Campaign For Foreclosure Reform

MIAMI BEACH, FL - Miami Beach City Commissioner Jerry Libbin will host a public forum to discuss planned reforms to state law that will protect Florida's condominium unit owners from unfair assessments levied on them because of the residential real estate meltdown.

Commissioner Libbin has been leading a grassroots campaign to reform state condo foreclosure reforms for more than a year. Libbin said his campaign has garnered strong bi-partisan support in Tallahassee and he hopes to pass meaningful reforms during the 2010 Legislative session this spring.

Libbin also is organizing trips to Tallahassee next year for condo owners to lobby legislative leaders in person. Details of the trips will be available at the forum.

Commissioner Libbin has invited the entire legislative delegations of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Several South Florida legislators who have filed reform measures for the upcoming session are expected to participate.

Also participating will be lawyers specializing in condo association law and condo managers. Both will provide updates on novel remedies they are pursuing to mitigate the financial burdens placed on condo associations and unit owners because of the foreclosure crisis.

Loopholes in state law have allowed banks to escape paying their fair share of condo association fees. This has forced tens of thousands of Florida condo unit owners in good standing to pick up the tab.

Under current law, banks can indefinitely postpone foreclosing on condo units that stop paying their mortgages and condo association fees. When banks do foreclose, they are only required to reimburse condo associations a small fraction of the delinquent fees owed. Worse, condo associations often have to sue banks to recover even these paltry amounts of delinquent fees.

The result is that the remaining condo unit owners are burdened with sky-high assessments to make up the shortfalls, which in turn leads to a further increase in distressed units.

"We must finally enact meaningful legislation to stop this vicious cycle and protect our state's condo owners, tax base and economy," Libbin said. "We must pull the plug on the free lunch that greedy banks are enjoying at our expense."