This week Florida Condo Associations got a big boost from Governor Charlie Crist when he signed a new law favoring the Condo Associations. 
Now, pay attention those of you who live in Condos and are NOT paying your HOA fees and CONDO fees when you stop paying your mortgage, when you have walked away and left the keys on the table and even if you are working on getting a short sale approved!
Condo associations can now go after you for TWICE the amount of delinquent dues owed to them.
They were limited to six (6) months of dues in most cases. Also, the banks don't want to foreclose on Condos because then they will have to keep the units up, pay the dues and take care of maintenance issues and special assessments. Now the banks when they foreclose will have to pay one year's worth of back dues.
The new law also allows Condo Associations and Homeowner Associations to lock you out. That means no more access to your pool or other common-ground amenities.
This law also confirms the ability for the HOA and Condo associations to be able to rent out the condo units to collect the HOA fees without going to court. This will save money from the HOA budgets and expenses. They will be able to take over the units, rent them out and use that money towards the dues that are owed to them.
Another part of the new law is called: "Distressed Condominium Relief Act." This part of the law relieves the Condo Associations from delaying very costly improvements like upgrades to fire alarms, elevators and fire sprinklers.
In Florida the condo market was a hot, hot, buy where people stood in line for hours and sometimes parked overnight to put down a deposit on a unit that was not built. The units then were flipped over and over again, several times to make a profit. Then the developers ran around converting apartment buildings all over Florida to condos.
Boom, bust comes along and investors who got caught holding the hot potatoes walked away and stopped paying dues.
When we take short sale listings where there is an HOA or a Condo association involved we tell the sellers that a condition of our listing terms is that they must keep current with their HOA fees and Condo fees. If you are a listing agent- consider having some type of agreement like this.
In short sales the second biggest obstacle we run across are the lenders being really tough on paying these delinquent HOA fees.
We have had some sellers who were already so far behind that they could not catch up and we took the listing because we knew we could get all cash buyers to the table who would pay off the delinquent fees.
Don't Delay! Don't Wait Until The Sheriff Is Knocking On Your Door! Pick up your phone and call us to see if you can avoid foreclosure.
To view Welington Florida Homes For Sale Click here. We know Wellington Florida Real Estate and Wellington Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.
Copyright © By Katerina Gasset 2010 * All Rights Reserved* Florida Condos Get More Aggressive With New Laws*
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
International Properties & Investments, Inc
Call us today at 561-753-0135 to get your house sold.
Over in my area...anytime I list a short sale...I always suggest the seller try to continue to pay the condo/HOA fees. And some banks refuse to pay the fees. Especially if the owner is collecting rent...they want their fees if they see any sort of income coming in. It's a big sticking point here on any type of property...not only will the accrue the back payments..they add on high attorney fees...late fees and any type of penalty they can incur...the attorneys are very tough on this right now and it can kill a short sale deal.
People fail to realize that those maintanence fess are not part of their mortgage payments. I understand most can't oay them or won't but if they want the short to end without bringing money to closing then they should think about it.
I had a short sale buyer who had to foot the bill for a portion of the back HOA dues. The bank refused to pay and the seller couldn't. Even when representing the buyer, it is wise to ask the status of the HOA dues!
Katerina, I just read the news on this about an hour ago. This is an Excelelnt and Informative and Timely Post. Just one more reason I pop over and see what you and Nestor have to say. Thank You
Katerina- Great scoop on this one! I am telling my business condo association to grab that vacant office one year behind in dues and rent it out!
Great info, Katerina. HOA fees can be so high that I wonder why anyone would live in a condo instead of a single family residence.
;)
Congrats, you're now featured (though kinda late) here...
Yolanda- I will take your feature any day with gratitude! Thank you!
Great post Katerina, I was going to blog about this, but with your permission, I'll re-blog yours.
It makes perfect sense that condo associations should be able to do what ever is necessary to keep their financial stability.
I've had banks pay HOA transfer fees but never the delinquent HOA dues. I always let sellers know that if they don't stay current on their HOA, it will come back to bite them upon short sale approval because the buyers are unlikely to pay those fees.
Gabe- Reblog Away!
Elizabeth- Isn't that funny! BofA refuses to pay our HOA transfer fees, and these estoppels here can be upwards of $500! So our sellers know ahead of time that if they have BofA as a servicer- they will have to pay their own estoppels. But BofA will pay thousands in past HOA fees, up to 6 months delinquent, well, now they will be paying a year.