Checks, Laws & Limits

Naggin’ you about Lagging, Open Permits law, New county court jurisdictional limits

Dear Members,

Back to School!  Gator Football!  Finally a debate we can get into who has the best fried chicken sandwich!! Life is good!

Naggin’ you about Lagging - If you are behind in sending in your final policies and the premium, this message is for you!  We have identified a gap between the volume of orders placed with the branches and the premium income we have received.  Do you have a backlog of policies and premium checks that need to be sent to us?  I know that it is hard to give this priority over other work but it's important.  If it wasn't, I wouldn't be sending this message!  I would really appreciate it if you would give this situation your attention.   There is a good chance that you will be receiving a phone call from someone here at TheFund to talk with you about this in the near future.  In the meantime,  if you have any comments or questions, shoot me an email at mmurphy@thefund.com

Open Permits law.  Florida law has been amended to provide a clearer process for property owners to close out old, expired permits.  There are provisions that allow for an owner to hire a new contractor to finish the work without liability for the original contractor’s work, allow an owner to act as an “owner-builder” to finish out the work, and allow for a permit that has been expired for at least 6 years to be closed without further ado.  Here is a link to the new law. https://www.thefund.com//TheFund/media/PDFs/Ch-2019-75-HB-447-open-permits.pdf. This will help facilitate closings where old, open permits create a hurdle to finalizing the deal.  Hope this helps!

New county court jurisdictional limits.  New law provides for the county courts to have higher jurisdictional limits in the hope, I guess, that justice is more quickly obtained through the county courts!   Effective January 1, 2020, the limit is $30,000, which increases to $50,000 on January 1, 2023. Here is a link to the entire bill which contains A LOT OF OTHER STUFF IN IT but just in case you want to verify the amounts https://www.thefund.com//TheFund/media/PDFs/Ch-2019-58-HB-337-CC-juris-amts.pdf. 

What else is going on?  Affiliate Assembly in Tampa has come and gone, but Affiliate Assembly in Fort Lauderdale is just around the corner.  The dates are September 12 and 13.  The program is really good this year so I encourage you to send your very important staff people to this event!  

That's all for this week.  Let me know how we can help you.
 

Melissa Jay Murphy
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer,
General Counsel and Secretary