Courtyards of Cape Coral South

The Courtyards of Cape Coral South is built in three phases, and almost everyone assumes that means three associations and three fee schedules. It doesn’t. One recorded declaration, one corporation, one fee, identical across all 132 units. I’m Brenton Miebach, a REALTOR® here in Cape Coral, and this is my working file: what it costs per the approved budget, why insurance drives that number, and the leasing and pet rules that decide whether it fits an investor’s plan. Every figure below is a dated fact about a named document, verify current numbers with the association before you write an offer.

Do the three phases at Courtyards of Cape Coral South have different fees?

No. The marketing and the legal descriptions do read as three phases, but all three are governed by a single recorded declaration at Lee County Official Records Book 1551, Page 1255, administered by one active corporation, The Courtyards of Cape Coral South Condominium Association, Inc. Every parcel in all three phases recites that same book and page. There is no master association and no sub-association layer, only one assessment line is ever populated.

Phase	Units	Built	Where
Phase I	32	1982	SW Courtyards Ter, 1410–1428 SW 50th St
Phase II	48	1986	SW 51st Ln (1413–1417)
Phase III	52	1986	SW 51st Ln (1425–1433), SW Courtyards Ln, SW 15th Pl
Total	132 plus one common-element parcel

So a page breaking Courtyards South into a three-column phase fee table is describing a structure that does not exist. The fee is identical in Phase I, Phase II and Phase III in every year I’ve observed.

Is this the same as Courtyards of Cape Coral?

Two active Florida corporations carry near-identical names, both Cape Coral condominiums of similar size, so any fee sourced by name alone is a coin flip. Discriminate by ZIP or by the recorded book and page.

	This community	The other one
Legal name	The Courtyards of Cape Coral South Condominium Association, Inc.	The Courtyards of Cape Coral Condominium Association, Inc.
Recorded declaration	OR Book 1551, Page 1255	OR Book 1394, Page 905
ZIP	33914, southwest Cape Coral	33990, southeast Cape Coral
Parcels	133	141

What is the condo fee at Courtyards of Cape Coral South?

$524.00 per month, $6,288 a year, per the association’s approved 2025 budget, which sets residential assessments at $830,014.00 across the community’s 132 units. Fees are adopted annually, so confirm the current figure with the association or by estoppel. I have not read the 2026 approved budget, so I’m not publishing a 2026 number here; if you need today’s assessment for a contract, the estoppel certificate is the answer.

What makes this unusual is that the fee is flat, not share-based. Units of 953, 1,019, 1,261 and 1,422 square feet all carry the identical assessment, the budget divides evenly across 132 units. In most Cape Coral condominiums I’d tell you a single number is misleading. Here it genuinely is the answer, and hedging with “varies by unit” would be less accurate, not more careful.

At closing, the application fee is $150, consistent across every record I reviewed, still worth confirming by estoppel. Transfer fees I won’t publish: the records disagree, and on a single-association community there is exactly one right answer, so take it from the estoppel certificate, which by statute must state any transfer fee. No capital contribution appears in the budget’s income lines, and no special assessment appears in the 2025 approved budget, given the insurance load below, re-confirm that rather than assume it.

Why are the fees at Courtyards of Cape Coral South so high?

Insurance, and the budget says so plainly. Of the $830,014 assessed in the 2025 approved budget, $500,000 is insurance, 60.2 cents of every dollar. That splits into $200,000 in property premiums and $300,000 in flood premiums, about $3,787.88 per unit per year for insurance alone. I have not found a more honest single-line answer to “why do the fees keep going up,” and no aggregator carries it.

The rest: reserves at $80,000 a year through the operating budget, $606.06 per unit per year, about $50.51 a month, 9.6% of the total, with the separate reserve department showing $0.00, so that $80,000 is the whole of it. Then landscaping $80,750; utilities $58,790; professional services $40,412; repair and maintenance $36,500; contracted services $14,900. The budget balances to $0.00 net income, assessments set exactly to expense.

Ask about reserve adequacy, 9.6% to reserves against 60% to insurance is a real tension, and you want the reserve balance, not just the annual contribution. Ask about a structural integrity reserve study too; I have not obtained one, and these are one- and two-story attached buildings from 1982 and 1986, which bears on whether the statute requires one, so I won’t assert it either way.

Can you rent out a condo at Courtyards of Cape Coral South?

Yes, but restrictively enough to decide the question for most investors. These come from the association’s rules and regulations adopted November 29, 2021, which cite Section 11 of the declaration as their authority.

• Sixty (60) day minimum lease, and no more than two lease terms per calendar year. Confirmed word-for-word in the recorded declaration itself, §11.2: “The minimum lease or rental term is sixty (60) days. No unit may be rented or leased more than two (2) times in any calendar year.” The Board may grant a hardship exception, but only with written permission requested and granted before the tenancy starts.
• Thirty (30) days’ notice before the tenancy begins. The owner must apply to the Board (or its designee) in advance, extended from 15 to 30 days by a 2020 amendment, give the tenant the rules, and file the required paperwork. The association’s rules add a $750 fine per incident for non-compliance.
• Tenants may not have pets. Stated twice in the recorded declaration itself, once in the leasing section, once in the pets section, not just in the association’s rules.
• No subleasing. The declaration bars any subleasing or assignment of lease rights by the lessee.
• Occupancy of a leased unit is limited to the lessee and their family within the first degree of relationship, and an owner must notify the property manager if relatives, friends or guests occupy the unit in the owner’s absence.

Run the math before you fall in love with the pro forma: a 60-day floor, a two-term annual cap and no tenant pets is a seasonal-rental profile, not a short-term one. I’ve now read Section 11 of the recorded declaration directly, at Lee County Official Records, specifically the version as amended by a comprehensive February 2020 restatement (Instrument #2020000042303), and the 60-day/two-term rule is identical, word for word, to the original 2003 text. It has never changed. That settles the grandfathering question I’d flagged before: this isn’t a newer board rule limiting only some owners, it’s the same recorded term that has bound every owner since at least 2003.

Are pets allowed at Courtyards of Cape Coral South?

Owner pets are permitted, and I can now give you the actual number: up to three (3) dogs, three (3) cats, or a combination totaling three (3) dogs and cats per unit, with no weight limit. A reasonable number of birds and fish are also allowed without prior written Board approval. This comes straight from the recorded declaration, §10.2, as rewritten by a comprehensive amendment recorded February 18, 2020 (Instrument #2020000042303), which is worth flagging, because the original 2003 declaration capped owners at one small pet, 25 pounds or under. That older, stricter limit was repealed in 2020; if you see “1 pet, 25 lb” reported for this community, it’s out of date.

Pets must be registered with the Association, must not constitute a nuisance, and are subject to city, county and state law plus any additional rules the Board adopts. No free-roaming outside a unit; pets must be carried or kept on a leash outside the unit; no tying an animal up unattended on the grounds or in common areas; waste must be picked up immediately; and the owner is liable for injuries caused by their animal, including one owned by a guest or tenant. Tenants may not have pets at all, the declaration states this directly, not just the association’s rules.

Exterior rules are strict: no painting or change to the exterior appearance without prior written board approval, expressly including screened lanais, radio antennas, satellite dishes, solar panels and skylights. Dishes and antennas specifically must sit on a ground pole mast and may not attach to any exterior surface, with the owner liable for resulting building damage. Commercial vehicles owned and operated by unit owners may not be parked here, and no unit may be subdivided. Confirm the buyer-approval process with the association before you set a closing date.

Amenities are association common elements, community pool, community room, racquetball and shuffleboard, and the budget’s pool-management and pool-supply lines confirm the association operates them. No club corporation, no separate membership: the only non-unit parcel is the common element at 1500 SW Courtyards Ter, owned by the association itself. There is no CDD either. Courtyards South appears on none of Lee County’s independent districts, dependent districts or CDDs.

Thinking about Courtyards of Cape Coral South?

An unusually clean answer to the fee question and an unusually strict one to the rental question, in southwest Cape Coral. I track it document by document, the same way I cover Tarpon Landings and Tarpon Estates, plus parallel files on Porto Vista and Banyan Trace. Send me the unit you’re considering and I’ll pull the association’s current budget and rules before you commit.