CopyCited 4 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 2013 WL 5288863, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 14968
...It is this statutory scheme on which Cricket relies to argue that it acquired the property free of any liens Nassau may have had for unpaid assessments. Chapter 720, on which Nassau relies, governs the procedures for the operation of homeowners associations. See §
720.302(1). Section
720.312, which was enacted in 1995, 2 provides for the survival of all restrictions and covenants in connection with a tax deed sale as follows: All provisions of a declaration of covenants relating to a parcel that has been sold for taxes or...
...ertificate, or tax lien, to the same extent that they would be enforceable against a voluntary grantee of title to the parcel immediately before the delivery of the tax deed or master’s deed or immediately before the foreclosure. (Emphasis added.) Section
720.312 acts as a “safeguard” for covenants governing assessments which would otherwise have been extinguished under section
197.573(2) by the issuance of a tax deed. Sugarmill,
766 So.2d at 489 (construing the prior version of section
720.312, which was section 617.312, and noting that the statute preserved the power of homeowners associations to assess liens against property “purchased pursuant to a tax deed, in futuro”). However, section
720.312 omits any mention of hens and therefore does not safeguard liens for unpaid assessments from being extinguished under section
197.573(2) by the issuance of a tax deed....
...ssments that came due up to the time of transfer of title. This liability is without prejudice to any right the present parcel owner may have to recover any amounts paid by the present owner from the previous owner. (Emphasis added.) Consistent with section
720.312, section
720.3085(2)(a) imposes liability for future assessments on a new parcel owner....
...for all unpaid assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title.” The intent of this statute is obviously to impose liability for previously accrued assessments on a new parcel owner who acquires property by transfer of title. As with section
720.312, section
720.3085(2)(b) omits any mention of the survival of liens and therefore does not safeguard liens for unpaid assessments from being extinguished under section
197.573(2) by the issuance of a tax deed....
...sments. Nor did Nassau file any type of affidavit or other evidence specifying from what date it alleged the unpaid assessments were owed. . See ch. 95-274, § 62, at 2553, Laws of Fla. (enacting section 617.312, which was subsequently renumbered as section 720.312 by ch.2000-258, § 51, at 2587, Laws of Fla.)....
