyn Bearden, as former owners of Alligator Park, a mobile home park, were *3 entitled to recover from appellee, Homeowners of Alligator Park, Inc., costs of improvements to the Park’s sewage facilities as “pass-through charges” pursuant to section 723.003(10), Florida Statutes (1991)....

...Appel-lee is the Park’s homeowners association (and the class representatives of the homeowners) in this action. The trial court found that appellants were not entitled to recover the disputed costs of improvement to the sewage system as “pass-through charges” pursuant to section 723.003(10) because the improvements were not demonstrated to be governmentally mandated capital improvements as required by the statute....

inconsistent with the purpose of the chapter, section, § 723.003(10), Florida Statutes (1985) — a lesser burden