How to find if your Florida condo is on a secret blacklist blocking mortgage loans

Fannie Mae, a federally chartered companies that helps determine who qualifies for home mortgages, has for at least two years maintained a confidential database of condo buildings that it won’t back for loans, typically because of maintenance or financial issues.

Around 800 Florida condos are on the list, including about 250 buildings in Miami-Dade and Broward counties alone, according to two law firms that obtained the list. Here’s how to find out if your condo is on it.

Read More: Denied a mortgage to buy a Florida condo? A secret, quasi-government blacklist may be why

The firms — Katzman Chandler in Fort Lauderdale and Allcock Marcus, which has offices in Boston and also practices in Florida — have created a website for verified condo owners, board members and property managers can ask if their condo is blacklisted. Click here to go condoblacklist.com

The firms said they won’t release the list, which was created in the wake of the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfsi.de in 2021, to the public because doing so could harm the condos’ reputations and potentially lower property values, creating liability issues. That’s possibly why Fannie Mae had not made the list public, though no one is certain because the corporation has not specified its reasons.

The website includes Q&A sections explaining what the list is, why a condo might be on it and how to get one off. The firms also offer to provide legal help if owners or boards chose to pursue that route.

After initially stonewalling, Fannie Mae has recently acknowledged the list’s existence. Fannie officials say they will create a searchable database for use by owners and associations, though it won’t be online until the third quarter of 2024. According to the Boston Globe, the list 2,308 properties in October, with the lion’s share — nearly 35 percent, or around 800 properties — in Florida.

This story was originally published December 15, 2023 at 11:28 AM.