Florida HOA Lawyer Blog
The firm’s Jonathan M. Mofsky authored an article that appeared as a guest column in today’s edition of the Daily Business Review, South Florida’s exclusive business daily and official court newspaper. The article, which was titled “Important Ruling for Associations Seeking to Foreclose in Advance of Lenders,” focused on the clarity that was created by a recent appellate ruling over some lingering questions involving community association foreclosures.
Jonathan’s article reads:
The decision by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Jallali v. Knightsbridge Village Homeowners Association clarifies the applicability of a 2012 ruling on association foreclosures by the same appellate court in U.S. Bank v. Quadomain Condominium Association. This prior ruling was being incorrectly applied to assert that associations were barred from filing foreclosure actions based upon a claim of lien recorded after the recording of a notice of lis pendens by a lender.
The language utilized in Quadomain created confusion for cases involving association lien foreclosures, which has become one of the primary remedies for associations to address the inequities caused by mortgage foreclosure cases that take years to complete. By filing and quickly prosecuting separate foreclosure actions based on liens for unpaid assessments, associations have been able to acquire and rent properties embroiled in prolonged mortgage foreclosure proceedings.
The ruling created a substantial hurdle for associations to overcome against homeowners who raised the Quadomain defense, which in some cases enabled the owners to defeat or delay association foreclosure actions and remain in their residences without paying monthly dues or mortgage installments while the lenders’ foreclosure cases languished.