Your Florida condo association can lien and even foreclose on your unit for unpaid assessments, but only if it follows the payment application order the law requires and gives you the required notice before foreclosure. Interest is capped, late fees are capped, and the association must give you a 45-day notice of intent to foreclose before it files a foreclosure suit. If you keep paying your assessments under protest during any dispute, there is no delinquency for the association to lien or foreclose over.
These rules are in Florida Statute 718.116 and 718.121.
Assessments are mandatory, but the money is applied in a fixed order
You must pay your share of assessments. You cannot withhold them because you are unhappy with the board or in a dispute. But you can pay under protest and fight separately. When you do pay, 718.116(3) forces the association to apply your money in this order, no matter what your check memo says:
- Interest first,
- then late fees,
- then costs and reasonable attorney fees,
- and last, the assessment itself.
This order matters. Some boards apply a partial payment to the assessment first, so interest and fees keep growing. The statute forbids that. If your ledger applies payments in the wrong order, that is a violation you can document.
Interest and late fee caps
Under 718.116(3), unpaid assessments accrue interest at the rate in your declaration, or, if the declaration is silent, at 18 percent per year (the statutory default). Your governing documents can set a lower rate, but not a higher one than 18 percent.
The association may also charge an administrative late fee, if the declaration or bylaws authorize it, of up to the greater of $25 or 5 percent of each installment that is late. That is the ceiling. A late fee larger than that is not enforceable.
The lien and the 45-day notice before foreclosure
Condo liens work differently from HOA liens, and the difference matters. Under 718.116, a condominium association can record a claim of lien for unpaid assessments without first sending you an advance "notice of intent to record a lien." That is unlike an HOA, which must give a 45-day warning before it can even record a lien. So for a condo, a lien can appear with less advance notice, which is exactly why paying under protest and watching your ledger matter so much.
What the condo statute does require is a 45-day notice of intent to foreclose. Before the association can file a foreclosure suit, it must give you written notice of its intent to foreclose and 45 days to pay (718.116(6)(b)). There is a real consequence if it skips that step: if the notice is not given at least 45 days before the foreclosure is filed, and you pay the overdue assessments before a final judgment is entered, the association cannot recover its attorney fees and costs.
So your key protection as a condo owner is the 45 days before foreclosure, not before the lien. The notice must go to the address on file, and a missing or defective 45-day foreclosure notice is a genuine defect in the association's case.
The safe harbor for lenders (and why it affects you)
If your unit goes through mortgage foreclosure and the lender takes title, 718.116(1) limits what that lender must pay the association in past-due assessments to a safe harbor: the lesser of 12 months of assessments, or 1 percent of the original mortgage debt. This is mostly relevant to lenders and buyers, but it shapes how aggressively an association pursues a unit that is also in mortgage default, and it is worth understanding if you are buying a foreclosed condo.
How to tell if the board broke the rules
- Your payments were applied to the assessment first, leaving interest and fees to pile up (wrong order under 718.116(3)).
- Interest is charged above your declaration's rate, or above 18 percent when the declaration is silent.
- A late fee exceeds the greater of $25 or 5 percent of the installment.
- The association filed a foreclosure suit without first giving you the 45-day notice of intent to foreclose (718.116(6)(b)).
- The association is trying to recover attorney fees and costs even though it never sent that 45-day notice, or you paid the overdue assessments before a final judgment was entered.
Step by step: protect your unit
- Keep paying, under protest. Pay current assessments and note "paid under protest" in writing. This removes the delinquency the association would need to lien or foreclose, and preserves your dispute.
- Get your ledger. Request a full payment ledger and copies of all notices with a records request (/documents/records-inspection-request). Check the payment order and the math on interest and late fees.
- Demand correction in writing. If the order is wrong or a fee is over the cap, write to the association and the manager, cite 718.116(3), and ask for a corrected ledger.
- Check the notice. Confirm you received the 45-day notice of intent to foreclose before any foreclosure suit was filed. A missing or late notice is a defense, and it can also strip the association's right to attorney fees.
- Get an estoppel certificate before you pay off a balance or sell, so the numbers are certified. See (/documents).
- Escalate. A dispute over the amount owed can go to DBPR nonbinding arbitration or pre-suit mediation under 718.1255, and financial issues are within DBPR's post-turnover jurisdiction (file form 33-032 (/documents/dbpr-complaint-guide)). If you have received any foreclosure notice, talk to a licensed Florida attorney right away. Your home is on the line, and deadlines are short.
What you can do next
Keep paying under protest, pull your ledger with a records request (/documents/records-inspection-request), and check the payment order, the 18 percent interest cap, and the late fee cap. Confirm the 45-day notice of intent to foreclose was sent before any foreclosure suit. For a balance dispute, escalate to DBPR (/documents/dbpr-complaint-guide); for any active foreclosure, get a Florida attorney immediately.