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Selling a Florida House That Needs Major Repairs or Has Code Violations

Yes. A Florida house with code violations or major repair needs can be sold, and the new owner becomes responsible for compliance. If a code enforcement case is already open you must disclose it to the buyer in writing before the transfer, and failing to do so "creates a rebuttable presumption of fraud" (Florida Statute 162.06(5)). A recorded code fine keeps accruing until the violation is cured or judgment is rendered, and the lien can survive twenty years (Florida Statutes 162.09(3) and 162.10). Separately, you must tell a buyer about known defects that materially affect value and are not readily observable (Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d 625 (Fla. 1985)).

Sources verified: September 27, 2026

This is general information, not legal advice.

Code enforcement fines are the part that gets worse by waiting

Repairs do not usually get more expensive by the week. Code enforcement fines do.

Florida Statute 162.09(3) is the section to know. It provides that "a certified copy of an order imposing a fine, or a fine plus repair costs, may be recorded in the public records and thereafter shall constitute a lien against the land on which the violation exists and upon any other real or personal property owned by the violator."

Read that twice. The lien attaches to the property with the violation and to other property owned by the violator.

The same subsection contains the sentence that drives the urgency: "A fine imposed pursuant to this part shall continue to accrue until the violator comes into compliance or until judgment is rendered in a suit filed pursuant to this section, whichever occurs first."

There is no automatic ceiling in that sentence. A daily fine on a violation nobody has cured keeps running.

Florida Statute 162.09(3) also sets out what the local government can do about it: "After 3 months from the filing of any such lien which remains unpaid, the enforcement board may authorize the local governing body attorney to foreclose on the lien or to sue to recover a money judgment for the amount of the lien plus accrued interest."

But a code lien cannot be foreclosed on your homestead

This is the most important protection in the section, and it is easy to miss because it sits in the middle of a long subsection.

Florida Statute 162.09(3) says: "No lien created pursuant to the provisions of this part may be foreclosed on real property which is a homestead under s. 4, Art. X of the State Constitution." It adds that "the money judgment provisions of this section shall not apply to real property or personal property which is covered under s. 4(a), Art. X of the State Constitution."

So if the property is your constitutional homestead, the local government cannot foreclose the code lien against it. That does not make the lien disappear — it still sits on the title and still has to be dealt with at a sale — but it does mean the threat of losing the house to the code board is not the pressure people assume.

How long a code lien lasts

Florida Statute 162.10 says: "No lien provided under the Local Government Code Enforcement Boards Act shall continue for a period longer than 20 years after the certified copy of an order imposing a fine has been recorded, unless within that time an action is commenced pursuant to s. 162.09(3) in a court of competent jurisdiction."

Twenty years is a long time, and it is much longer than most other liens on Florida property. An old fine from a previous owner's era can still be attached to a title.

The same section also notes that "the local governing body shall be entitled to collect all costs incurred in recording and satisfying a valid lien," and that in an action to foreclose or for a money judgment "the prevailing party is entitled to recover all costs, including a reasonable attorney's fee."

If a code case is already open, selling triggers statutory disclosure duties

This is the single most important thing on this page if a proceeding has already started, and it is not widely known.

Florida Statute 162.06(5) provides that if the owner of property "that is subject to an enforcement proceeding before an enforcement board, special magistrate, or court transfers ownership of such property between the time the initial pleading was served and the time of the hearing," the owner must do four things:

And then the consequence, in the statute's own words: "A failure to make the disclosures described in paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) before the transfer creates a rebuttable presumption of fraud."

That is a statutory presumption, not a general principle. Selling a house with an open code case without disclosing it in writing is a serious matter, and it is entirely avoidable by simply handing the buyer the file.

The same paragraph also disposes of a hope some sellers hold: "If the property is transferred before the hearing, the proceeding shall not be dismissed, but the new owner shall be provided a reasonable period of time to correct the violation before the hearing is held." Selling does not make the case go away. It transfers it.

How a code case starts, and what "reasonable time" means

Florida Statute 162.06(2) provides that where a violation is found, "the code inspector shall notify the violator and give him or her a reasonable time to correct the violation." If the violation continues past that time, the inspector "shall notify an enforcement board and request a hearing."

Note what the statute does not do: it sets no number of days for the cure period. It says only "a reasonable time." Any specific deadline you have been given comes from your local ordinance, not from Chapter 162.

Two exceptions shorten this. Under Florida Statute 162.06(3), for a repeat violation the inspector "shall notify the violator but is not required to give the violator a reasonable time to correct the violation." Under Florida Statute 162.06(4), where the inspector believes the violation "presents a serious threat to the public health, safety, and welfare" or "is irreparable or irreversible in nature," the inspector "shall make a reasonable effort to notify the violator and may immediately notify the enforcement board and request a hearing."

There is also a protection worth knowing. Florida Statute 162.06(1)(b) provides that "a code inspector may not initiate enforcement proceedings for a potential violation of a duly enacted code or ordinance by way of an anonymous complaint," and that a complainant "must provide his or her name and address to the respective local government before an enforcement proceeding may occur" — unless the inspector believes there is an imminent threat.

Notice does not depend on you receiving it

Florida Statute 162.12(1) sets out how notices under Chapter 162 must be given: certified mail to the address in the tax collector's office or the property appraiser's database, hand delivery, leaving the notice at the violator's usual residence "with any person residing therein who is above 15 years of age," or, for commercial premises, leaving it with the manager.

Under Florida Statute 162.12(1)(a), if a certified mailing "is not signed as received within 30 days after the postmarked date of mailing, notice may be provided by posting." Under Florida Statute 162.12(2)(b)1., posting may be done "at least 10 days prior to the hearing" in two locations, one of which is the property itself.

Then the provision that matters most. Florida Statute 162.12(3): evidence of an attempt to hand deliver or mail, together with proof of publication or posting, "shall be sufficient to show that the notice requirements of this part have been met, without regard to whether or not the alleged violator actually received such notice."

If the property has been vacant, or the address on the tax roll is old, a case can therefore be well advanced before you learn of it. That is a reason to check the code enforcement record for the address rather than wait for post.

Unpermitted work, and why it is a title problem

Florida Statute 553.79(1)(a) makes it "unlawful for any person, firm, corporation, or governmental entity to construct, erect, alter, modify, repair, or demolish any building within this state without first obtaining a permit therefor from the appropriate enforcing agency."

There is a meaningful exemption for small jobs. Florida Statute 553.79(1)(g)1. requires a local government issuing building permits to "exempt an owner of a single-family dwelling or the owner's contractor from the requirement to obtain a building permit to perform any work valued at less than $7,500 on the owner's property." But the carve-outs to that exemption are broad: under 553.79(1)(g)2. it does not apply to work on property "partially or entirely located in a flood hazard area as defined by the Florida Building Code," nor to "any electrical, plumbing, structural, mechanical, or gas work performed on property containing a single-family dwelling." The same subparagraph adds that "a construction project may not be divided into more than one project for the purpose of evading the requirements of this paragraph."

In practice that exemption rarely helps with a real repair. Any electrical, plumbing, structural, mechanical or gas work is excluded, as is any property in a flood hazard area.

Open permits are a separate problem from unpermitted work. Under Florida Statute 553.79(1)(c), "a building permit issued by a local government for a single-family dwelling expires 1 year after the issuance of the permit or on the effective date of the next edition of the Florida Building Code, whichever is later," though a local government may extend it.

If an unlicensed contractor did the work

This comes up constantly on houses where cheap repairs were attempted, and the law is more favorable to the owner than people expect.

Florida Statute 489.128(1) provides that "as a matter of public policy, contracts entered into on or after October 1, 1990, by an unlicensed contractor shall be unenforceable in law or in equity by the unlicensed contractor." Florida Statute 489.128(2) adds that where a contract is unenforceable under the section, "no lien or bond claim shall exist in favor of the unlicensed contractor for any labor, services, or materials provided under the contract."

Read the direction of that carefully. The bar runs against the unlicensed contractor. Florida Statute 489.128(3) preserves everyone else's position: the section "shall not affect the rights of parties other than the unlicensed contractor to enforce contract, lien, or bond remedies."

Separately, Florida Statute 489.127(1)(f) prohibits a person from engaging "in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor ... without being duly registered or certified," and Florida Statute 489.127(1)(h) prohibits commencing or performing work requiring a building permit "without such building permit being in effect."

So a lien recorded by an unlicensed contractor may be unenforceable — which is worth establishing before paying it at a closing.

What you have to tell a buyer

Florida abandoned pure caveat emptor for home sales in 1985, and the case that did it is directly relevant to a house in poor condition.

In Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d 625 (Fla. 1985), the Supreme Court of Florida held that "where the seller of a home knows of facts materially affecting the value of the property which are not readily observable and are not known to the buyer, the seller is under a duty to disclose them to the buyer." The Court added that "this duty is equally applicable to all forms of real property, new and used."

The reasoning was blunt about the old rule: "One should not be able to stand behind the impervious shield of caveat emptor and take advantage of another’s ignorance," and "the tendency of the more recent cases has been to restrict rather than extend the doctrine of caveat emptor."

Two limits are built into that sentence, and they matter on a repair-heavy house. The duty runs to facts the seller knows, and to facts that are not readily observable. A sagging roofline a buyer can see for themselves is a different thing from a leak behind a ceiling that you have been managing with a bucket.

One thing the opinion does not address: "as is". The words do not appear in it. Whether an as-is clause changes anything is therefore not something this page will tell you, and if a contract you are being asked to sign turns on that, it is worth an hour of a lawyer’s time.

The practical answer is the easy one anyway. Write down what you know about the house, hand it to the buyer, and keep a copy. A cash buyer who is pricing the condition is not deterred by the list — the list is what they are pricing.

Contractor liens from work that was started and not finished

Half-finished repairs often leave a construction lien behind, and those have much shorter lives than code liens.

Florida Statute 713.08(5) sets the recording deadline: a claim of lien "may be recorded at any time during the progress of the work or thereafter but not later than 90 days after the final furnishing of the labor or services or materials by the lienor."

Florida Statute 713.22(1) then sets the shelf life: a construction lien "does not continue for a longer period than 1 year after the claim of lien has been recorded or 1 year after the recording of an amended claim of lien that shows a later date of final furnishing of labor, services, or materials, unless within that time an action to enforce the lien is commenced in a court of competent jurisdiction."

There is also a mechanism to force the issue. Under Florida Statute 713.22(2), a lienor served with the statutory notice "who fails to institute a suit to enforce his or her lien within 60 days after service of such notice is extinguished automatically."

So a contractor's lien that has sat on the title for well over a year, with no lawsuit filed and no lis pendens recorded, is in a very different position from a code lien of the same age. It is worth establishing which you actually have.

A lis pendens is the recorded notice that a lawsuit affecting the property is pending, and Florida Statute 48.23 is what gives it effect. Under 48.23(1)(a), an action "operates as a lis pendens on any real or personal property involved therein or to be affected thereby only if a notice of lis pendens is recorded in the official records of the county where the property is located." Its absence from the county records is therefore checkable, and it is the thing that tells you whether a suit to enforce the lien was ever actually brought.

The taxes do not care about the condition

A house in poor repair is often also a house with tax arrears, and the tax lien outranks everything else.

Florida Statute 197.122(1) makes all taxes "a first lien, superior to all other liens, on any property against which the taxes have been assessed," continuing "from January 1 of the year the taxes were levied until discharged by payment or until barred under chapter 95." The same subsection says owners "are held to know that taxes are due and payable annually and are responsible for ascertaining the amount of current and delinquent taxes and paying them before April 1 of the year following the year in which taxes are assessed."

A falling assessed value does not reduce what is already owed.

Association fines and dues transfer with the property

If the house is in a homeowners' association or a condominium, deferred maintenance frequently generates association charges as well as municipal ones, and those follow the title.

Florida Statute 720.3085(2)(b) provides that "a parcel owner is jointly and severally liable with the previous parcel owner for all unpaid assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title." Florida Statute 718.116(1)(a) says the same for condominium units, and Florida Statute 718.116(1)(c) requires the person acquiring title to "pay the amount owed to the association within 30 days after transfer of title."

That joint-and-several liability is precisely why a buyer will want the association estoppel figures before closing, and why an unresolved association balance can hold up an otherwise straightforward sale.

Why a repair-heavy house often cannot be sold to a retail buyer

This part is practical rather than statutory, but it explains a lot.

Most buyers are financing, and many lenders will not lend against a property with open permits, unpermitted structural work, an active code case, or conditions that fail an appraisal. The result is that houses in this condition tend to trade for cash — not because cash buyers are the only option in principle, but because the financed buyer's lender removes itself from the transaction.

That is the gap we operate in. It also means the relevant comparison is rarely "cash offer versus full market value." It is "cash offer now" versus "market value after the repairs, the permits, the code compliance, the carrying costs, and the accruing fines under Florida Statute 162.09(3)."

What to establish before you decide

Pull the code enforcement history for the address from the city or county. You need to know whether an order has been recorded, what the daily rate is, and when it started running.

Check the title for recorded liens, and check the dates. Under Florida Statute 713.22(1) a construction lien older than a year with no suit filed is in a weak position; under Florida Statute 162.10 a code lien can still be alive at twenty years.

Get the tax position from the county tax collector, remembering Florida Statute 197.122(1)'s priority.

Get association estoppel figures if there is an association, given Florida Statutes 720.3085(2)(b) and 718.116(1)(a).

And if the property is your homestead, note the protection in Florida Statute 162.09(3) before treating a code lien as an emergency.

Where we fit

Investor Trustee Services buys Florida houses in as-is condition, including houses with open code cases, recorded fines, unfinished work, and deferred maintenance we would rather see for ourselves than have described. Where a reverse mortgage is part of the picture, that is a particular focus of ours: Investor Trustee Services is an approved bidder in HUD's reverse-mortgage (HECM) loan sales and an active buyer of houses left behind by reverse mortgages.

Every section named here is free to read at leg.state.fl.us or flsenate.gov. The code enforcement file, the recorded liens and the tax roll are all public records, and they are the only reliable way to find out what is actually attached to the property.

Selling a Florida house in this situation? Get a written cash offer — no fees, no repairs, and no obligation.