With assessments in Cape Coral being a hot topic nowadays, I thought I would share an experience I had recently that ended well but could have cost less time had I went a step further in my investigation. The listing printout from MLS said all assessments were paid. Wanting to ensure that all assessments had been paid on a home my buyers wanted to buy, I called the City of Cape Coral and was assured, via phone conversation, that there were no outstanding assessments against my customers chosen home. I was later given the same assurance by the title company and the closing went smoothly. Three months later, while talking to be customers, I was told of an invoice they recieved from the city stating they owed almost $10,000 in assessments. I contacted the city and the title company, and was again assured that there were no assessments due.
I decided to send in a "payoff information request form" to the city so I would have this in writing. The form came back and as you might have guessed, there were outstanding assessments against the property. While the "big hitters" of the assessments, (sewer impact and water impact), had been paid, the previous owners had decided to pay the smaller "potable water" and "irrigation" assessments over a 20 year period. These assessments were put in place in 2004, and showed up on the HUD statement as just a common tax rather than an assessment so no questions were asked. My customers were protected by the contract I used which made it clear that any assessment "certified, confirmed and ratified....imposed by public bodies as of closing are to be paid by seller."
Because of this, the title company quickly took care of the situation. All turned out well, but some aggravation could have been avoided had I sent in the payoff form rather than relying on a phone call. My advice to agents based upon what I learned in this situation is send in those payoff forms; and buyers, remind your agents to send in those forms. To anyone who recieves notice of an owed assessment; do some research, you may be about to pay someone elses' bill.
