Blogs & Resources

Several legislative changes to the Florida Statutes, occurring during 2013, have impacted the operation of Florida’s Condominium Associations and HOAs. This blog focuses on those changes applicable to the maintaining of official records. For Condo Associations, the laws governing official records are codified in Section 718.111(12)(c), Florida Statutes; for HOAs, those laws are found in Section 720.303, Florida Statutes.
The Florida Legislature passed House Bill 73 earlier this year, which amended the Florida Statutes and became effective July 1, 2013.

Florida is known as a “debtor-friendly” state, and one of the greatest protections afforded debtors under the Florida Constitution is the homestead exemption. Article X, Section 4, of the Florida Constitution states that creditors cannot force the sale of the debtor’s primary residence in order to satisfy a judgment or lien. This homeowner protection is also codified in the Florida Statutes in Chapter 222.

Florida’s homestead protection applies to the primary residence up to one-half acre within a municipality and up to 160 contiguous acres outside of a municipality. Fla. Const. Art. X, §4(a)(1). As long as those acreage requirements are met, it does not matter if the primary residence is worth 4 million dollars

This Blog is Part IX in a series of Blogs designed to provide business owners with a high-level overview of the legal process for collecting on past-due accounts receivables. Specifically, Part IX focuses on the ability of creditors to obtain a receiver over the debtor’s business and/or property as a method for satisfying the outstanding judgment balance.

Often times a creditor will find it difficult to collect on its judgment against the debtor, even when the creditor discovers that the debtor owns a business interest or owns other personal property

Given the current real estate market, a real concern among renters is what will happen to them if their landlord stops paying the mortgage and a foreclosure action is filed. In 2009, a new law was enacted to protect tenants of foreclosed property, such that they may not be immediately evicted upon sale of the property after foreclosure without notice.

Featured in the August 2013 Issue Partner’s Perspective J&C Ranked Among Top Veteran-Owned Businesses New Law Blogs Curiosities, Ruminations and Various Eccentricities of Firm Biz Click to read.

Recently, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal issued a ruling that laid to rest any doubt as to whether a trial court has the jurisdiction to determine the amount of association dues owed to a condo association in a foreclosure action and the amount of attorneys’ fees to be awarded to the prevailing party in such an action…

On August 14, 2013, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal issued an opinion in the case of Regions Bank v. MDG Frank Helmerich, LLC, et al., that is of great benefit to Florida’s judgment creditors. In its opinion, the Second District held that a judgment creditor is entitled to post-judgment discovery on the judgment debtor’s assets held jointly with a spouse. Regions Bank v. MDG Frank Helmerich, LLC, et al., 2013 WL 4081005, 2 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013). That holding provides creditors with a greater net to cast in the hopes of locating assets that are nonexempt and can be used to satisfy the judgment balance.

This Blog is Part VIII in a series of Blogs designed to provide business owners with a high-level overview of the legal process for collecting on past-due accounts receivables.  Specifically, Part VIII focuses on executing and levying on a debtor’s personal property as a method for creditors to satisfy an […]

When a person or business loans money to another person or business, it is usually the case that the creditor will require a security interest in the assets of the debtor. Often times, especially these days given the state of the economy in the past five years, the debtor will default on the loan, usually by failing to repay the funds in accordance with the terms of the agreement. Since the creditor has a security interest in debtor’s personal property, the creditor can simply walk in one day and take everything to satisfy the loan right? Not quite…

Many of Florida’s associations provide their residents with gated entrances and security check-ins that enhance the safety of the communities they govern. When communities have hundreds of homes it is sometimes difficult to keep track of every family member living at each residence. As a security measure to ensure that every person entering the neighborhood is who he or she claims to be, many associations have security personnel swipe the driver’s license of the person entering.