Code enforcement liens in Jacksonville and Clay County: how they grow, and how to sell a house that has them

A notice from code enforcement is easy to put in a drawer, especially for a house you inherited or do not live in. In Florida that is expensive. Fines can run every day the problem continues, and they become liens that follow the property and sometimes the owner. This guide explains how it works in Jacksonville and Clay County, and how these houses get sold.

It is general information, not legal advice. The office that sent your notice can tell you exactly what is owed on your case.

Who is citing the property

• Jacksonville and most of Duval County: the City of Jacksonville's Municipal Code Compliance Division. Because the city and county are consolidated, it covers nearly everything except the Beaches cities and Baldwin, which have their own enforcement.
• Clay County: the county's Code Enforcement office handles unincorporated areas such as Middleburg, Fleming Island and Oakleaf. Orange Park and Green Cove Springs enforce their own codes inside their limits.

The notice names the office and gives a case number. Keep it. Every lien and payoff is tied to that number.

What usually starts a case

• Overgrown grass, trash, junk and abandoned vehicles.
• A vacant building that is open, broken into or fire damaged.
• A structure the city considers unsafe: a failing roof, a collapsed porch, missing windows.
• Work done without permits.
• No working utilities in an occupied house.

The two kinds of liens

Nuisance abatement liens. If the owner does not cut the grass, clear the lot or board up the building, the city hires a contractor to do it and bills the property. Each cutting or cleanup is its own charge with an administrative fee, and they stack up through a growing season. In serious cases the city can demolish a structure and bill that too.

Fine liens. For violations that continue, the case goes to a hearing before a special magistrate or code enforcement board. If the owner is found in violation and does not fix it by the deadline, a fine runs for every day the violation continues. Florida law allows these daily fines to reach into the hundreds of dollars, and more for repeat violations. A certified copy of the order is recorded as a lien.

A fine that has run for a year or two can be larger than the house is worth. That is not unusual on long-vacant properties.

Three things owners do not expect

1. A fine lien can reach beyond the cited house. Under Florida law, a recorded code enforcement fine order can become a lien on other real and personal property the violator owns in that county. A problem at a rental can end up as a lien on the owner's own home.

2. The fine does not stop on its own. Fixing the problem is not enough. The owner has to get the property re-inspected and get an affidavit of compliance filed. Until then, the meter keeps running.

3. The lien survives a sale unless it is dealt with. A buyer's title company will find it and will not insure the title until it is paid, reduced or released.

Getting a fine reduced

This is the part worth knowing. Once the violation is corrected, most Florida jurisdictions, including Jacksonville and Clay County, have a process to ask for a reduction of the accumulated fine. The owner or a new buyer files a request, shows the property is in compliance, and explains the circumstances. Reductions can be large, especially for an heir who inherited the problem.

Three points:

• The property generally has to be in compliance first.
• The request takes time, often weeks to a few months. Start well before a closing date.
• Abatement bills for work the city paid a contractor to do are usually not reduced. It is the daily fines that are negotiable.

Selling a house with code liens

You can sell with an open case or recorded liens. What to expect:

1. Disclose it. Florida sellers have to tell buyers about known facts that materially affect the property's value, and an open violation is one.
2. The title company orders a lien search. Unrecorded municipal liens and open permits do not always show in a normal title search, so a separate municipal lien search is standard in Florida.
3. Liens are paid or settled at closing from the sale proceeds, or the buyer agrees in writing to take them on.
4. Open violations transfer to the buyer, who then has to bring the property into compliance.

A buyer with a mortgage usually cannot close on a house with an unsafe structure case or large open liens, because the lender will not allow it. That is why these houses mostly sell to cash buyers who are set up to cure the violation and then ask for the reduction.

If the house is inherited

Most of the worst cases start this way: an owner passes, the house sits, and the notices go to an address nobody checks.

• Call the code office with the case number and give them a working phone number and mailing address.
• Ask for the total owed and whether fines are still running.
• Get the grass cut and the house secured now. Stopping new charges is cheap.
• Read how probate and homestead work when selling an inherited house in Jacksonville. The family can sell with the case open once someone has authority to sign.

How we buy houses with code liens

We buy houses for cash across Duval County and Clay County with open cases and recorded liens. We order the lien search before we make an offer, so the number you see already accounts for what is owed. The liens are handled through the title company at closing, and we take on the compliance work and the reduction request after that.

Sometimes the cheapest answer is to cut the grass, close the case and ask for the reduction yourself. If that is true for your property, we will say so. To see what we would pay as it sits, send us the address. There is no charge and no obligation.