New laws directly affect Property Managers

Do you know ….?
Under §718.111 of the Condominium Act, as amended and effective on July 1, 2017:
1) the new law expressly prohibits any officer, director or manager from receiving a “kickback”. Previously, the law prohibited such persons from accepting anything or service of value without consideration other than services or items received in connection with trade fairs or education programs. A kickback is already the subject to a civil penalty but under the ...

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Unpaid assessments of previous owner are not always owed by the foreclosure buyer

In January, 2017, my client received title to a house he bought in December at a mortgage foreclosure sale. The mortgage had been recorded in 2005. Soon after, the homeowners association (HOA) demanded more than $19,000 from my client that it claimed was owed because the prior owner who was foreclosed did not pay assessments for years and the law passed in 2007 states that a buyer, including a purchaser at a foreclosure sale, is jointly and severally liable with ...

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Lien stripping in Chapter 7 eliminated by Supreme Court

An important decision was announced on June 1, 2015 by the United States Supreme Court.   In a unanimous decision arising from two cases in Florida, the Court ruled in Bank of America v. Caulkett that a person who files a Petition for Bankruptcy under Chapter 7 may not cancel a junior lien when the amount owed on the senior lien exceeds the value of the property.  The only condition is that the senior lien must be a secured and allowed ...

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When does a tenant need to vacate the property after a home mortgage is foreclosed?

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For several years during the foreclosure crisis, a federal law gave tenants under a bona fide lease of a federally-related mortgage loan the right to stay in the property for at least 90 days following the mortgage foreclosure.   That law expired on December 31, 2014.

In 2015, Florida Legislature enacted Section 83.561 which became effective June 2, 2015. Under that law, a purchaser ...

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Property Managers Must Help Their Condominium Collection Attorneys

The following is an actual case which shows how a manager’s failure to make one phone call to the Association’s attorney ended up costing her Association thousands of dollars in attorney fees.

A unit owner lived alone and traveled for business reasons every month, often for weeks at a time. To avoid accumulating mail in her mailbox, she told the manager (and others) to use her local business office as her mailing address for all association business, but the manager did ...

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Withholding maintenance dues is not a good idea

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Condominium associations are not-for-profit corporations whose members elect directors to manage and operate their business affairs. In the course of such business operations, they incur expenses in the name of the association for various goods and services, such as building and landscaping maintenance and repairs, insurance, water and electric services, management fees, professional fees, and every other item that makes up a ...

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