Banks Win, Local Governments Lose, Again

As though it wasn't bad enough that banks circumvented payment of filing fees to local county government, a ruling last month in City of Palm Bay v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA, held that local code violation fines do not hold a superior lien over mortgages.

So for all of those neighborhoods with abandoned homes with 4-foot-tall dandelions, sitting-water mosquito factories, or rat colonies as the new tenants, the city is powerless to do anything to correct blighted homes facing foreclosure.

The only way for local governments to have a superior lien would be by a new law enacted by the Florida Legislature that would grant superiority.