TL;DR
A report by HOA Spy tallies 10,296 foreclosure suits brought by Florida associations against members and 460,412 recorded claims of lien. The figures are counts of legal filings, not homes lost, and the report argues that liens and collection actions can complicate home sales and refinancing.
Florida homeowners’ and condominium associations have filed 10,296 foreclosure suits against their own members, while recording 460,412 claims of lien against homes, according to a new tally by HOA Spy. The report says these actions can put pressure on housing by burdening owners and complicating sales or refinancing, but stresses that filing counts do not show how many homes were ultimately lost.
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HOA Spy says its database indexes 104,659 Florida associations. Of those, 27,377 have a unit count on file, covering a reported 1,518,436 homes. The site says the court and county-record figures come from official records; its page also cautions that dues and home-price figures referenced elsewhere are from other sources and have their own dates.
The report counts 10,296 association-initiated foreclosure suits across 2,695 communities, or 2.6% of the associations it has indexed. It distinguishes these cases from lender foreclosures that name an association: HOA Spy counts 1,629 such lender cases. Association-initiated suits peaked at 875 in 2009; the report lists 599 in 2025, described as the last full year, and 667 filed so far in 2026. The 2026 figure is partial and should not be compared with a full-year total.
HOA Spy also records 460,412 claims of lien and 277,047 lis pendens, notices associated with foreclosure proceedings. It says 48,999 court records name an association and 6,661 associations have lapsed or fallen out of corporate standing. These categories describe records or organizational status, not necessarily distinct homes, households or current conditions.
How Liens Can Constrain Homeowners
The report’s central concern is that association collection powers can affect a household before a home changes hands. HOA Spy says an unpaid assessment can lead to a lien, followed by interest, late charges, collection expenses and attorney fees. Under the Florida statutes cited in the report—sections 720.3085 for homeowners’ associations and 718.116 for condominiums—associations can place liens for unpaid assessments and pursue foreclosure.
A recorded lien can create obstacles even if no foreclosure follows. HOA Spy says title companies may not close a sale while a lien remains unresolved and lenders may be unwilling to refinance behind it. That can limit an owner’s options or add costs and delay. The report argues these mechanisms worsen housing pressure, but it does not quantify their effect on Florida home prices, the number of delayed transactions, or the state’s overall housing supply.
The foreclosure totals also need careful reading: a suit is not proof that a home was lost. The report says many cases end after the owner or the owner’s lender pays. Its figures show the scale of filings and the potential for financial pressure, not the final outcome of each case.
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What Florida’s Filing Counts Measure
HOA Spy frames housing pressure around three questions: what homes cost, how many are available, and whether current residents can remain in them. Its report focuses on the last two through association records, rather than offering a statewide estimate of housing affordability or supply.
The dataset includes filings dating back to 1978 for recorded liens and a year-by-year foreclosure series beginning in 2005. The site says its community-level entries link to individual records and that its maps include only communities with addresses or ZIP codes available in the records. Its totals therefore reflect the records it has indexed, not an independently verified census of every association action in Florida.
The report also says Florida accounts for 73% of the nation’s association foreclosure suits in its dataset. That is HOA Spy’s calculation; the supplied material does not provide the underlying national total or a separate methodology for that comparison. It should be read as a claim about the site’s indexed records, not as a government statistic.
“A housing crisis has three parts: what a home costs, how many are for sale, and whether the people in them get to stay.”
— HOA Spy
What the Records Cannot Establish
The supplied report does not state how many of the 10,296 suits ended in foreclosure, how many were dismissed or resolved through payment, or how many households moved as a result. It also does not measure the dollar value of liens or show how often a lien prevented a sale or refinance.
Some figures count filings rather than unique properties, and one home may appear in more than one record. The report gives totals for indexed records but does not provide, in the supplied material, a full audit of coverage, duplicate handling or outcomes. Its assertion that association actions worsen the broader housing crisis is an interpretation of those records; the counts alone do not establish the size of that effect.
The 2026 suit count is incomplete, and the source does not specify an exact cutoff date for the partial-year total. The 73% national share also lacks a denominator in the supplied material. Those details limit direct comparisons and should be clarified before treating either figure as a full-year or independently validated measure.
More Outcome Data Needed
The report points readers to community-level records and county indexes, including official-record indexes for Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Those records can help residents check individual filings, but the supplied report does not announce a policy change, legal decision or government review in response to its findings.
The next useful step for evaluating the housing impact would be outcome data: how many association suits lead to completed foreclosures, how long liens remain on record, and how often they delay or prevent transactions. Until such information is available, the published totals document substantial legal activity while leaving its statewide effect on housing access uncertain.
Key Questions
How many foreclosure suits did Florida associations file?
HOA Spy counts 10,296 suits brought by associations against their members across 2,695 communities. The figure counts suits, not completed foreclosures or homes lost.
How many association liens does the report list?
The report records 460,412 claims of lien in county indexes dating back to 1978. It does not establish that each filing represents a separate home or a lien that remains active today.
Do the filings prove that owners lost their homes?
No. HOA Spy says a foreclosure suit is not the same as a completed foreclosure and that many cases end when an owner or lender pays. The report does not give a final outcome for every case.
Why can a lien affect a home sale?
According to HOA Spy, a recorded lien can complicate a title transfer or refinancing until the debt is addressed. The report does not quantify how many Florida transactions have been delayed or blocked this way.
Is the 2026 foreclosure count a full-year figure?
No. HOA Spy lists 667 association suits so far in 2026 and identifies the figure as partial. The supplied material does not give an exact cutoff date.
Source: hn
