How do you check whether a new Miami condo building has open litigation?

In four places, in this order. The developer's own disclosure, because Florida's condominium law requires the prospectus and the purchase agreement to disclose certain matters and the buyer's cancellation right runs from receipt of those documents. The county court docket, searched by the names of the developer, the developer of record and the association, which is public and free. The association's official records and minutes once the building is running, which an owner, and through a seller an approved buyer, may inspect. And the lender's condominium questionnaire, which asks the association in writing whether it is a party to any litigation, because a yes can stop a mortgage. A new building bought from the developer has no association history to search, so the search runs against the developer and its other projects; a resale has both. We set out each source and what it can and cannot tell you below.

Florida's condominium statute makes the developer deliver a prospectus or offering circular with the declaration, the estimated budget and the contract, and gives a buyer fifteen days from receiving them to cancel; the documents must disclose the matters the statute lists, and a material change after delivery restarts the clock. The purchase agreement itself carries representations about the developer and the project. What that package will not contain is a list of lawsuits against the developer's other buildings, or claims by contractors on this one, unless they rise to a disclosure the statute requires or the developer chooses to make. The buyer reads the package for what it says and then searches for what it does not. Read the five sections of condominium documents, which dates in a Miami preconstruction contract can you not miss and how to verify a developer's record.

Miami-Dade County's clerk of courts keeps a public civil docket searchable by party name, and the circuit court records for Broward and Palm Beach do the same for buildings there; federal cases sit in a separate federal docket. The names matter more than the search. A new tower is usually owned by a single purpose entity, the developer of record named in the condominium documents, not by the brand on the hoarding: on our file that is 710 Edge Property LLC at Villa Miami, 1210 Brickell Owner LLC at ORA, M-2699 S Bayshore Owner LLC at Four Seasons Coconut Grove, Sobe Sky Development LLC at The Ritz-Carlton Residences South Beach, MTP Oceanside LLC at Ocean House. A buyer searches that entity, the sponsor behind it, the general contractor if named, and the association once it exists, and reads what comes back for three kinds of case: construction liens and contractor claims, buyer suits over deposits or delivery, and defect claims at the sponsor's earlier buildings. A docket entry is not a verdict; counsel reads the file. Read what a developer's construction loan tells you and what does a municipal lien search tell a Miami condo buyer for the other public records that bind a building without a lawsuit.

Florida's statute lists the official records a condominium association must keep and lets an owner inspect them, including the minutes of board meetings, the budget and the contracts; a buyer in a resale asks the seller to obtain them, and a buyer from the developer in a building already turned over may be given access with the seller's authority. Litigation shows in three places: the minutes, where a board votes to retain counsel, to sue or to settle; the budget and the reserves, where legal fees and a settlement are funded; and the insurance renewal, where a carrier asks about claims. The statute also requires an association to give a buyer a question and answer sheet, and the estoppel certificate the association issues at sale states whether it has pending litigation against the owner's unit and other matters the statute lists. Read what a condo estoppel certificate tells a Miami buyer, when the developer hands a Florida condo association to its owners and how to read the developer's estimated budget for the legal line in it.

It can end it. A lender's condominium questionnaire asks the association, among other things, whether it is a party to any pending litigation, and construction defect litigation, or a suit that could affect the association's finances, is a reason a lender declines the project or the loan under the agency guidelines many lenders follow. For a buyer in pre-construction who plans to finance at delivery, a suit filed in the two years between contract and closing is a risk the contract does not cover: most developer agreements carry no financing contingency, so a buyer who cannot get the loan because the building is in litigation still has to close or lose the deposit. That is why a cash buyer and a financed buyer read this page differently, and why the financed buyer asks the lender before the reservation what would disqualify the building. Read cash or mortgage for a Miami pre-construction condo, what happens to your mortgage if a Miami pre-construction closing is delayed and deposit forfeiture if you walk away.

Florida's statutes give an association and owners a period after completion to bring a construction defect claim, with a notice procedure before suit, and set an outer limit, the statute of repose, after which a claim is barred; the lengths and the triggers are for counsel and have changed in recent years. For a buyer in a new building the practical reading is this: in the first years after turnover the association's engineers inspect, the board decides whether to send a notice, and the budget shows whether money has been set aside for it. The milestone inspection and the structural integrity reserve study the statute requires for older and taller buildings are the other paper trail, because a finding there is often the first step toward a claim. Ask whether the developer's warranty is in the documents, what it covers and for how long, and whether the turnover inspection report exists. Read milestone inspections and reserves, what a beach building's reserve study tells you and owner's title insurance on a new Miami condo for what title insurance does and does not cover in a dispute.

Six questions, in writing. Is the developer of record, the sponsor or the association a party to any pending suit, and will you confirm that in the contract. Are there recorded construction liens on the property. Has any notice of a defect claim been served at this building or at the sponsor's last three. Does the condominium questionnaire for my lender answer the litigation question no today, and who will answer it at closing. What does the developer's warranty cover and for how long. And who pays legal fees if the association sues the developer after turnover, which is a budget question. The answers go in the file beside the docket search, and the desk reads them with the buyer before the fifteen days run. Read documents before closing on a new Miami condo and what to ask a sales team.