Florida Assessment Lien Foreclosure: Two 45-Day Notices and the 1 Percent Safe Harbor

Florida runs two parallel regimes and the deadlines differ. In a homeowners' association governed by chapter 720, the association must first deliver a Notice of Late Assessment giving the owner 30 days to pay before it may charge attorney fees (Fla. Stat. § 720.3085(3)(d)). It may record nothing until it sends a Notice of Intent to Record a Claim of Lien giving 45 days, by registered or certified mail with return receipt requested and also by first-class mail (§ 720.3085(4)). A foreclosure action may not be brought until a further 45 days after a separate notice of intent to foreclose, and that second notice may not be sent until the first 45-day window has run (§ 720.3085(5)). The practical floor from first lien notice to filing is therefore 90 days. Those time limits fall away if the parcel is already caught in another party's foreclosure or forced sale, or if an owner is a debtor in bankruptcy (§ 720.3085(5)(b)).

Condominiums under chapter 718 follow a similar but not identical track. Section 718.121(5) supplies the 30-day Notice of Late Assessment, and § 718.121(6) bars filing a lien until 45 days after a Notice of Intent to Record a Claim of Lien is delivered. The second step is worded differently: § 718.116(6)(b) does not delay the filing of the suit, it bars entry of a foreclosure judgment until at least 45 days after the association's written notice of intent to foreclose. If that notice was not given 45 days before the action was filed and the owner pays the unpaid assessments before final judgment, the association recovers no attorney fees or costs at all. The notice is excused where a mortgage foreclosure on the unit is already pending, the association's rights are affected by it, and the owner has been served. Chapter 718 also puts a clock on the lien itself: under § 718.116(5)(b) a claim of lien is not effective one year after recording unless an enforcement action is commenced within that year, extended only by a bankruptcy stay. Chapter 720 contains no equivalent one-year expiry.

The safe harbor is the provision Florida is known for. Under § 718.116(1)(b), a first mortgagee or its successor that acquires a condominium unit by foreclosure or deed in lieu owes the association the lesser of the unit's unpaid common expenses and regular periodic assessments for the 12 months immediately preceding acquisition of title, or 1 percent of the original mortgage debt. The cap applies only if the first mortgagee joined the association as a defendant in the foreclosure, unless the association was dissolved or had no discoverable office or agent for service of process when the complaint was filed. The chapter 720 version at § 720.3085(2)(c) reaches unpaid common expenses and regular periodic or special assessments, and additionally requires that the mortgagee filed suit against the parcel owner and initially joined the association. Two condominium wrinkles matter at closing. A first mortgage recorded before April 1, 1992 is exempt from all prior unpaid assessments unless the declaration incorporated future amendments to chapter 718 (§ 718.116(1)(e)), and the safe harbor is unavailable where the association's lien was recorded before the mortgage (§ 718.116(1)(f)). Whoever takes title must pay the association within 30 days after transfer or the association may record a fresh claim of lien (§ 718.116(1)(c)), and a mortgagee that holds the unit cannot be excused from common expenses accruing during its ownership (§ 718.116(7)).

Owners have two counter-moves. Recording a Notice of Contest of Lien in the county records forces the association to file suit within 90 days of service or the lien is void, in both regimes (§ 720.3085(1)(b) and § 718.116(5)(c)). Only chapter 720 offers the second: a parcel owner may file one qualifying offer with the court before a foreclosure judgment is entered, which automatically stays the assessment-collection portion of the action for up to 60 days and no closer than 30 days to the trial date, and bars the association from adding legal fees during the stay except in defense of a mortgage foreclosure or bankruptcy (§ 720.3085(6)). A breached qualifying offer vacates the stay and exposes the owner to judgment for the offered amount plus later accruals (§ 720.3085(7)). Chapter 718 has no qualifying-offer procedure.

Paying only the assessment does not clear the lien. Both chapters direct that any payment received is applied first to accrued interest, then to the administrative late fee, then to collection costs and reasonable attorney fees, and only then to the delinquent assessment, notwithstanding any restrictive endorsement written on the check (§ 720.3085(3)(b), § 718.116(3)). Where the declaration sets no rate, interest runs at 18 percent per year, and chapter 720 forbids compounding it. The administrative late fee is capped at the greater of $25 or 5 percent of each late installment. Section 720.3085 was last amended by s. 10, ch. 2024-221 and § 718.121 by s. 12, ch. 2024-244.

The association enforces its own lien through the circuit court in the county where the parcel or unit sits; no state agency forecloses for it. 116(6)(a)). 116(6)(c)). 116(6)(d)). 625 as though it were the landlord. 305(2) gives the prevailing party attorney fees and costs.