Blanket Receiverships Come To Daytona Beach In Fight Against Deadbeat, Rent Skimming Condo Owners Stiffing Associations On HOA Fees

In Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, The Daytona Beach News Journal reports:

• At the peak of the area's housing boom four years ago, Chicago native James Dolan bought a unit at the nine-story Oceanside Inn here when it converted from a hotel to a condo-tel. [...] But, since then, the housing bust has cost him plenty. The owners association recently passed its second special assessment, on top of monthly maintenance fees, to make up for other owners who are in foreclosure or walked away and are not paying their fees.

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• The frustration is widespread. So, the owners association, the inn's hired management firm and a local attorney sought and won a rare legal ruling that should help them recover the $154,000 owed by 23 of the building's 123 owners. Circuit Court Judge Richard Graham recently approved the appointment of a "blanket receiver" for the Oceanside Inn. It's the first such ruling in the 7th Judicial Circuit, attorney Jason Harr said.(1)

• "It's groundbreaking in this district. It's been approved in other districts, but it's never been asked for and the court has never approved it here prior to when we did it," he said. "It's given a life preserver to the association that was in dire straits. There are some owners who owe as much as $16,000."

For the story, see Condo associations gain weapon to collect fees from deadbeats.

Go here for other posts on blanket receiverships.

(1) The story states that the blanket receivership order allows the association to include all delinquent units in one filing, and that similar blanket receivers have been approved in just a few Florida jurisdictions. "It's up to each judge to interpret the statutes in each case," one lawyer said. "But, it's a new strategy, a new argument, novel and it is catching on."