The Florida Senate

719.108  Rents and assessments; liability; lien and priority; interest; collection; cooperative ownership.--

(1)  A unit owner, regardless of how title is acquired, including, without limitation, a purchaser at a judicial sale, shall be liable for all rents and assessments coming due while the unit owner is in exclusive possession of a unit. In a voluntary transfer, the unit owner in exclusive possession shall be jointly and severally liable with the previous unit owner for all unpaid rents and assessments against the previous unit owner for his or her share of the common expenses up to the time of the transfer, without prejudice to the rights of the unit owner in exclusive possession to recover from the previous unit owner the amounts paid by the unit owner in exclusive possession therefor.

(2)  The liability for rents and assessments may not be avoided by waiver of the use or enjoyment of any common areas or by abandonment of the unit for which the rents and assessments are made.

(3)  Rents and assessments, and installments on them, not paid when due bear interest at the rate provided in the cooperative documents from the date due until paid. This rate may not exceed the rate allowed by law, and, if no rate is provided in the cooperative documents, then interest shall accrue at 18 percent per annum. Also, if the cooperative documents or bylaws so provide, the association may charge an administrative late fee in addition to such interest, in an amount not to exceed the greater of $25 or 5 percent of each installment of the assessment for each delinquent installment that the payment is late. Any payment received by an association shall be applied first to any interest accrued by the association, then to any administrative late fee, then to any costs and reasonable attorney's fees incurred in collection, and then to the delinquent assessment. The foregoing shall be applicable notwithstanding any restrictive endorsement, designation, or instruction placed on or accompanying a payment. A late fee is not subject to chapter 687 or s. 719.303(3).

(4)  The association shall have a lien on each cooperative parcel for any unpaid rents and assessments, plus interest, against the unit owner of the cooperative parcel. If authorized by the cooperative documents, said lien shall also secure reasonable attorney's fees incurred by the association incident to the collection of the rents and assessments or enforcement of such lien. The lien is effective from and after the recording of a claim of lien in the public records in the county in which the cooperative parcel is located which states the description of the cooperative parcel, the name of the unit owner, the amount due, and the due dates. The lien shall expire if a claim of lien is not filed within 1 year after the date the assessment was due, and no such lien shall continue for a longer period than 1 year after the claim of lien has been recorded unless, within that time, an action to enforce the lien is commenced in a court of competent jurisdiction.

(5)  Liens for rents and assessments may be foreclosed by suit brought in the name of the association, in like manner as a foreclosure of a mortgage on real property. In any foreclosure, the unit owner shall pay a reasonable rental for the cooperative parcel, if so provided in the cooperative documents, and the plaintiff in the foreclosure is entitled to the appointment of a receiver to collect the rent. The association has the power, unless prohibited by the cooperative documents, to bid on the cooperative parcel at the foreclosure sale and to acquire and hold, lease, mortgage, or convey it. Suit to recover a money judgment for unpaid rents and assessments may be maintained without waiving the lien securing them.

(6)  Within 15 days after request by a unit owner or mortgagee, the association shall provide a certificate stating all assessments and other moneys owed to the association by the unit owner with respect to the cooperative parcel. Any person other than the unit owner who relies upon such certificate shall be protected thereby.

(7)  The remedies provided in this section do not exclude other remedies provided by the cooperative documents and permitted by law.

(8)

(a)  No unit owner may be excused from the payment of his or her share of the rents or assessments of a cooperative unless all unit owners are likewise proportionately excused from payment, except as provided in subsection (6) and in the following cases:

1.  If the cooperative documents so provide, a developer or other person owning cooperative units offered for sale may be excused from the payment of the share of the common expenses, assessments, and rents related to those units for a stated period of time. The period must terminate no later than the first day of the fourth calendar month following the month in which the right of exclusive possession is first granted to a unit owner. However, the developer must pay the portion of common expenses incurred during that period which exceed the amount assessed against other unit owners.

2.  A developer, or other person with an ownership interest in cooperative units or having an obligation to pay common expenses, may be excused from the payment of his or her share of the common expenses which would have been assessed against those units during the period of time that he or she shall have guaranteed to each purchaser in the purchase contract or in the cooperative documents, or by agreement between the developer and a majority of the unit owners other than the developer, that the assessment for common expenses of the cooperative imposed upon the unit owners would not increase over a stated dollar amount and shall have obligated himself or herself to pay any amount of common expenses incurred during that period and not produced by the assessments at the guaranteed level receivable from other unit owners.

(b)  If the purchase contract, cooperative documents, or agreement between the developer and a majority of unit owners other than the developer provides for the developer or another person to be excused from the payment of assessments pursuant to paragraph (a), no funds receivable from unit owners payable to the association or collected by the developer on behalf of the association, other than regular periodic assessments for common expenses as provided in the cooperative documents and disclosed in the estimated operating budget pursuant to s. 719.503(1)(b)6. or s. 719.504(20)(b), may be used for payment of common expenses prior to the expiration of the period during which the developer or other person is so excused. This restriction applies to funds including, but not limited to, capital contributions or startup funds collected from unit purchasers at closing.

(9)  The specific purposes of any special assessment approved in accordance with the cooperative documents shall be set forth in a written notice of such assessment sent or delivered to each unit owner. The funds collected pursuant to a special assessment shall be used only for the specific purpose or purposes set forth in such notice or returned to the unit owners. However, upon completion of such specific purposes, any excess funds shall be considered common surplus.

History.--s. 2, ch. 76-222; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 17, ch. 86-175; s. 22, ch. 92-49; s. 59, ch. 95-211; s. 877, ch. 97-102.