Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Can you foreclose on a construction lien attached to homestead protected property?

The short answer to this question is, yes. Article X, Section 4(a) of the Florida Constitution states that an individual's homestead "shall be exempt from forced sale under process of any court, and no judgment, decree or execution shall be a lien thereon, except for the payment of taxes and assessments thereon, obligations contracted for the purchase, improvement or repair thereof, or obligations contracted for house, field or other labor performed on the realty . . . ." Therefore, an action to foreclose on a construction lien for "contracted for" improvements is allowed, and is not prevented by homestead protection.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is important for contractors and homeowners to know.

John Little said...

Liens under Chapter 713FS are NOT based on "contract". True, the unit owner obviously contracted with someone but privity of contract is not required for a claim of lien (i.e. subcontractors and suppliers). I have not done any research of the case law on this so I could be wrong. Great blog (by the way)