Florida Condominium Law
Condominium Associations Win Battle
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Langer entered an order for sanctions against a lender, Chase Home Finance, for each day it delays in moving a foreclosure case forward. Lenders have in some instances taken their time in concluding foreclosure cases involving condominium properties. The apparent motivation for not concluding the foreclosure process is to avoid payment of condominium association maintenance fees.
In this particular case, the foreclosure was unopposed and the lender obtained the final judgment in June but as of December still had not moved forward to take title to the property. As it is, South Florida condominium associations have had their income slashed severely by the real estate crash when owners defaulted on their loans and refused to pay association fees. The lenders have prolonged the financial crisis of condominium associations by not taking over the properties in a timely basis. The only question at this time is whether other Judges will follow Judge Langer’s lead or whether this initiative will in fact influence other lenders to move diligently to take title to foreclosed properties.
