Dania S Fernandez & Associates PA

01/31/2022

Big picture, the title company works for you in order to protect you and your property. Here are the main roles of a title company:

• First and foremost, reviewing the title and performing a title search
• Manages your escrow
• Supervises the closing process
• Records and files all paperwork for the transaction
• Issues title insurance policies

01/31/2022

Title insurance searches require a deep investigation into the full history of the home. For this reason, you need experts on your side with an intricate understanding of real estate
law and many other applicable areas of law. For more about what title companies do, check out this blog.

You just found your dream home and you couldn’t be more ready to move in. Congrats! But before you can hire movers or start planning out your interior decorations, there’s the paperwork. Yes, it may seem like a mountain of documents, but it’s all very necessary to solidify your new home owners...

01/27/2022

When you purchase a new home, it has usually gone through multiple ownership changes. In the same way that you hope previous owners have taken good care of the home and left everything in great shape, the title needs to be taken care of as well.

When you purchase a new home, it has usually gone through multiple ownership changes. In the same way that you hope previous owners have taken good care of the home and left everything in great shape, the title needs to be taken care of as well. Problems with a title can arise from previous liens, [...

01/25/2022

Your community association needs a lawyer, there is no doubt about it. From CC&Rs, to amending bylaws, from delinquencies and bad debt to foreclosures, there is every reason to make sure your community is protected.

Your community association needs a lawyer, there is no doubt about it. From CC&Rs, to amending bylaws, from delinquencies and bad debt to foreclosures, there is every reason to make sure your community is protected. But where do you begin in finding the best and most qualified representation for you...

01/23/2022

What a real estate lawyer does that a title company cannot:

• Draft and negotiate legal documents and contract addenda (non-standard legal docs)
• Find and correct complicated title issues
• Provide legal advice
• Knowledge and experience to address complex legal issues
• No conflicts of interest, they are focused on protecting you
• Oftentimes less expensive and offering far more services
• No “junk” fees just to make the transaction more profitable
•
Buying or selling a home or property is so often time sensitive and stressful. In some cases, this pressure and stress is intentional to make you sign and miss the fine print. A real estate lawyer on your side can help you understand all the legal jargon and offer counsel that is in your best interest.

For most of us, buying or selling a home will likely be the biggest financial transaction we will ever make. You have every reason to protect your current or future assets with as much coverage as you can get. A real estate attorney can do much more to protect and provide for you in any […]

01/21/2022

While no one wants issues to be discovered in a title search, the point of the search is to make sure nothing comes up. A few of the problems that typically come up in a title search:

• Break in the chain of title – Not uncommon, a break in the chain of title simply means that there is a missing deed in the chain – Party A sells to Party B, then Party C transfers it to Party D, but we can’t find a record of the transfer from B to C. This just means the title company must do a deeper dive to find the deed connecting either B to C or B to D. Any evidence to restore the chain is the goal.
• Liens on the property- Another issue that is relatively common is discovering liens on the property. Of late this happens regularly when purchasing a foreclosed home, but it can occur if there was a contractor disputing their pay as well. If the liens aren’t cleared, you aren’t getting a clean title but would be inheriting the debt with the property. Not a major problem, just one that needs to be resolved.
• Public records errors
When there are tens of thousands of homes sold each year, there are bound to be clerical errors at the County level. Often it is just a simple misfiling, but the fact is incomplete documentation somewhere down the line in the history of your title can create a major headache if not fixed.
• Unknown heirs
If a home was bought after someone was deceased, heirs can show up and contest the title of the home. Heirs can come out of the shadows after the purchase of a home and cause all sorts of issues with ownership.

The title to your home is your legal record of holding ownership of your home. The title holds the record of ownership of your property and if it’s not clear, then someone else can potentially make a claim to your home. Believe it or not, one the most crucial steps in the purchase of a […]

01/19/2022

When you join the board of your HOA or your condo association, it’s a good idea to confirm a past board has looked through the CC&Rs to make sure any discriminatory covenants have been removed. If that hasn’t been done, it is a good idea to do so yourself.

01/16/2022

It can be difficult navigating the tension of requests and understanding who gets to see what on the board.

If you are a property owner and have questions about if you are entitled, click here to read our blog "Are Homeowners Entitled to Review Board Meeting Minutes." Hopefully, this cleared some things up!

It just takes a minute… Minutes are the official record of an organization’s proceedings. When your HOA or condo association is having a board meeting the minutes document all relevant matters such as votes, motions and organization actions for internal use as well as legal records. A question w...

01/14/2022

In short: CC&Rs are the rules, requirements, and limitations that help condo associations to manage their shared property. The CC&Rs are the roadmap for any community to understand what is allow and what isn’t of their neighbors, whether they own the property or are renting it from the owner.

At the heart of the CC&Rs, they should be a clear outline on how to protect the integrity of the community, improve the overall quality of life within the area, and upkeep property values. However, this is not to say that they don’t come with their share of headaches.

01/12/2022

The standard operating procedure whenever there is a question about the process for a condo association to do anything is to first look at the Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs). It is the core of the governing documents for your association, so it is the first place to look when figuring out what actions are possible – or what needs to be changed in the CC&Rs to be able to take a certain action.

01/09/2022

Revising a budget can be just as much work as it sounds, but it is necessary to see improvements.

It is always a good idea to look at every line item from past data. After all, this is how you come up with projections for recent expenses. Examine the association’s expenses from the last 3 to 5 years. This way, you can get a rough draft of what your upcoming year will have in store in terms of costs.

For most Floridians, fall is just a label that is placed on another set of months because we don’t really experience the dramatic temperature shifts the way other states do. However, the beginning of fall is significant when it comes to HOA’s because of one thing in particular – budget season....

01/07/2022

In Miami, when you send out an offer on a home, your realtor will fill out the contract and that includes filling in the section that names the title company.

Typically, the realtor picks someone they’ve worked with in the past that has done a good job. But just because that’s the norm doesn’t mean you have to use them.

It is always a good idea to ask your realtor why they are opting for a specific Title Company over another. It’s also a good idea to call up that Title Company and ask them about their process and why you should hire them (because you are the one doing the hiring).