Buyer Beware - Buying a Home in The Villages?
 

Apparently Florida is a 'Buyer Beware' State.
How do you handle existing 'Non-Compliance'?
Some home buyers/owners have been cited for violations existing for the past 10-20 years or more.
Sellers, Builders and Realtors do not typically represent buyers at all.
Does the buyer have to apply to each CDD to find out if the home they want (new or pre-owned) is in compliance?
Will all the CDD's issue a 'certification' that a home is 'in compliance' with all their regulations before you buy it?
Should I put a contingency in my offers/contracts that requires the Owner/Seller/Realtor to take care of it?
I've seen this problem reported many times but never any solutions.

How do you handle existing 'Non-Compliance'?
--Excellent question

Does the buyer have to apply to each CDD to find out if the home they want (new or pre-owned) is in compliance?
--Deed restrictions can and do vary. A home must meet the restrictions of the CDD where it is located.

Will all the CDD's issue a 'certification' that a home is 'in compliance' with all their regulations before you buy it?
--No

Should I put a contingency in my offers/contracts that requires the Owner/Seller/Realtor to take care of it?
--That is a great idea. I've not heard of anyone doing that, but you could be starting something big.

I've seen this problem reported many times but never any solutions.
-- You may have the beginnings of a solution.

All of the deed restrictions are available online. You could read them and check them yourselves before you offer, or if you have a contingency in your offer, you could check them all between offer acceptance and closing.

Or you could hire the clipboard ladies to do a drive-by.

Any seller who would agree to that is crazy.
It’s like getting a guarantee the roof leaks.
All deed restrictions are available online, or ask seller for it.

We hear about all the non compliance, but what percent of existing homes is it?

Although it is not a criminal charge, the 6th amendment (the right to face accuser) should apply. Or at least the spirit of the 6th amendment.

Not sure it is possible to check all possible compliance issues. I see my house now but how do I know what the approved color pallet was? Those rocks on the front yard that match my neighbor’s, the driveway that is two inches too wide, that hardscaping that is one foot too close to the road, the birdcage that is six inches too wide…. I don’t know today, after owning the house almost six years, whether there is some sudden compliance issue I am not aware of.

What is needed is an inspection from Community Standards that certifies the home is compliant as sold.

If the clipboard ladies can do it……

It would be fair but CS isn’t going to put that effort out there with such a small staff.

But one can take pics and stop by the office to ask if these were arc approval paint, drive, landscape, and so on. So if buyer chooses not to put forth an effort, then shouldn’t complain if out of compliance.

We did that at 2 preowned, one had ARC approval. One none. We choose wisely

Regardless of the general “holier than thou” attitudes, most buyers won’t know to do that.

Very wise. This should be the responsibility of the buyer just like a home inspection.

Wondering if there are there any home inspectors who do this for an additional charge?

It may be impossible to "guarantee" compliance given the ambuguity and inconsistentant enforcement of deed restrictions. But they should be able to point out anything major.

Actually many who are first time buyers usually want that new house smell, and buy new. Out of the 50 plus people who looked at one of our preowned houses, only 3 were new to TV.

I just bought new in Lake Denham. It never crossed my mind that the developer would build it out of compliance. Nevertheless I did read through the deed restrictions very carefully and nothing I saw would be a concern.

Developer makes the rules, so none of the new builds would ever be out of compliance. That only happens when the property is sold, and is no Longer property of TV

Makes sense. Just the op had (new or pre owned) in the post.

Post should be listed as preowned, not new. But OP is asking if buying a new house needs to be checked, for compliance, that answer is NO. You will find those who have lived here for many years, know that every house developer builds will be in compliance at the time of build.

However, at our third house, the color palette changed from some of the original colors 8 years later. If your color was no longer approved, you had to get approval to repaint the same color. Landscaping is usually the big culprit of non compliance issues, as is driveway design. Next on the list, lawn ornaments.

In my experience, when we bought our new home in DeLuna, most of the brand new homes would pop up for a few days of showings and then it was basically a lottery system to who gets to buy the home on the day when it was being released for sale.

If you were picked first and decided you didn't want it, it would go to the 2nd person that was selected. Some of the homes on my street had something like 8-10 people that had an offer to buy. I heard it was even more people in Richmond on most home sales. There was no offer/counteroffer or asking for conditions involved.