Off-plan purchase is a contract about a future object. The parts that can move are set out in the agreement, and they are broader than most buyers assume.
This page describes the categories of change. What your contract permits is a question for your attorney. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
A preconstruction purchase agreement typically reserves substantial discretion to the developer to modify the project. This is normal and to a degree necessary, because a building takes years and conditions change: consultants revise, authorities require alterations, materials become unavailable, and the market moves.
The question is not whether change is permitted. It is which changes are permitted, whether there is a threshold beyond which your consent is required, and what remedy you have if the threshold is crossed.
Read the modification clause before the finish schedule. It governs the finish schedule.
Finishes and appliances. Substitution of equivalent or better quality is almost always reserved. What counts as equivalent is decided by the developer.
Amenity programme. Amenities can be added, removed, relocated, resized or reprogrammed. An amenity named in a brochure is not necessarily a contractual commitment.
Common area design and materials. Lobbies, corridors and landscape frequently evolve between launch and completion.
Unit layout within limits. Minor dimensional variation is standard, and contracts commonly permit a tolerance on area. Where columns, mechanical routing or code compliance require it, plans can move more than a tolerance.
Delivery date. Extensions are usually permitted for defined causes, with an outside date beyond which different consequences apply.
Operator or brand. In branded projects, contracts frequently permit substitution of the operator. A building can complete under a different name than the one it was sold under.
The residence you bought, in the sense of its location in the building. Contracts do not typically permit relocating a buyer to a different unit without consent.
Material reductions in area beyond a stated tolerance frequently trigger a right to cancel, and the tolerance is the number to look for.
Florida law provides remedies where certain material amendments are made to the offering, and what qualifies is a legal question for your attorney rather than a matter of general description.
The practical instruction is to find three things in the contract: what may be changed unilaterally, what threshold triggers your consent or a cancellation right, and what the remedy actually is if it is triggered. A right to cancel and receive your deposit back is a meaningful remedy. A right to be notified is not.
Your money goes in before the building exists, in instalments, over years. Florida law governs how preconstruction condominium deposits must be held and in what circumstances a developer may draw on them for construction.
Establish where deposits are held, under what arrangement, and what happens to them if the project does not proceed. Have counsel confirm the position for your specific contract rather than accepting a verbal description.
The deposit schedule itself is a real commercial difference between projects. A schedule weighted heavily toward the front is a different proposition from one weighted toward completion, in risk and in the cost of the money being committed.
Get the finish schedule and the amenity list attached to the contract as exhibits rather than described in marketing material, so far as the developer will permit it.
Find the area tolerance and the cancellation threshold, and know the number.
Find the outside delivery date and the consequence of missing it.
Have a Florida attorney read the agreement inside the rescission window. Every point above is a legal question, and this page is a map of where to look rather than advice on what you find.
And keep the marketing material. Brochures, renderings, plans and the amenity list as presented at the time of sale. If a question arises later about what was represented, contemporaneous material is worth having.
Buyers spend hours on the finish schedule and minutes on the clause that permits it to be replaced. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will show you where those provisions sit in a specific agreement, and put you in front of counsel to read them properly.
Three provisions govern most of what can go differently than you expect. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through the current position on any building we cover, including the parts a sales gallery would rather skip. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.