What is a municipal lien search and why does it matter in South Florida?

It is a request to each city and county with jurisdiction over the property for open permits, code enforcement cases, unpaid utility balances and special assessments. A title search will not show most of these, yet they attach to the property and pass to the buyer. The brokerage orders one for every candidate at shortlist so a problem is a contract condition rather than a surprise at closing.

Which condominium reports should a family office read before buying a unit in Florida?

The milestone structural inspection and the structural integrity reserve study for buildings of three habitable stories or more, the current budget and financial statements, a year of board minutes, and the declaration and rules for leasing limits and approval procedures. Together they show what the building must spend, when, and whether the unit can be used as the office intends.

How does the brokerage share diligence documents with our counsel and our committee?

Through a data room the office owns, with one folder per asset and the same structure in each, access granted by name, documents shared by link rather than attachment, and version history kept on every file. The office adds and removes people itself, and when the engagement ends the room stays with the office and the brokerage’s access is removed.

How long are transaction records kept after a closing?

Florida license law requires a brokerage to retain its transaction records for at least five years after closing, and the family office group keeps them in the data room for the life of the engagement and longer when the office asks, so an auditor, a successor trustee or a new controller can see the documents a past decision rested on without reconstructing them.

Can the office’s own engineers and consultants be added to the diligence process?

Yes, and they often should be. The brokerage coordinates the office’s structural engineer, marine contractor, insurance broker or environmental consultant alongside its own inspectors, schedules them within the inspection period, and files their reports in the data room in the same structure. The office pays its consultants directly and the brokerage takes nothing from any of them.

Private Client · Diligence & Reporting

Due Diligence, Documentation and Reporting for Family Offices

A checklist the committee can see, a data room it controls, and reports issued on a schedule

Due diligence for a family office is a documentation exercise as much as an investigation. It is not enough to know that the roof is sound; the committee needs the report that says so, filed where the auditor can find it, with a date and a name on it. This page sets out the checklist BreakThru Realty runs on every South Florida property an office considers, how the results are organized in the data room, how reports are issued to the office, and how long everything is kept.

BreakThru Realty · Founder and Broker of Record: Tyson E. Sam, Florida License 3565210

Ask for the Checklist · Our privacy standard

The Checklist, Before the Contract

The list below is the standard scope for every candidate, residential or investment, and the office can add to it. Most items are ordered the day a property is shortlisted rather than after the contract, because a search that turns up an open permit or an unpaid code fine is cheaper before an offer than during an inspection period. Each item has an owner, a due date and a place in the data room, and the status page in the data room shows which are complete, which are outstanding and which have found something the committee needs to see.

Title commitment, with every exception read and explained
Survey, matched against the title commitment and the fence lines
Permit history, including open and expired permits
Open code violations and municipal liens, from a lien search with each city
Association documents, budgets, meeting minutes and reserve studies
Insurance claims history for the property, with the dates and causes of loss
Flood zone determination and the elevation certificate
Wind mitigation and four-point inspection reports

Title, Survey and What the Clerk Has Recorded

The title commitment lists what the insurer will not cover, and that list is where the problems are: easements that cross the lot, restrictions from a plat recorded decades ago, a lien from a contractor, a lis pendens from a dispute the seller did not mention. The brokerage reads each exception with the office’s attorney and asks the closing agent what it would take to remove it. The survey is then laid over the commitment to see whether the seawall, the dock, the pool cage or the hedge sits where the paper says it may, because an encroachment onto a neighbor’s land or into a utility easement is a negotiation point before closing and a lawsuit after it.

Permits, Code Violations and Municipal Lien Searches

South Florida cities keep their own permit records, and work done without a permit, or a permit opened and never closed, follows the property to the next owner. A municipal lien search, ordered from each city and county, returns open permits, code enforcement cases, unpaid utility balances and special assessments that a title search alone will not show. For an older home the permit history also answers whether the roof, the electrical service, the dock and the pool were done lawfully, which matters to the insurer as much as to the office. Anything open becomes a contract condition: the seller closes the permit, pays the fine or credits the office, and the brokerage confirms it in writing before the closing date.

Association Records and the Condominium Reports

For a condominium or an association-governed home the office receives the declaration, the bylaws, the rules, the current budget, the most recent financial statements, a year of board minutes and the question-and-answer sheet Florida requires, and the brokerage reads them for leasing limits, approval procedures, pending litigation and planned assessments. For buildings of three habitable stories or more, the milestone structural inspection and the structural integrity reserve study are read first, because they say what the building must spend and when. The minutes are often more revealing than the budget, since they record what the board is arguing about before it becomes a line item.

Insurance History, Flood and Wind

A property’s claims history can be obtained with the seller’s cooperation and read for patterns: a roof leak claimed twice, a water loss from the unit above, a storm claim that was paid and may not have been fully repaired. The flood zone determination and the elevation certificate establish how the lowest floor sits against the base flood elevation, which drives the flood premium and sometimes the lender’s requirements if any debt is involved, in which case the office should consult a mortgage lender about what the binder must show. The wind mitigation report records the roof shape, the opening protection and the roof-to-wall connections, each of which moves the wind premium. All three go to the office’s insurance broker before the inspection period ends.

The Data Room

Every document from the checklist lands in a folder structure the office approves at the outset, one top-level folder per asset and the same sub-folders in each, so counsel, the CPA, the insurance broker and the committee can find the same thing in the same place for every property. Access is by named user, the office can add and remove people itself, documents are shared by link rather than attachment, and each file keeps its version history so a revised survey does not quietly replace the original. The office owns the room; if the engagement ends, the room stays with the office and the brokerage’s access is withdrawn.

How Reports Are Issued, and How Long They Are Kept

The diligence summary is a written report rather than a conversation: what was ordered, what came back, what it means, what the brokerage recommends and what remains open, issued at the points the office sets, usually at shortlist, at the end of the inspection period and before closing. Florida license law requires a brokerage to keep its transaction records for at least five years after closing, and the group keeps them for the life of the engagement and longer where the office asks, in the same data room, so an auditor or a successor trustee years later can see the title commitment, the survey and the inspection reports the decision was made on.

Our Privacy Standard

A confidentiality agreement before the first conversation: Ask and a mutual non-disclosure agreement comes to you or your representative before any detail is shared, and it covers everyone at the brokerage who works on the file.
Your name stays out of our marketing: BreakThru Realty does not use a client’s name, likeness, team or transaction in its advertising, social media, website or press, before or after closing, unless the client asks for it in writing.
Showings by appointment with verified buyers only: When you sell, your home is shown only to buyers whose identity and proof of funds or pre-approval have been checked, by appointment, with personal items and photographs put away beforehand.
Address withheld from internet display where the MLS allows: A seller can ask for a listing’s address to be kept off consumer websites within the rules of the multiple listing service, and for interior photographs to leave out anything personal.
One point of contact: A single named contact at the brokerage runs the file, so your details are not passed around an office.
We work through your people: If you would rather we deal with your agent, manager, business manager, attorney or family office, that is the channel we use, and nothing is sent anywhere else.
Documents by secure link, wires confirmed by phone: Files are shared by secure link rather than as open email attachments, and wiring instructions are always confirmed by a phone call to a known number before any money moves.

Ask for the Checklist

Tell us what you need, the timing, and how you would like to be contacted: directly, or through your agent, manager, business manager or attorney. You do not need to give a client’s name to start, and a confidentiality agreement can come before any detail is shared.

Direct and confidential: (786) 914-1017 · sales@breakthrurealty.com

Questions We Are Asked

What is a municipal lien search and why does it matter in South Florida?: It is a request to each city and county with jurisdiction over the property for open permits, code enforcement cases, unpaid utility balances and special assessments. A title search will not show most of these, yet they attach to the property and pass to the buyer. The brokerage orders one for every candidate at shortlist so a problem is a contract condition rather than a surprise at closing.
Which condominium reports should a family office read before buying a unit in Florida?: The milestone structural inspection and the structural integrity reserve study for buildings of three habitable stories or more, the current budget and financial statements, a year of board minutes, and the declaration and rules for leasing limits and approval procedures. Together they show what the building must spend, when, and whether the unit can be used as the office intends.
How does the brokerage share diligence documents with our counsel and our committee?: Through a data room the office owns, with one folder per asset and the same structure in each, access granted by name, documents shared by link rather than attachment, and version history kept on every file. The office adds and removes people itself, and when the engagement ends the room stays with the office and the brokerage’s access is removed.
How long are transaction records kept after a closing?: Florida license law requires a brokerage to retain its transaction records for at least five years after closing, and the family office group keeps them in the data room for the life of the engagement and longer when the office asks, so an auditor, a successor trustee or a new controller can see the documents a past decision rested on without reconstructing them.
Can the office’s own engineers and consultants be added to the diligence process?: Yes, and they often should be. The brokerage coordinates the office’s structural engineer, marine contractor, insurance broker or environmental consultant alongside its own inspectors, schedules them within the inspection period, and files their reports in the data room in the same structure. The office pays its consultants directly and the brokerage takes nothing from any of them.

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