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HOA Spy says its review of Florida court and county records found 10,296 foreclosure suits brought by associations against their own members and 460,412 association lien claims. The figures show the scale of association enforcement activity, but filings are not a count of homes lost or proof that associations caused Florida’s housing crisis.
Florida homeowner and condominium associations have brought 10,296 foreclosure suits against their own members, while recording 460,412 claims of lien, according to a records analysis published by HOA Spy. The figures document a large volume of association enforcement activity, but do not establish how many homes were lost or show how much that activity contributes to the state’s housing crisis.
HOA Spy says it indexes 104,659 Florida associations. Of those, 27,377 have a unit count on file, covering a reported 1,518,436 homes. Its analysis counts court and county-record entries, including 48,999 court records naming an association, 277,047 lis pendens and 6,661 associations whose corporate status has lapsed or fallen out of standing.
The report says 2,695 associations have brought foreclosure suits against an owner. It distinguishes those cases from lender foreclosures that name an association: the analysis counts 1,629 of the latter. The report says 599 association-filed suits were recorded in 2025, the last full year in its data, and 667 so far in 2026. The 2026 figure is partial and should not be compared with a completed year as if the periods were equal.
HOA Spy argues that liens and foreclosure actions can constrain homeowners’ options. It says a recorded lien can complicate a sale or refinancing until the debt is resolved, while a foreclosure case can expose a household to legal costs and the risk of a forced sale. Those are the report’s account of potential effects; its raw filing totals do not show how many owners ultimately paid, settled, refinanced, sold, or lost a home.
How Liens Can Disrupt Home Sales
The counts matter because association dues and assessments are attached to homes through legal collection powers. When an owner falls behind, a lien may complicate a transaction or refinancing, while a court case can add legal expenses and pressure to resolve the debt. For a household already struggling with housing costs, those consequences can narrow choices even if the case does not end in foreclosure.
At the same time, the record totals are not a measure of Florida’s housing shortage, affordability, or displacement. They do not establish that associations are a major cause of the crisis relative to housing prices, insurance costs, construction, or other factors. The report identifies an enforcement issue that can affect individual owners; assessing its statewide effect would require additional evidence about outcomes, household finances, and housing supply.
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What the Filing Counts Measure
Florida law gives homeowners’ associations and condominium associations statutory liens for unpaid assessments and allows them to seek foreclosure. HOA Spy cites Florida Statutes sections 720.3085 and 718.116 for those powers. A claim of lien is a recorded document asserting a debt; a lis pendens gives notice of pending litigation involving property. Neither record, by itself, proves that a home was sold or taken from its owner.
The report says its court and county-record counts come from official dockets and recorder indexes, including indexes for Broward and Miami-Dade counties. It also cautions that dues and home-price figures appearing elsewhere on its page come from other sources and are dated. Its 460,412 lien claims span records dating back to 1978, so that cumulative count is not an annual rate and may include repeated filings involving the same property.
“A foreclosure suit is not a lost home — most end when the owner, or the owner’s lender, pays.”
— HOA Spy report
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How Many Owners Lost Homes?
The report does not provide a case-by-case outcome for the 10,296 foreclosure suits. It is not clear from the totals how many were dismissed, settled, paid, resolved through a lender, or ended in a foreclosure sale. Nor do the figures show how many lien records concern repeat filings or how many affected homes were later sold or refinanced.
The counts also do not establish the associations’ share of Florida’s housing crisis. HOA Spy’s characterization that association practices make the crisis worse is an interpretation of the records and their potential effects, not a causal estimate. The data supplied do not compare association enforcement with other drivers of housing costs or measure the number of households displaced.
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What More Data Would Show
Understanding the scale of the effects would require linking filings to case outcomes and property transactions, while accounting for repeat liens and differences among counties. The report provides community-level records and says readers can inspect individual community reports, but the supplied material does not announce a government review, policy change, or scheduled next step.
For now, the reported totals offer a snapshot of recorded legal activity, not a final count of homes lost. Readers should treat 2026 filings as ongoing and partial, and distinguish association-filed foreclosure suits from lender cases that merely name an association.
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Key Questions
How many foreclosure suits did Florida associations bring?
HOA Spy counts 10,296 suits brought by associations against their own members, from 2,695 communities. The report’s counts are based on court records.
Do those suits mean 10,296 homes were lost?
No. A lawsuit is not proof of a completed foreclosure or a lost home. HOA Spy says many cases end after the owner or lender pays, but the supplied report does not give a complete outcome breakdown.
What does an association lien do?
A lien records an association’s claim for unpaid assessments against a property. HOA Spy says a lien can complicate a sale or refinancing until the debt is addressed; the total count does not show how many unique homes were affected.
Are the 2026 foreclosure figures for a full year?
No. HOA Spy reports 667 suits so far in 2026 and marks the year as partial. It should not be compared directly with the full-year 2025 count of 599.
Source: hn
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