Selling a House With Code Violations or Code Liens in Miami

Florida’s code enforcement law is Chapter 162 of the Florida Statutes. It lets each county and city set up a code enforcement board, or use special magistrates who have the same status as a board, to hold hearings and set fines. Under section 162.09, a board can fine a violator for each day a violation continues past the deadline it sets. The statute caps those fines at $250 a day for a first violation, $500 a day for a repeat violation, and $5,000 per violation for one that is irreparable or irreversible. Cities and counties with 50,000 or more residents may adopt higher caps by ordinance: up to $1,000 a day, $5,000 a day for a repeat violation, and $15,000 per irreparable violation.

Fines keep running until the property comes into compliance. A certified copy of the order imposing the fine can be recorded in the public records, and from then on it is a lien against the land where the violation exists. Once a lien has gone unpaid for three months, the statute lets the local government foreclose it or sue for a money judgment, but a code lien cannot be foreclosed on a homestead. That protection stops a foreclosure. It does not erase the lien, and the lien still has to be dealt with when you sell.

Code liens can also reach other property. Miami-Dade County’s code says a recorded civil penalty order can become a lien on other real or personal property the violator owns, and the City of Miami calls these cross-over liens. If you own more than one property, a problem at one address can cloud the title to another.

In the City of Miami, code compliance inspectors issue notices of violation, and contested cases and fines go before the City’s Code Enforcement Board or a special magistrate. The City’s Code Compliance Hearing Boards office schedules those hearings. Building violations, such as work without a permit, unsafe structures and missed 40- or 50-year recertification, are handled by the City’s Building Department.

If the property is in unincorporated Miami-Dade, the county handles it. Neighborhood code issues go through the county’s Code Compliance Division, and building issues such as unsafe structures, work without permit and expired permits go through the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER). The county issues civil violation notices under Chapter 8CC of its code. Other cities in the county, such as Hialeah, Doral and Miami Beach, run their own code and building departments, each with its own search fees and procedures.

A quick way to tell which government you are dealing with is the folio number. The City of Miami says a folio that does not begin with 01 is outside City limits.

The City of Miami offers a Lien or Violation Search on miami.gov, run through its iBuild portal. You enter the folio number, pay the fee ($200 per report when this guide was updated), and then view or print a report of the liens and violations the City has on record. If you do not know your folio number, the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s property search will show it.

For unincorporated Miami-Dade, RER’s lien and collection section researches unsafe structure, work without permit, expired permit, minimum housing and neighborhood violations, plus liens recorded for them, and sends a letter listing what it found. There is a fee, and the county says the research takes 10 to 20 business days. The county also points buyers and sellers to the Clerk’s records for recorded liens and notices of violation.

In a sale, the title company or closing attorney usually orders a municipal lien search along with the regular title search. Ordering your own search early still helps. It tells you what you are dealing with before you sign a contract, and it gives you time to fix violations or ask for a fine reduction.

The City of Miami calls its fine-reduction process a mitigation hearing. It is for cases where the violation has been fixed but fines have built up. As the City describes it, every violation must first be brought into compliance and you must have an Affidavit of Compliance from the code compliance inspector. You then request a mitigation hearing online using the case number from the notice of violation. Only the owner or someone with legal standing, such as an attorney or a person with a notarized power of attorney, can file. The City says it reviews the request and emails a hearing date, time and place, usually within 3 to 5 business days. At the hearing, the Board makes a motion on the fines.

How far fines can be reduced is governed by Section 2-817 of the City Code, which the City amended in November 2024. The result depends on the case and the Board’s decision, so no reduction is guaranteed. Ask the Code Compliance Hearing Boards office how the current rules apply to your property, and keep in mind that anything you file for a public hearing becomes a public record.

If the problem is a cross-over lien on a property that has no violations of its own, the City has a separate special appearance hearing where the Code Enforcement Board can partially release that property. Miami-Dade County offers a Special Release of Lien for owners of several properties in unincorporated areas. Other cities have their own mitigation forms and steps, so check with the city that recorded your lien.

Unsafe structure cases come from the building official and move on their own track. In the City of Miami, they go before the Unsafe Structure Panel, a quasi-judicial body under Section 10-101 of the City Code. The Panel can order an owner to secure and repair a building on a set timeline, or order it demolished. The City says an appeal must be requested within ten days of the date of the first notice, and that the owner, a managing member of an owning company, a Florida-licensed attorney or a person with a properly executed power of attorney must attend the hearing with evidence.

In unincorporated Miami-Dade, the county’s Unsafe Structures Board reviews the building official’s unsafe structure decisions, and a separate Unsafe Structures Appeal Panel hears cases involving single-family homes and duplexes. Written appeals must be received within 30 days after the notice of violation is posted on the property. The county warns that if the owner does not comply, appeal or ask in writing for an extension, the building official can order the power disconnected and the structure vacated and secured.

An unsafe structure order with a demolition deadline is the most time-sensitive situation in this guide. If you want to sell, contact the building department and an attorney right away, and tell any buyer about the order before you sign a contract.

When you sell, the title company or closing attorney requests a payoff figure for each lien and pays it from your sale proceeds at closing, much like a mortgage payoff, and the lien is then released. Miami-Dade, for example, issues lien payoff letters for liens in unincorporated areas. If fines are still running or a mitigation hearing is pending, the closing agent may need a final number, or may hold back funds, before the sale can close.

An open violation is not the same as a lien. The violation is about the condition of the property, and it generally stays with the property when it changes hands. Miami-Dade’s guidance for unincorporated areas says a buyer who takes ownership becomes responsible for correcting illegal construction and paying the resulting fines. Some buyers will accept that. Many buyers using a loan will want it resolved first.

Miami-Dade also requires sellers of residential property in unincorporated areas to disclose illegal construction and outstanding code violations to the buyer, in the contract or an addendum signed the same day. Wherever the house is, telling the buyer in writing what you know protects you.

You do not have to fix every violation before you sell. The usual choices are to fix the violation, request mitigation and then sell; to sell and let the title company pay the liens from your proceeds; or to sell as-is to a buyer who takes the property with its open cases and handles them after closing. Fixing first can lower the fines and widen the pool of buyers. Selling as-is saves time and repair costs, and the price reflects the work the buyer takes on.

Florida Cash For Home buys houses in Miami and across Miami-Dade as-is, including houses with open code cases, liens or permit problems. We make a written cash offer, there are no commissions, and we pay the normal closing costs. Liens and fines are paid or negotiated from the sale proceeds through the title company at closing, so you do not need cash up front to clear them. When title is clear, we can close in as little as 10 days, and we work in English and Spanish.

Before you accept any offer, get your own lien search, ask what the price assumes about each lien and violation, and compare the net amount with what you would keep after fixing and listing. If the fines are large, talking with a Florida attorney about a mitigation request first may change the math.