Surprise! past due HOA fees after purchase

[Larry Ott]

I purchased a foreclosure property in Florida at a Sheriffs Sale. At a Sheriffs sale there is no guarantee of a clear title, I searched the online records prior to the sale and found no glaring issues. Immediately after the sale I had a title search completed, which showed a clear title and I got an Owners Title Policy. 

After the purchase was finalized, I contacted the HOA management company to get set up with them. To my surprise I found that there were two HOA's that governed this property, and each of them was owed just under 2K in past due fees, plus late charges and interest. In all I ended up paying over $4,000 in fees to bring it up to date.

The HOA's had not filed any liens, so their past due fees did not show up in the title search. My question is this: should this be covered by the Title Insurance Policy? In Florida, HOA fees follow the property, not the owner, it would seem reasonable to me that the title insurance company should have checked this prior to issuing a policy. Am I off base on this? Has anyone had experience with this issue?

[Peter Walther]

I bought a condo at a foreclosure sale of a Master Association lien.  The Plaintiff had named the condo association as a Defendant who had filed an answer that didn't dispute the Master Assoc right to foreclose.  Shortly after buying the condo association claimed that under FL statutes it's lien wasn't extinguished.  My atty opinioned that I had a colorable defense but the cost of defending would exceed the amt of the claimed lien so I wound up paying it.