Cutler Bay Attorney

Why Cutler Bay Clients Work With Arturo R. Alfonso

What Is Different About Legal Matters in Cutler Bay

A town with its own building department. Cutler Bay has been an incorporated town since November 9, 2005, when its charter took effect. Building permits for Cutler Bay properties come from the Town’s Building Department at the Town Center, 10720 Caribbean Boulevard, and the Town’s online permit search covers records from August 1, 2010; older records are requested from the Building Department directly. Checking those records for open or expired permits is part of reviewing a Cutler Bay purchase, along with the title work described in what a real estate attorney does at closing. Permits and title are separate checks: an open permit is found in the Town’s records, while unpaid liens, judgments, and gaps in ownership turn up in the title search and title commitment.

A courthouse in town. The South Dade Justice Center is at 10710 SW 211th Street in Cutler Bay. The Miami-Dade Clerk lists county court, small claims, landlord-tenant disputes, and domestic violence petitions among the matters handled there. A residential eviction for unpaid rent starts with a written demand giving the tenant 3 days, not counting Saturday, Sunday, and legal holidays, to pay or leave (Florida Statutes section 83.56(3)); our guide to the Florida eviction process covers the court steps that follow. If you need protection from a family member, see how a domestic violence injunction works. A divorce, custody, or support case is a circuit court family case for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit’s Family Division, and many uncontested cases need little or no time in a courtroom; whether you have to go to court for a divorce depends on how the case is resolved.

Homestead inside a municipality. Because Cutler Bay is incorporated, Florida’s constitutional homestead protection from forced sale is limited to one-half acre of contiguous land, rather than the 160 acres that applies in unincorporated areas such as Kendall (Florida Constitution, Article X, section 4(a)(1)). What that means for a homeowner considering bankruptcy is covered in keeping your house in a Florida bankruptcy.

Two Town registrations owners overlook. If you rent a Cutler Bay house or condo unit to guests more than three times in a calendar year for stays shorter than 30 days or one calendar month, the Town treats it as a vacation rental under Ordinance 19-04. It must be registered with the Town and follow the operating rules in the Town’s land development regulations, and every registration expires on September 30 and must be renewed. Separately, the Town Code (Chapter 26, Division 5) requires any property that is the subject of a notice of default or a foreclosure action, occupied or vacant, to be registered through the registry the Town uses. If you are a landlord or tenant in an ordinary lease, our page on landlord-tenant and eviction representation explains how we handle those matters.

Ask the Town for a lien search, too. A title search covers the County’s Official Records, and the Town of Cutler Bay also answers lien searches for its own matters. The Office of the Town Clerk provides lien verification for code violations, false alarm violations, and unsafe structures; the request gives the property address and folio number. A permit search is a separate request that the Clerk forwards to the Building Department, with its own payment. The Town lists a standard turnaround of 5 to 7 business days from payment, with a 24-hour expedited option, so on a purchase both searches are worth ordering early; confirm the current fees with the Town Clerk. Our guide to how a lien affects selling your home explains how liens are cleared before closing, and if the sale also changes who holds title within a family, see how we prepare and record a deed.