Landlord Has Lien By HOA

[allwipedout]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

Hello, I just did a public records search tonight and found out that there is a lien on the townhouse that we are renting by the community's HOA.

My friend has just gone through proceedings on her condo that she owned in the same community and was told by the HOA that is she were to fall behind on payments, that by the 5th month they would auction off her condo.

The lien was placed on this townhouse on 7/23, so the 5th month would put it at 12/23!

Our landlord has not said one word to us about this, and in general has not been too great in the several years we have lived here about giving us notice about anything.

My question is, if this place is to be put up for auction at the end of December, would someone give us notice of this before it happens? Would we get notice before or after the auction?

Our biggest fear is that we do not have very much money is savings and we would have to stop paying rent for a couple of months to be able to move out into a new home. If our landlord evicted us before the auction, how much time would we have between notice of eviction and the actual eviction?

If our landlord decided to pay the money owed to the HOA, would this halt the lien/auction, or is it too late for him to pay up?

Also, we currently do not have a lease and have been living here without one for the last 1-2 years.

Thank you for any help you can give!

 

[ecmst12]

Current landlord needs to give you 15 days notice to terminate a month to month rental agreement. If the condo is sold, the new landlord would have to do the same thing. You do not ever have the right to live there rent free for any reason.

 

[allwipedout]

Thank you for your reply.

So they would only have to give us 15 days notice to move out??

I know that we do not have a right to live rent free, but what option would we have if we are only given 15 days notice to move out? Do we have any recourse? It would take us at least 6 months to save enough money to move into a new place while still paying rent here. Do we just hope that the new landlord or HOA does not kick us out?

 

[ecmst12]

They only have to give you 15 days notice prior to the end of the month....so if they gave you notice any time between the 1st and the 15th, you would have until the end of that month to move. FL has minimal notice requirements.

And yes, pretty much all you can do is hope that you don't get kicked out. LL does not need a reason to terminate a month to month lease. That's the risk you take when you don't have a fixed term lease in place.

 

[allwipedout]

Thank you so much for the information. I was hoping that we would at least get 30 days notice, but I guess 15 is better than none.

 

[Cvillecpm]

By the fact that the unit is a CONDO, there is ALWAYS a lien on behalf of the HOA in the governing documents...recording a notice allows anyone searching the title to have NOTICE of the lien and who to contact.

 

[allwipedout]

The original search I did, did not show any contact information, only that a lien was placed on 7/23. But, I did a different search today and found a submitted document to the court that states that our landlord stopped paying the HOA fees as of 4/1.

It also states:

"The claim of lien shall also secure all unpaid assessments, interest, costs and attorney's fees which are due and which may accrue subsequent to the date of this Claim of Lien and up the entry of a final judgment of foreclosure."

I will be calling the contact on the document tomorrow to see what their next steps will be and how much time we may have before they make any moves to foreclose, or put this place up for auction.

 

[ecmst12]

And most likely they won't talk to you since you are not a party to this matter.

 

[Cvillecpm]

Ditto ECM * this is none of your business.