Fla.’s high court empowers homeowners to go after developers for shoddy construction

Florida’s Supreme Court gave homeowner associations more power to go after developers and builders for shoddy construction, Daily Business Review reported.

Writing for the 5-2 majority, Justice R. Fred Lewis called home purchases “the singularly most significant economic expenditure for Florida families.”

Lewis said a Winter Garden homeowners association was entitled to sue Maronda Homes Inc. and T.D. Thomson Construction Co. for an alleged breach of the implied guarantees of the building’s “fitness and merchantability,” the Review said.

The Lakeview Reserve Homeowners Association Inc. said the building had substantial drainage problems.

Taylor & Carls partners Robyn Severs and Patrick Howell in Palm Coast represented Lakeview. The opinion “adequately places the burden of constructing a well-made community on the developers and builders rather than innocent purchasers,” Severs told the newspaper. [Daily Business Review] –Emily Schmall