What does a buyer check before taking over a Miami preconstruction contract?

An assignment transfers the original buyer's purchase agreement to you. The developer stays the seller, the price and deposit schedule stay as signed, and at closing the developer deeds the home to you. The original buyer is paid privately for the deposits already in escrow and whatever premium you agree. Before paying it, four things must be true: the developer has consented in writing and stated its fee; the deposits are confirmed in the developer's escrow by the escrow agent; you have read the contract with every amendment and the current condominium documents; and counsel has told you whether the 15 day cancellation right runs again for you. It usually does not, which is why the reading comes first.

Not a home. A contract. The purchase agreement the original buyer signed, with its price, its deposit schedule, its outside date for completion, its selections of finishes, its parking and storage assignments and its remedies, becomes yours as written. You cannot renegotiate it with the developer; the developer's position is that it already has a buyer at that price. What you negotiate is with the original buyer, and it is only the premium above the deposits. Read when a Miami preconstruction reservation becomes binding for what the contract is, and can you assign a preconstruction contract for the same transaction seen from the original buyer's chair.

Assignments appear in buildings late in their sales: Cipriani Residences Miami, topped off in July 2026 and more than 80 percent sold, is the kind of tower where a buyer who wants a line the developer no longer holds is offered one by an owner of a contract instead. The building notes on assignment rights at Cipriani and at 619 Brickell by Nobu say what each developer's contract permits.

Then the developer. Consent. Most Florida developer contracts prohibit assignment without the developer's written consent, and where consent is given it comes with conditions: a fee, a timing restriction such as not before a stated share of the building is sold or not before a stated date, a requirement that the assignee qualify as the original buyer did, and sometimes a prohibition on advertising the contract. The consent is a document, usually a three-party assignment agreement signed by the developer, the original buyer and you. Without it the assignment is a private promise between two buyers that the developer need not honour at closing. Ask the developer's closing agent for the form of consent before the premium is agreed, and ask what the fee is and who pays it.

In the developer's escrow, under section 718.202 of the Florida Statutes, in the original buyer's name. The escrow agent's receipt letters prove the amounts; the assignment agreement directs the agent to treat them as yours from the effective date. Two questions for the escrow agent, in writing: the amounts and dates received, and whether any portion above 10 percent of the price has been released to the developer for construction, which the statute permits when the contract says so. The premium you pay the original buyer never touches escrow; it is a payment between the two of you, and it is gone whether or not the building completes. Read where your deposit actually sits and what happens to your deposit if a project is not built.

Section 718.503 gives a buyer who contracts with a developer 15 days after signing and receiving the condominium documents to cancel, and a further right where the developer later makes a material amendment. That right belonged to the original buyer and was used or allowed to lapse. Whether an assignee receives a fresh period is a question the contract, the assignment agreement and counsel answer together; the prudent assumption is no. What the assignee can insist on is delivery of the current documents and of every amendment the developer has issued since the original signing, with a written acknowledgment that none is material, or a chance to walk before the premium is paid if one is. Read the five sections of the condominium documents.

A lender appraises the home against what you are paying in total, the contract price plus the premium, and lends on the contract or the appraisal, whichever the loan program says. A buyer who needs a mortgage tells the lender about the premium at the start, not at closing. Read cash or mortgage for Miami preconstruction.

Florida's documentary stamp tax falls on the deed from the developer to you at closing. Whether the assignment itself, or the premium paid under it, attracts a separate tax is a question for counsel before the agreement is signed, not a surprise on the closing statement. Read what a Miami closing costs.

The executed purchase agreement with every addendum and amendment. The developer's written consent and its fee. The escrow agent's receipt letters for every deposit. A letter from the developer confirming the contract is in good standing, with no default and no unpaid deposit. The current condominium documents and every amendment since the original signing. The developer's current construction schedule and the contract's outside date. The selections sheet for finishes and any upgrade orders. The parking and storage assignment. The original buyer's authority to sign, where the buyer is an entity or a trust. The assignment agreement in the developer's form. And where the home comes furnished, the furniture exhibit, because it travels with the contract. Read documents before closing on a new Miami condo and what happens if a Miami developer delivers late. The desk reads the contract and the consent with the buyer before a premium is agreed.