Orlando Hospitality Team partner Kurt Gruber and associate Andrew Fisher co-authored “The Tide Turns: Florida’s New Trustee Foreclosure Law,” for the October 2010 issue of Developments magazine, a publication of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA).
In the article, Gruber and Fisher explain the implications of the Florida legislature’s recent amendment to the Florida Vacation Plan and Timesharing Act, now providing for trustee (non-judicial) foreclosure of assessment and mortgage liens on timeshare interests. “By amending Chapter 721 to provide for trustee foreclosures, Florida catches up with many other states that already have non-judicial foreclosure laws and in the process undergoes a paradigm shift,” they explain.
Gruber and Fisher point out that ARDA-Florida has long been concerned with the escalating costs and time involved in completing a judicial foreclosure of a lien against a timeshare interest. While past attempts were not as successful as they hoped, the situation changed as the economy soured: “[G]iven the severe impact that the downturn in the economy had on the timeshare industry, it was obvious that action needed to be taken to provide relief to timeshare developers and owners’ associations faced with increases in defaulting mortgages and unpaid assessments and a judicial court system overwhelmed with residential and commercial foreclosures...ARDA-Florida approached the process by working with the legal community, House and Senate leadership, and legislative aides and staff, identifying the areas that gave rise to the opposition to the legislation in prior years.”
The article goes on to explain the non-judicial foreclosure process now in effect thanks to the passage of the law, also pointing out measures that protect timeshare owner rights and protections.
The authors conclude that “The new law should speed up the time to complete an uncontested foreclosure from well over 250 days to as little as 80 days, while assisting timeshare owners’ associations and mortgagees to lower foreclosure costs.”
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