A buyer looking at two towers a few blocks apart on Las Olas usually assumes they're choosing between finishes, floor plans, and views. Same era of construction, same glass-and-concrete language, same walk to the boutiques and restaurants along the boulevard. What that buyer often doesn't realize until well into a contract is that each building operates under its own declaration of condominium, and those declarations can disagree on something as basic as how many pets you can keep or how soon you can rent the place out.
This isn't a hypothetical. Public sources on Las Olas buildings frequently contradict each other on exactly these points, which means a buyer relying on a listing sheet or a building's own marketing page is working from information that may not match the governing documents at all.
The Assumption That Doesn't Hold
Waverly at Las Olas, built in 2004 with 305 units across two towers, allows three pets per unit with no size restriction on large breeds. Owners can lease their units, but only for a minimum of seven months, or 210 days, and no more than twice a year. A few blocks away on the New River, Las Olas River House, also completed in 2004 with 287 units across 42 floors, cuts that minimum by more than half: association policy sets the rental floor at 90 days, less than half of what Waverly requires.
Neither of those numbers is a typo. They're two separate condominium associations making two separate decisions about how their buildings function, decisions that live in the declaration and bylaws rather than in anything a real estate portal displays by default.
Where the Numbers Actually Stop Agreeing
The disagreement gets more interesting once you look at buildings where public sources can't even settle on one answer. The Symphony, a 338-unit, 22-story building completed in 2005 along the New River, shows up in one public description with a firm restriction: no rentals during the first year of ownership, then a maximum of two leases per year with a 30-day minimum. Another public description of the same building calls it a liberal rental policy that permits leasing after only 30 days of ownership, with no first-year restriction mentioned at all.
That's not a minor rounding difference. One version tells an investor buyer they're locked out of rental income for a full year. The other tells them they can start leasing almost immediately. A buyer who takes either version at face value without confirming it against the actual condo documents is making a financial assumption based on a coin flip.
350 Las Olas Place, a 30-story building with 163 units, is arguably worse. Public sources describe its minimum lease term as anywhere from 90 days to six months, with other references landing on four months or five to six months, all while agreeing owners can lease no more than twice a year. Four different numbers for the same rule at the same building is not a data quality footnote. It's the entire reason a buyer needs the primary document, not a summary of it.
Here's how the four buildings compare on what's publicly documented:
| Building | Built | Units | Pets (per association) | Minimum lease | Leases per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waverly at Las Olas | 2004 | 305 | 3 pets, large breeds accepted | 7 months, 210 days | 2 |
| Las Olas River House | 2004 | 287 | Not specified in public association summaries | 90 days | Not specified |
| The Symphony | 2005 | 338 | Not specified in public association summaries | 30 days (sources disagree on first-year restriction) | 2 |
| 350 Las Olas Place | 2005 | 163 | Not specified in public association summaries | Sources range from 90 days to 6 months | 2 |
The pattern across every row is the same. These aren't cosmetic differences between similarly priced towers. They're structural differences in what a buyer can actually do with the unit after closing, and they only surface when someone goes past the listing description to the association's own paperwork.
Why the Listing Sheet Isn't the Source Document
A listing agent's summary, a building's own marketing site, and a rental aggregator are all downstream of the real rule book. The actual source is the declaration of condominium, the articles of incorporation, the bylaws, and the association's current rules, along with the most recent year-end financial report and a frequently-asked-questions document the association is required to keep current. None of that lives on a marketing page. It lives in the paper trail the association maintains and is legally required to hand over to a resale buyer who asks for it in writing.
The confusion compounds further down the chain. One rental listing for a unit inside Las Olas River House, posted on a national apartment platform, advertises that the unit does not allow pets, full stop. That's very likely a single owner's lease term for their own unit, not a rule the association imposes building-wide, since nothing in the association's own rental minimum, the 90-day figure cited above, says anything about pets at all. A buyer reading that listing and assuming it describes the building is confusing one landlord's preference with the association's actual governing rule, which is exactly the kind of mixing that happens when the paper trail runs through marketing pages instead of the declaration itself.
That last part matters more than it sounds like it should. Florida law doesn't require a resale seller to hand over these documents on a set timeline. It requires them once the buyer requests them in writing, which puts the burden on the buyer's side of the transaction to actually make the request rather than assume the paperwork will show up.
The Window Florida Law Actually Gives You
This is where a change to Florida condominium law becomes directly useful to anyone shopping Las Olas right now. Under Section 718.503 of the Florida Statutes, a buyer in a resale condominium transaction has a statutory right to cancel the contract after signing, once they've received the required governing documents. That right used to run for three business days. As of contracts signed on or after July 1, 2025, it runs for seven business days, a change made under House Bill 913.
Seven business days, not seven calendar days, and the clock only starts once the buyer has actually received the full document package. If a seller is slow to produce the declaration or the financial report, the review window doesn't start ticking until everything requested has arrived. That's the leverage point. A buyer who requests these documents the day they sign has a genuine week to read the actual pet and rental rules, not a marketing description of them, before the right to walk away expires.
House Bill 1021, which took effect largely on July 1, 2024, added to what sellers must disclose. Where applicable, the package now includes a summary of the building's milestone inspection report and the current status of its Structural Integrity Reserve Study. None of the four buildings compared here are yet old enough to trigger a mandatory milestone inspection under the statewide age thresholds, but the disclosure requirement is a useful reminder that Las Olas condo due diligence isn't only about pets and leases. It's part of a broader documentation habit worth building regardless of which tower is under contract.
What to Request Before the Clock Starts
Before signing anything, a Las Olas buyer should put a written request in for the same package the statute already entitles them to:
- The declaration of condominium and all recorded amendments
- Articles of incorporation and current bylaws
- The association's current rules, including pet and leasing restrictions
- The most recent annual financial report and budget
- The frequently-asked-questions document the association is required to maintain
- A summary of the milestone inspection report and current SIRS status, if applicable to the building
Requesting all six in writing on day one accomplishes two things. It starts the seven-business-day rescission clock as early as possible, and it puts the actual governing rules in front of the buyer instead of a secondhand description of them.
What This Means for a Two-Tower Comparison
For a buyer comparing Waverly against Las Olas River House, or weighing the Symphony against 350 Las Olas Place, the honest answer to "which building is better" depends entirely on what the buyer plans to do with the unit. A seven-month minimum lease at Waverly makes sense for someone who wants a long-term tenant and doesn't mind fewer turnovers. A 90-day minimum at Las Olas River House opens the door to seasonal rental income that Waverly's rules don't allow. Neither is objectively superior. They're simply different tools, and the only way to know which tool you're picking up is to read the declaration rather than the brochure.
That's the real thesis worth carrying out of this comparison. Las Olas towers built within a year or two of each other, priced similarly, marketed with nearly identical language, can still bind an owner to meaningfully different rental terms, and at Waverly, to a pet policy none of the other three buildings publish anywhere. The listing sheet won't tell you which one you're getting. The condo documents will, and Florida law now gives you a full business week to read them after you've asked for them, not three days.
A Few Questions Worth Settling Early
Does the seven-business-day rescission right apply to every Las Olas condo purchase? It applies to non-developer resale transactions under contracts signed on or after July 1, 2025. New construction purchases from a developer follow a different rule, generally a 15-day window tied to signing and receipt of the developer's disclosure package.
What happens if the seller is slow to produce the documents? The rescission window doesn't start until the buyer has received everything requested in writing. A slow seller extends the buyer's runway rather than shortening it.
Can an association's rental or pet rules change after I close? Associations can amend their declarations and rules through their own governance process. That's one more reason to review the most recent version of the documents rather than relying on an older summary found online.
If you're weighing two Las Olas towers and want a second set of eyes on what the actual condo documents say before you're inside a seven-day clock, Roman Tschannen works this corridor building by building. Request a private consultation before you sign, not after.
