Real Estate Feast

Buying a South Florida foreclosure? You probably don’t need condo association approval.

Condo Association Paperwork Can Be Frustrating

I’m not a lawyer, so please don’t take this as gospel.  But I did call my attorney friend, Michael Rehr, who specializes in condominium law, when I was having trouble with an association over approval for a buyer.  Down here in South Florida we often have a lot of bureaucratic difficulty with condo associations.  I’m in the middle of a cash deal on a foreclosure property in Homestead.  The association was demanding that the buyer provide a social security number for a background check.  But the buyer is not a U.S. citizen and doesn’t have one.  The association said sorry, no number no deal.  In frustration I called my attorney friend.  He said that almost all Declaration of Condominium documents have an exceptions clause in the Transfer of Property section that allows a first mortgagee who acquires title by foreclosure to proceed without approval from the association.  Here’s a quote from the condo docs in question:  “Exceptions.  The foregoing provisions of this Section shall not apply to a transfer or purchase by an Institutional First Mortgagee or other approved mortgagee which acquires its title as the result of owning a mortgage upon the Unit concerned, and this shall be so whether the title is acquired by deed from the mortgagor or its successor in title or through foreclosure proceedings….”

So we filled out the association questionnaire completely, sans social security number, and sent it along with a copy of the condo docs section regarding transfers and approvals to the property management company and the sellers title company.  We’re proceeding with closing.

It’s neat the things you learn in the real estate business.  If you’d like to learn more about foreclosure opportunities in South Florida you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 3:25 am and is filed under Buying a Home in South Florida, Real Estate News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Timur I. said at January 27th, 2009 at 6:18 pm

   Great! Thank you!
   I always wanted to write in my blog something like that. Can I take part of your post to my site?
   Of course, I will add backlink?

   Regards, Your Reader

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