Liens in Florida

I would like to hear from Florida residents. Can an hoa file a claim of lien without using an attorney? "The Law of Florida Homeowners Associations" show a form that can be used. It seems ridiculous to pay $125 or $150 to have an attorney do this when the president of the association can do this. If you know, please cite the Florida Statute or whatever so I can take this to the board. As most communities we have lots of delinquent accounts so we need to save every cent we can.

I've done real estate closings where contractors can fill in the blank sort of liens and record them so why not hoas?

Anna,
We haven't had much success with an atorney doing the work. Some will pay after receiving an intent to lien but the most don't so we are simply out of pocket. Currently we are charged $125 for an intent to lien, $350 for a claim of lien and notice of intent to foreclose which we can recoup IF the owner pays. If not we are then going to get into huge fees. (1) attorney checks to see if there is enough equity in the property to foreclose, (2) title work on the property and on and on. Then if successful the association would own the property and be responsible for property taxes, repairs, etc. so it seems like a no win situation. At least if the association files a claim of lien it will be paid off when the property changes hands and would cost us nothing more than the filing fee.

We have had a $20,000+ Final Judgment against an owner for over a year (but not for assessments) and the law firm that handled this said we could not foreclose since it is homestead and not for assessments. (Great attorneys..you would think they would have told us this before we spent over $6,000 in legal fees). They advised us to garnish her wages, etc. She is retired so we are scrounging around to see if we can freeze her bank account. So now they are charging us another $1,000 to do this.

Ellen,

I suggest the following:

1. Write your own 'intent to lien' letter. Explain that their non-payment is impacting their neighbors. Do it in a 'friendly way and explain the next step, should they fail to pay. Have your Pres. or Treas. sign it. Saving $125.

2. We pay under $200 for the attorney work to actually file the lien. After filing, send a copy of the lien to the homeowner - the attorney probably doesn't do that and many times the owner is unaware...

3. As a last step, we filed (and were awarded) a Summary Judgment for non-payment of fees and property damage. While the process dragged on for months, it is done. The attorney fees ran about $3000. Obviously, the homeowner is paying that.

4. Find a new attorney. Yours is not doing you any favors.