South Florida HOA & condo lawsuits, liens and foreclosures: the numbers

Why Florida is the worst state in the nation for HOA trouble

South Florida is the heart of it: its 3 counties alone hold 27,289 HOA court records, more than any state other than Texas. The comparison below is Florida against every other state on HOA Spy — the same records, the same rules.

1. One in three HOA lawsuits in the country is a Florida caseFlorida holds 48,999 of the 147,465 court records naming a homeowner or condominium association on HOA Spy (33%). Texas is next with 41,271, and no other state reaches 15,879.
2. Florida associations foreclose on their own members more than every other state combined12,006 Florida court records are foreclosure cases — the association foreclosing its lien on a home, or named in a lender's foreclosure — 55% of the 21,898 nationwide. Texas is next with 5,084.
3. When homeowners sue their association, half the time it is in Florida14,113 Florida records have the association as the defendant, 51% of the 27,622 such records in every state. Texas is next with 3,747. Florida also leads in 996 insurance disputes (36% of the nation's) and 800 fair-housing and other civil-rights suits (41% of the nation's).
4. 737,459 lien and foreclosure filings against homeowners in Broward and Miami-Dade countiesThe recorder indexes of Broward and Miami-Dade counties alone list 460,412 claims of lien and 277,047 lis pendens (the filing that starts a foreclosure) by associations. At the peak, in 2009, associations there recorded 46,427 lis pendens — about 127 a day. One community, BEACHPLACE TOWERS CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., has 8,798 claims of lien on file. (Lien indexes are collected for Florida, Illinois and New York only, so this is a count for the covered counties, not a national ranking.)
5. 2026 is already Florida's busiest year on file2,816 Florida court records have been filed so far in 2026, past the 2,549 of 2010, the previous record; 2025 had 2,476. 92 Florida communities have 50 or more court records each, more than any other state. Maryland is next with 73.

These are counts of records on file, not rates. Florida has 104,659 indexed associations — more than any other state — and its county courts publish deep case histories, so it counts more. Per hundred communities, Florida has 47 court records; Maryland has 603 and Texas has 231. A state whose courts hide older cases ranks lower whatever its associations do.

South Florida on the map

4,016 of the 5,566 South Florida communities with court records (rings, coloured by their most common case type) and 7,649 of the 33,603 with recorded liens (dots, coloured by liens in the last five years) have an address or ZIP in the record and are drawn here; the rest have no location in any record and are not on the map, but stay searchable. Click a pin for the community's report, or open the full-screen map.

South Florida here means Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. HOA Spy indexes 45,268 homeowner and condominium associations there — 43% of Florida's. 5,566 of them appear in 27,289 court records (56% of the state's) — 22,884 from county and state trial courts, 3,287 from appellate courts and 1,118 from federal dockets. The county lien indexes list 451,511 association liens and 272,435 foreclosure filings (lis pendens) against owners. Every number on this page is computed from official court and county records; a community whose records carry no county is counted for Florida but not here. Data as of 2026-10-02.

The facts

• The records are spread thin: 2,578 of the 5,566 communities with a court record appear in exactly one case, and the ten most-litigated together hold only 3% of the records.
• Associations are usually the ones suing: they were the plaintiff in 18,088 records and the defendant in 7,715 — 70% of the cases with a known side were brought by the association, typically to collect assessments.
• The busiest year on file was 2010, with 1,714 records. The last full year, 2025, had 1,387 — up 103% on 2020 (684).
• Other cases make up 35% of the records (9,687): dockets that carry no nature of suit or one outside these groups (county civil dockets often say only "civil"). Next come Foreclosure cases (8,165).
• 22,884 records come (84%) from county and state trial courts, 3,287 from appellate courts and 1,118 from federal dockets.
• 237 records are fair-housing, disability-accommodation or other civil-rights suits — the kind of case a buyer with a service animal or an accessibility request should know about.
• The recorder indexes for Broward and Miami-Dade counties list 451,511 association liens and 272,435 lis pendens (foreclosure filings) since 1978; 5,621 communities filed at least one lien in the last five years.
• Lien filings peaked in 2008 (28,737 in one year); 2025 saw 7,817, up 8% on 2020 (7,240).
• BEACHPLACE TOWERS CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC. alone has 8,798 liens on file (1998–2025).

South Florida county by county

The county is the community's own (from its registration or ZIP), not the court's. The recorder index of Palm Beach County is not collected: the liens shown for its communities were found in the Broward and Miami-Dade counties indexes, so its count is far from complete, and no lien shown there means not checked, not clean. Courts with the most South Florida records: Broward County Civil Central Courthouse (12,717); Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, Civil Division (3,603); Broward County Civil West Courthouse (3,040); Miami-Dade County Court, Civil Division (1,898); District Court of Appeal of Florida (1,112); District Court, S.D. Florida (1,072); Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal (1,040); Florida Third District Court of Appeal (922).

What the cases are about

Each court record is labelled by its nature of suit the way the map colours it. South Florida's 27,289 records break down as:

• Other9,687 · 35%
• Foreclosure8,165 · 30%
• Collections3,668 · 13%
• Appellate3,287 · 12%
• Property1,684 · 6%
• Insurance454 · 2%
• Civil Rights237 · 1%
• Labor95 · 0%
• Eviction10 · 0%
• Tax2 · 0%

Other: dockets that carry no nature of suit or one outside these groups (county civil dockets often say only "civil") · Foreclosure: the association foreclosing its lien, or named in a lender's foreclosure · Collections: assessment, debt and contract claims · Appellate: decisions of the state's appellate courts · Property: property and condominium disputes · Insurance: coverage disputes with an insurer · Civil Rights: fair-housing, disability-accommodation and other civil-rights claims · Labor: employment and labor claims · Eviction: eviction and unlawful-detainer actions · Tax: tax matters

Who is suing whom

The side comes from the role the court recorded for the association where the docket gives one, otherwise from which side of the “v.” the association's name sits. Appeals, petitions and association-versus-association captions stay undetermined.

Filings by year since 2005

court records · 2026 is partial

The oldest records on file date from 1970. The busiest full year was 2010 with 1,714. Years reflect the filing date on the docket (the decision date for appellate opinions); records with no date are left out. Coverage grows as courts are added, so part of any rise is HOA Spy reaching more dockets — see the sources below.

Associations with the most court records

A long record is not by itself a verdict on a community: a large association collecting assessments through the courts can have hundreds of small-claims entries. Open the profile to see what the cases are and who brought them.

Liens and foreclosure filings

From the official-records indexes of Broward and Miami-Dade counties (Broward County Official Records index, Miami-Dade County Official Records index). A claim of lien is recorded when an association says an owner owes it money; a lis pendens is recorded when it actually files the foreclosure suit.

claims of lienlis pendens · 2026 is partial

Claims of lien peaked in 2008 (28,737) and foreclosure filings in 2009 (45,582). 2025 saw 7,817 claims of lien, up 8% on 2020 (7,240).

Communities with the most liens on file

Communities with the most foreclosure filings

How South Florida compares

South Florida, the rest of Florida, and the states with the most court records on HOA Spy. The share column is the part of each row's indexed communities that appear in at least one case; it depends on which courts are indexed there as much as on the communities themselves.

Where this data comes from

• Trial courts: Broward County Clerk — eCaseView — Broward County
• Trial courts: Miami-Dade Clerk — civil, family & probate search — Miami-Dade County
• Trial courts: Hillsborough County Clerk — HOVER — Hillsborough County
• Miami-Dade County trial courts: Miami-Dade Clerk Commercial Data Services Civil FTP feed (daily civil tables + weekly indebtedness dump) (8,025 association cases)
• Federal dockets and state appellate opinions: CourtListener (RECAP archive and bulk data, snapshot 2026-09-30)
• Broward liens: Official Records yearly index exports, public SFTP, 1978-2025 (553,668 documents)
• Miami-Dade liens: Miami-Dade Clerk Official Records public search API (per-association name queries), 1978-2026 (225,403 documents) — best-effort (partial): 53% name-match hit rate; 59 mass filers truncated at the API's 500-row cap
• Lien index searched: Broward County Official Records
• Lien index searched: Miami-Dade Clerk — Official Records
• Association roster: FL DBPR condo extracts (27,955 records)
• Corporate standing: Sunbiz quarterly non-profit extract (SFTP) (210,713 records)
• IRS roster: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (285 records)
• Not collected: Palm Beach County lien index — subscription $600/yr
• Not collected: DBPR arbitration final orders — search form broken; published indexes stop ~2008

Most HOA litigation happens in state trial courts, which have no national index; HOA Spy reads the portals it can. A South Florida community outside the indexed courts can have cases this page does not count, and a community with no county in any record is left out of the region. Names are matched conservatively, so an ambiguous match is left out rather than guessed. Sources & methodology.

Questions people ask

Which South Florida county has the most HOA lawsuits?

Broward County, with 18,565 court records naming 2,488 of its 27,819 indexed associations — 68% of South Florida's records. Miami-Dade County has 7,900; Palm Beach County has 824.

How many HOA liens and foreclosures are recorded in Broward and Miami-Dade counties?

451,511 association claims of lien and 272,435 lis pendens since 1978 are on file; 7,817 liens were recorded in 2025. The peak year for foreclosure filings was 2009 with 45,582.

Is Florida really the worst state for HOAs?

By records on file, yes: Florida holds 48,999 of the 147,465 court records on HOA Spy, 33% of the national total; Texas is next with 41,271. It is also where the most associations are indexed and where the county courts publish the deepest histories, so the count partly measures coverage — the note under the five numbers above gives the per-community rate.

Do South Florida HOAs sue homeowners more than they get sued?

In the records with a known side, the association was the plaintiff 18,088 times and the defendant 7,715 times. Suits brought by associations are typically assessment collection and lien enforcement; suits against them typically come from owners, insurers or lenders.

How do I check a specific South Florida HOA?

Search it by name on HOA Spy: the report lists every lien, case and complaint on file with a link to the official record, and says which sources were checked. Communities with records also have a profile page under the Florida directory. Data as of 2026-10-02.