Is the government of China threatening to acquire all of the State of Florida within the next several weeks? Title companies are scrambling to produce their own form of affidavit, but whether it will be sufficient to satisfy the statutory requirement is not clear at this time and will not be clear on July 1, 2023. Why a sea change in Florida law had to take effect 55 days after enactment is not clear. SB 264 was signed by the Governor on May 8, 2023, but FREC has announced the required affidavit will not be ready before July 1, 2023, the effective date of the new law. How would a seller know the country or origin of the buyer? And how would a title company insuring title for a buyer know his, her or its country of origin? The answer: The buyer must sign an affidavit in a form to be adopted by the Florida Real Estate Commission (“FREC”). But here we are dealing only with enforcement. SB 264 restricts or prevents foreign ownership of real estate by nationals of the following designated countries: China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Syria and “the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro.” It is not clear whether “the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro” is actually referring to the country of Venezuela or solely to the regime of its leader. The below discussion covers two of these new laws: SB 264 (“Interests of Foreign Countries”) and HB 1419 (“Real Property Fraud”). However, the Legislature enacted other legislation dealing with questionable perceived shortcomings of other existing real estate law and passed additional bills with fast-approaching deadlines, as if the State of Florida was on the verge of falling into an abyss without these necessary “fixes.” This legislation, whether you like it or not, was timely given the unchanged Decemdeadline for many of the provision of SB 4-D’s surviving provisions. Most notably may be SB 15, the so-called SB 4-D Glitch Bill that deals with inspections and reserves for condominiums. The Florida Legislature passed numerous bills primarily affecting real estate in the 2023 session.
0 kommentar(er)
