He frequents the pool at The Venetia
condo building. He leaves his Jaguar with the valet. He uses the gym.
He's also behind on his mortgage and isn't paying his condo association
fees.
Neither is his lender, and the
association's board worries the bank is delaying foreclosure to avoid
paying dues as well.
Sharon Dodge, president of The Venetia's
association, angrily told a crowd of South Florida condo dwellers at a
meeting this week that 134 units were not paying maintenance fees in the
382-unit building. Of those, at least 35 are in the hands of lenders who
aren't playing fair.
''Something needs to change!'' Dodge
said, drawing rowdy applause from the crowd that sat beneath chandeliers
in the Loews hotel ballroom in Miami Beach.
The unpaid accounts have resulted in
higher association fees for everyone and crippling special assessments
to cover large one-time expenses like roof repairs. Less than a year
ago, The Venetia had to slap an $8,000 special assessment on homeowners
because, at the time, roughly a quarter of them were delinquent.
South Florida's foreclosure crisis might
be dealing its toughest blow to the hundreds of thousands of homeowners
who live in condos. High foreclosure rates have made it difficult for
many associations to make their budgets and provide services like cable,
lawn care and pool maintenance.
The higher dues are squeezing homeowners
already struggling to stay current on their bills.
`DEATH SPIRAL'
Mortgage lenders are drawing the wrath of
condo owners as catalyst and culprit of the fallout.
''We are in a death spiral,'' said Miami
Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin, who hosted Wednesday's meeting with
state Reps. Julio Robaina and Luis Garcia.
''It's the foreclosures that are not
happening, the banks that are not taking the actions that they should be
taking that are causing additional assessments to be foisted on good
condo unit owners,'' Libbin said.
At the root of the problem, Libbin and
the condo boards say, is a state law that seems to give banks incentives
not to foreclose on delinquent borrowers in their buildings.
Upon taking title to a unit through
foreclosure, a lender must pay condo associations 1 percent of the
original mortgage amount or six months of unpaid maintenance fees,
whichever is less. After the initial sum, the lender then starts making
full monthly payments like other unit owners.
Dodge and others claim lenders are
dragging out foreclosures to avoid complying with the law.
IDEAS
The town-hall meeting gave residents a
forum to vent and a chance to propose changes to the law. Robaina,
chairman of the Select Committee for Condo & Homeowners Association
Governance, has vowed to introduce legislation in Tallahassee next
spring to address the problem.
One proposal would let boards sell
delinquent accounts like counties sell delinquent property taxes by
auctioning certificates. That would let them collect past dues
immediately.
Others included letting associations
collect rent on leased units when fees are unpaid and giving condo liens
the same priority as tax liens, meaning an association would be paid
from sale proceeds before a lender.
''The association pays to preserve and
protect the bank's collateral while they sit on their hands for months
or years without taking steps to foreclose,'' said Ken Direktor, an
attorney with Becker & Poliakoff, a firm representing condo
associations. "We are providing services for the benefit of the
bank. Why shouldn't they pay for it? . . . They are getting a free
ride.''
Direktor also proposed requiring lenders
to pay a greater portion of past-due assessments as they take longer to
foreclose.
`THIS MESS'
The suggestions reflect a growing sense
of despair among condo owners who find themselves going up against
lenders who are benefiting from a $700 billion bailout. Robaina said he
was initiating discussions with South Florida's Congressional delegation
about whether any of the rescue funds could be directed to the battered
condo communities, many of which were at the center of speculative
buying during the boom.
''It's time for us to start negotiating
that money be used for you,'' Robaina told the crowd, "because it's
your tax dollars and the public sector needs to be considered before
giving it to the private sector that got us into this mess.''
There were no bank representatives at
Wednesday's meeting. But in an interview, Marc Ben-Ezra, an attorney who
files foreclosures statewide for lenders, said he was not aware of
lenders deliberately stalling foreclosures to avoid condo fees and
warned against enacting laws that could make lenders more averse to
financing units to new buyers.
''If the mortgage holder knows they could
be wiped out due to a much smaller association lien, the lender wouldn't
lend in those buildings. If they make it too risky for lenders to lend,
their property values are only going to go down further,'' Ben-Ezra
said.
Anthony DiMarco, a lobbyist for the
Florida Bankers Association, said banks have been put in almost a no-win
situation when it comes to condos.
"On the one hand, we are working
with homeowners and also being encouraged by the government to keep them
in their homes, and, on the other hand, we're being told we're not
foreclosing fast enough. So what are we supposed to do?''
He added that the current law requiring
banks to pay only 1 percent or up to six months of past due payments was
a compromise reached in the early 1990s that still seems fair.
''I
don't understand, personally, why the bank who lent somebody money is
responsible for someone who didn't uphold their end of the bargain,''
DiMarco said. "Once we take it over, that's fine. We should pay
going forward. I don't know why if you lend money, you're somehow
responsible for something somebody else didn't do.''
State
Rep. Julio Robaina and Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin to hold Town Hall Meeting on Condo Foreclosure Reforms