For the buyer who has money down on a building that does not exist yet and wants the refund read plainly: which stage the money sits in, what returns it at that stage, and where the easy refund ends.
This page explains. Whether the building suits you is a separate conversation. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
It depends on which document you have signed, and each stage has its own answer. At the reservation stage the deposit is refundable under the terms of the reservation form, which states when the deposit is refundable and how fast. Once you sign the purchase agreement, Florida gives you 15 days after signing and receiving the condominium documents to cancel and receive the deposit back, under section 718.503 of the Florida Statutes. After that window the contract sets what walking away costs. The full sequence is in when a Miami pre-construction reservation becomes binding. None of this is advice; it is the mechanics, and the list a buyer takes to counsel.
A reservation holds a home, a price and a place in line, and its deposit is typically refundable under the terms of the form. The form is the whole answer at this stage: three lines on it decide the refund, when the deposit is refundable and how fast, when the reservation expires, and whether it converts to a contract by itself or needs you to act. A form that converts automatically deserves the same reading as a contract. Edgeworth in West Palm Beach shows the cleanest version on our file: the developer takes a fully refundable reservation deposit now, ahead of a construction start, with staged payments tied to construction later under the contract. Before any payment, a buyer asks for the reservation form itself and the name of whoever holds the reservation deposit. The documents a buyer should have in hand are listed in documents a Miami pre-construction buyer should request.
The purchase agreement is the document that obliges you to buy and the developer to deliver, and signing it starts a statutory clock. Under section 718.503, a buyer from a developer may cancel within 15 days after signing and receiving the required condominium documents, and receive the deposit back. The window runs from signing and receiving, so the date the documents reach you is part of the refund: a buyer counts the 15 days from receipt, not from a sales conversation. Inside the window the refund is the statute's, not the developer's favour. What the documents contain, and the order to read them in, is set out in condominium documents: the five sections.
Under section 718.202, the developer must hold deposits up to 10 percent of the price in escrow; amounts above that may be used for construction if the contract allows it. That split is why the refund question has two halves: money inside the escrow line sits with the escrow agent under the escrow agreement, and money the contract allowed the developer to spend is recovered under the contract's own terms if a dispute comes. How the escrow side works in practice is read in where your deposit actually sits, and how money reaches a Florida escrow account from outside the state is read in moving funds to a Florida escrow account. Fouquet's Hotel & Residences Miami shows the staged form on our file: deposits staged across contract, groundbreaking and top off, with the majority at closing, held in escrow under the Florida condominium statute, per the offering materials. Banyan Tree Residences in West Palm Beach publishes the same pattern as a staged schedule with the majority due at closing.
After the 15 days, walking away has a cost that the contract sets, and the refund question stops being a statute question and becomes a clause question: the default clause, the deposit schedule, and what the developer may keep. How that clause works is explained in deposit forfeiture if you walk away. A different event has a different answer again: if the project itself is not built, the contract and the escrow agreement govern what returns, read in what happens to your deposit if a project is not built. A buyer who may need the money back reads all three documents before the reservation, not after it: the form for stage one, the statute for stage two, and the contract for stage three. Every other buyer question is collected in the questions buyers ask.
The live canon of Miami Dossier: the reservation page, the deposit forfeiture page, the escrow pages and the condominium documents page, each read in full on 2026-11-01, stating the mechanics under sections 718.503 and 718.202 of the Florida Statutes. Compiled by the desk at Miami Dossier.
Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current plans, pricing and availability as the developer releases them, discussed one to one.
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We hold no listings and we are not the developer. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will tell you what applies to your situation, what does not, and where we would not proceed. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.
Samuel Strauch is the owner of Metrik Real Estate. His team of agents represents buyers in Miami pre-construction.
A person replies within 24 hours, usually much sooner. On weekends, back on Monday morning.
