Aventura Attorney

Serving Aventura with 30 Years of Legal Experience

What Is Different About Legal Matters in Aventura

A city with its own Building Division. Aventura is an incorporated city, and building permits for Aventura properties come from the City’s Building Division at Government Center, 19200 West Country Club Drive. The City’s building pages also cover recertification of older buildings, using Miami-Dade County forms, and its enhanced building safety inspection program. For a condo purchase, that means checking the building’s inspection and permit history along with the association’s finances; see Florida’s condo milestone inspection and SIRS rules. Those permit and inspection files are kept by the City, not in the County’s Official Records, so a title search alone will not show them; the title side of the purchase is covered in title search and title insurance in Miami.

Comparing units across the county line. Aventura sits on the Broward County line, and buyers here often compare a unit in Aventura with one in Hallandale Beach next door. The rules change at the line. In Miami-Dade, the documentary stamp tax on a deed is 60 cents per $100 plus a 45-cent surtax that does not apply to a deed for only a single-family dwelling; in Broward it is 70 cents per $100 with no surtax (Florida Statutes section 201.02). An Aventura deed is recorded with the Miami-Dade Clerk, while a Broward deed is recorded by the County’s Records, Taxes and Treasury Division. Most older Broward buildings that are not exempt also face a building safety inspection at 25 years under a county-wide policy, compared with 30 years under the Miami-Dade recertification rule the City applies. See our Broward County page.

Seven business days to review a resale condo. When you buy a unit from an owner other than the developer, the contract is voidable by written notice within 7 days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, after you sign it and receive a current copy of the declaration, articles of incorporation, bylaws, rules, and the other association documents the statute lists. That right ends at closing (Florida Statutes section 718.503(2)). Use that window to read the documents, including any pending special assessment.

Unpaid assessments follow the unit. Florida’s condominium statute makes every owner liable for the assessments that come due while he or she owns the unit, and makes a buyer jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for unpaid assessments that came due up to the transfer of title (Florida Statutes section 718.116(1)(a)). The association also holds a lien on each unit to secure payment (section 718.116(5)(a)). In a city of condominium towers, where an older building may be collecting for repairs, that is why the association’s estoppel certificate matters before you close; see who pays a condo special assessment. The same rule shapes bankruptcy for an Aventura owner. Federal law does not except from discharge the association balances that came due before the case, but assessments that come due after filing are not discharged for as long as you keep an ownership interest in the unit (11 U.S.C. section 523(a)(16)). Whether to keep the unit is part of planning the case; our pages on Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Miami and Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Miami explain how each case runs.

Selling an Aventura condo. The same section puts the duty on the selling owner: a unit owner who is not the developer must comply with it before the sale, and the buyer’s 7 days do not begin until the buyer has the documents. Gathering a current set from the association early means the review period can start as soon as the contract is signed. Florida sellers must also tell the buyer about known problems that materially affect the unit’s value and are not readily observable, and give the written notices Florida statutes require; see what a Florida seller must disclose.

Ask the City for a lien search, too. The City of Aventura’s eTRAKiT online portal accepts lien search requests and shows the status of permits and code violation cases. An open code case, an expired permit, or an unpaid City balance that has not been recorded will not appear in a search of the County’s Official Records, which is why Miami-Dade buyers usually order a municipal lien search on top of the title search. For an Aventura purchase, request it early enough to have open items resolved before closing; our guide on how liens affect a sale explains what happens when one turns up.

A violation letter from the City or from the association? In a city where so many residents live in condominiums, the letter about a balcony enclosure, a rental, or a renovation often comes from the association, not the City. They are separate tracks. A City code case is opened by the City and can be looked up in eTRAKiT. An association fine follows Florida’s condominium statute: the board must give at least 14 days’ written notice and an opportunity for a hearing before a committee of at least three members who are not officers, directors, or employees of the association, and a condo fine may not become a lien against the unit (Florida Statutes section 718.303(3)). Many disputes with a condo board also require nonbinding arbitration with the state’s condominium division, or presuit mediation, before a lawsuit can be filed (section 718.1255(4)(a)). Our guide to condo and HOA disputes in Miami walks through each step.

An Aventura address and the City’s charter school. The City of Aventura operates Aventura City of Excellence School (ACES) in conjunction with Charter Schools USA, and the City states that first consideration for admission goes to Aventura residents and to children of active-duty military, with a lottery when applications exceed the seats available. Florida’s charter school law allows that kind of preference for children of residents of a municipality that operates a charter school (Florida Statutes section 1002.33(10)(d)). For separating parents, that makes the child’s address a practical question. A Florida parenting plan must say which parent’s address is used for school-boundary determination and registration (section 61.13(2)(b)3.b.), so if one parent is moving out of Aventura, settle that point in the plan before the City’s enrollment period. Our guide explains what a Florida parenting plan must include.

Court locations for northeast Miami-Dade. The Miami-Dade Clerk’s North Dade Justice Center, 15555 Biscayne Boulevard, takes domestic violence case filings and holds hearings, with extended hours; our guide explains how a domestic violence injunction works. Divorce and other family cases in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit are heard at the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center, 175 NW First Avenue, in downtown Miami.