Prior suit

My HOA was sued by the privately owned golf course in the community. Apparently chemicals put in the ponds killed the greens. The suit was started before I bought but it was recently announced that the golf course won. Since the incident happened before i bought and I liable or does it fall back to the previous owner?

Oh, even if the previous owner was responsible, FL 720.3085 (2) makes it your responsibility to pay anyway.

Per that statute:

(2)(a) A parcel owner, regardless of how his or her title to property has been acquired, including by purchase at a foreclosure sale or by deed in lieu of foreclosure, is liable for all assessments that come due while he or she is the parcel owner. The parcel owner’s liability for assessments may not be avoided by waiver or suspension of the use or enjoyment of any common area or by abandonment of the parcel upon which the assessments are made.
(b) A parcel owner is jointly and severally liable with the previous parcel owner for all unpaid assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title. This liability is without prejudice to any right the present parcel owner may have to recover any amounts paid by the present owner from the previous owner.

Sorry should have said

Does the lawyer who did the closing and provided title insurance have any liability?

I have no intent to sue anyone. I am disappointed that the golf course decided to sue the HOA when 97% of its members are residents,

My only hope was that I should have been notified when I paid for title insurance. To my knowledge Title Insurance is to ensure their were no liens against the property, This may not be a lien but it was an active law suit at the time.

A title search at the time of the legal action likely wouldn't have caught it.
The golf course couldn't put a lien on any property until it had won the case.
The fact that you are in an Association shows meant that the golf course only had to file legal action against the Association and not everyone who was part of the Association.

FL 720.401 and 402 discusses the disclosure requirement for purchasing in an Association. I did not see a requirement that you be informed of any pending or current litigation. Therefore, if you didn't ask the question, the seller might not have been required to tell you about it (unless you asked).

If you would like to know for sure if others could be held liable, you should consult an attorney.
Even if others are liable, it won't lessen what you have to pay the Association. It would just give you the opportunity to spend more money in legal expenses to try and collect some of what you had to pay the Association from someone else.

In some states the seller would have a duty to disclose the lawsuit but evidently not in Florida STILL No Duty to Disclose Material Adverse Conditions in Florida.

Next time you buy a property visit the County Court website and enter the HOA's name and/or the sellers name to see if there are any ongoing lawsuits that might affect the property.

When you bought did the seller fill out a form stating all dues were current and their were no liens on the house? The seller has to disclose any damages and other things. I forgot what all the questions were on the form. At this point the seller should have told about suit pending. The Realtor usually calls the HOA and confirms the dues were paid and the house is in compliance with the HOA Covenants. At that point the realtor should have asked if there were any suits pending against the HOA. (This could possibly be an error on the Realtor's insurance coverage). I think you should sit down with your Realtor and discuss this. What is the amount of your assessment? After getting all your information and the amount you will have to pay. Then decide if it worth the cost of an Attorney.

Thanks for catching that Larry, I'm not an attorney nor do I play one on the interweb; I just remembered a scene from one of the "Lethal Weapon" movies where the guy was trying to sell his house and they had to list all of the assorted mayhem that had occurred there. It seemed to me that a lawsuit should have been required to be disclosed.

Does it really matter anyways? We don't know when the court case was brought to court. Was it during the purchase time or after? Plus if it was IN court no decision had been made on who was at fault. It was just a pending lawsuit and the HOA would have said it was baseless anyways. It just the court later found it not baseless and the HOA loss. Remember at the time of sale no fault had been proven so there was no way of knowing the outcome anyways.

The most this should have effected at the time of sale is if this was a government back type loan like FHA. It would have had to be reported on the PUD form that is filled out by the HOA. Most other loan types don't require this form and would not need to be reported. However, even if it was reported on the PUD form, it just meant a possible higher interest rate or harder to be approved.

In the end the poster IS responsible as a HOA member to pay their fair share of the bill just like the other members. It doesn't matter if they saw it coming or not. It happened and it's a risk one takes when buying into any HOA. Se la Vive!

I am not that upset I am just trying to figure out what I am entitled to. I purchased the property as a foreclosure so it was bank owned. I live out side the country so I depended on the lawyer to conduct a titke search and ensure the title was clear. I am accustomed to having Title Insurance that protects against people trying to claim the property through identity theft. The insurance also kicks in if in fact the title is not clean.

Here is my lawyers comment

In general, a pending lawsuit against an association would not necessarily have a notice recorded in the public records as the subject matter you describe is not litigation tied to a specific piece of property or more accurately, YOUR piece of property. So your title could easily be clear and there could be a pending lawsuit the title searcher would never know about.

If I need to pay I will pay. What hurts a but is that I have a second property I purchased as an investment, also a foreclosure. This means I may get hit twice.

Do you have loss assessment coverage in your insurance policy?

It is my understanding that given the right circumstances loss assessment coverage can help mitigate the costs.

Wow! Lets take a deep breath and chill! I am not looking to blame anyone else but me. If the Title Insurance I have is not liable I will pay. Did I make a mistake .. it would seem so. Never bought into a HOA development before so I learned a good lesson. The purchase was not to make money it was to have a nice retirement home for the winter. I just asked a simple question, if everyone would have said talk to my closing lawyer I would have done so. Based on what I am hearing I will not.

I can tell you there are many seasoned home owners here that bought before the law suit that are not happy. They are not upset about what the Title Insurance is for but more so they are pissed at the HOA for getting them into this situation. The insurance company for the firm that dumped chemicals in the ponds that killed the greens paid up $2 million as their part of the settlement. The residents here wanted the board to settle as the insurance company settled but instead they insisted on fighting the case. They also indemnified the management company of any responsibility.

In the end it will only costs about $500 per home, not much more than a good nioght out!