A code enforcement lien in Hollywood, Florida is not a parking ticket that goes away when you sell. It is a recorded instrument that follows the property for up to 20 years, grows by as much as $1,000 a day while the violation stands, and has to be paid, settled or assumed before a title company will insure a sale. I have bought houses in Hollywood with these liens attached since 2014, and most sellers I meet have been told three wrong things: that the fine is fixed, that the city will never foreclose, and that no buyer will touch the house. This is how the system actually works, section by section, and what it means for your price.
Two tracks: the citation and the Special Magistrate
Hollywood’s code is enforced under Chapter 36 of the City Code of Ordinances, and there are two separate penalty tracks.
The first is the civil citation under Section 36.27, the “alternative code enforcement procedure.” A code officer gives you notice and a correction period of no more than 30 days (none at all if the violation is a serious threat or irreparable). If you do not correct it, you get a citation with a fixed schedule: $75 for a first violation, $150 for a second, $250 for a third and $500 for each one after that, and a fourth or later violation requires a court appearance. You have ten calendar days to appeal to the Special Magistrate; miss it and you have waived the hearing. If you lose the appeal, or waive it, the city adds a $50 administrative cost that the ordinance says shall not be waived. A recorded citation order is a lien against your real and personal property, and the city may foreclose after three months, except on a homestead.
The second track is the formal case before the Special Magistrate under Sections 36.02 through 36.29. The magistrate is a Florida Bar member appointed by the City Commission. The case starts with a notice of violation and a compliance date, then a hearing where the inspector has to prove the violation by the greater weight of the evidence, then an order setting a new deadline. This is where the real money is. Section 36.29(A)(1) reads: “The order of the Special Magistrate may require the violator to pay a fine, not to exceed $1,000 per day, for each day that the violation continues past the date set in the order for compliance. In the case of a repeat violation the Special Magistrate may order the repeat violator to pay a fine not to exceed $5,000 per day.”
Those numbers are four times the state default. Florida Statute 162.09(2)(a) caps a first-violation fine at $250 a day and a repeat at $500, but subsection (2)(d) lets a city of 50,000 or more adopt the higher tier of $1,000, $5,000 and up to $15,000 for an irreparable violation by a majority-plus-one vote. Hollywood did. A “repeat violation” under Section 36.03 is the same provision violated within five years, even at a different property you own.
From order to lien: the mechanics
Once the compliance date in the order passes, the city sends a notice of failure to comply and you have 14 days to request a hearing. If you do not, or if you lose, a certified copy of the fine order is recorded in the public records of Broward County, and from that moment it is a lien on the property where the violation exists and on any other real or personal property you own. Section 36.29(A)(4) says the fine accrues until the violation is corrected or until a judgment is entered in a foreclosure suit, whichever comes first. Section 36.29(A)(5): “After three months from the filing of any such unpaid lien, the Special Magistrate may authorize the City Attorney to foreclose upon the lien,” and “the duration and effect of such lien shall be consistent with state law, which is a period of 20 years.”
Three practical consequences follow. First, the running fine does not stop because you listed the house, signed a contract or moved out; it stops when the violation is corrected and an affidavit of compliance is accepted. Second, the lien attaches to your other property in the county, so a rental with a $90,000 code lien can cloud the title on your own home. Third, the one real shield is homestead: Florida Statute 162.09(3) and Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution bar foreclosure of a code lien on homestead property, but the lien still exists, still shows on every title search, and still has to be dealt with when you sell or when the property stops being your homestead, which is what happens the day an estate inherits it.
One more line in Hollywood’s code deserves a lawyer’s attention. Section 36.29(A)(6) declares that liens recorded after June 1, 2009 are “coequal with the liens of all state, county, district, and municipal taxes, superior in dignity to all other liens, titles, encumbrances and claims until paid.” A city ordinance cannot by itself move a code lien ahead of a mortgage recorded earlier, and Florida courts have not read it that way, but the language is in the code and lenders’ counsel read it. It is one reason conventional buyers walk away from Hollywood houses with open cases rather than negotiate.
Interest, fees and what a payoff letter contains
Hollywood’s lien page draws a distinction most owners miss: “All liens accrue interest daily, except Code Enforcement liens.” Code liens do not accrue interest; they accrue daily fines, which is worse. Other city liens (utility, lot clearing, demolition, board-up) accrue interest at the judgment rate under Florida Statute 55.03 unless the code says otherwise, and carry a $40 fee to process and record the release. The payoff you get from the city will therefore show the fine order amount, the daily rate, the number of days since the compliance date, the city’s hard costs and administrative fees, and, for non-code liens, interest.
To see any of this before you sign a contract, order a municipal lien search. In Hollywood it is run by Treasury Services in the Department of Financial Services, not by Code Compliance: $163 for a standard residential search returned in 8 to 10 business days, $248 expedited in 1 to 2 days, $327 and $447 for non-residential, plus $25 per additional water meter, ordered through the city’s online portal. Section 38.80 of the code requires the search to be completed within 15 days. The report lists recorded liens and “any other known outstanding charges or assessments,” including accrued interest and lien fees, and the city is explicit that it does not replace a search of the Broward public records. A separate Code Violation Search through CodeCompliance@hollywoodfl.org shows open cases that have not yet become liens.
Settlements: the standing process and the amnesty that just closed
Hollywood, unlike the City of Miami, has always had a path to reduce a code lien. Section 36.30 authorizes the Director of Financial Services to “negotiate and settle all fines and liens” imposed by the Special Magistrate, but only for violations that have since been corrected, and the magistrate ratifies the director’s decisions. The working process is the Lien Settlement application: proof of compliance from Code, Building and Fire, the application form, and a request sent to liensettlement@hollywoodfl.org. There is no published formula; outcomes depend on the gravity of the violation, how long it ran, whether the owner is the one who created it, and whether the property has changed hands.
For the city’s centennial, the Commission approved a Lien Amnesty Program offering a 100 percent reduction of qualifying liens. Applications opened March 5, 2025, were scheduled to close December 31, 2025, and were extended to June 30, 2026. To qualify, the property and every other property the applicant owned in Hollywood had to be in full compliance with the City Code, the Florida Building Code and the Florida Fire Code; the applicant had to be the owner of record; every lien on the property had to be submitted together; and each lien had to have a face value of at least $1,000. Hard costs, administrative fees, lot clearing, board-ups, demolition, sanitation, legal fees and civil penalties were carved out and still had to be paid, and liens from the Unsafe Structures Board, nuisance abatement, utilities, the Building Safety Inspection Program and repeat violations were ineligible. That window is now closed. What remains is the Section 36.30 settlement process, and the owner who comes in with the violation cured, the hard costs paid and a credible hardship story does materially better than the owner who comes in with the violation still open. The owner who cannot afford to cure it is the one the city does not negotiate with, and that is usually the owner who calls me.
The three Hollywood rules that generate liens today
Three ordinances produce a disproportionate share of the cases I see.
The tidal flood barrier ordinance. Ordinance O-2022-01, passed February 2, 2022, requires every new or substantially repaired seawall to have a minimum top elevation of five feet NAVD88; applications filed before January 1, 2035 may build to four feet if the structure is designed to be raised to five feet by January 1, 2050. “Substantial repair” means work along more than half the shoreline or costing more than half of a new wall. An owner cited for a failing seawall must show progress within 60 days and finish within 365 days. On a Hollywood Lakes or Hollywood Hills waterfront lot that is a $60,000 to $150,000 obligation, and the citation runs whether or not you can finance it.
The Building Safety Inspection Program. Broward County’s Board of Rules and Appeals Policy 05-05, effective June 12, 2024, requires buildings to be inspected at 25 years from their certificate of occupancy and every ten years after; one- and two-family homes, fee-simple townhouses and buildings under 3,500 square feet are exempt. Hollywood’s own Section 151.123 still says 40 years, which tells you how quickly the rules moved after Surfside, but its penalty section is current: a $500-a-day citation or a Special Magistrate fine of up to $1,000 a day, $5,000 for a repeat, and a lien. For a condo owner the inspection is the association’s job and the repair bill is yours.
Vacant property registration. Chapter 90, Section 90.08 requires a mortgagee to register vacant property in default within ten days of finding it vacant, at $150 per property per year, with monthly inspections. It is aimed at lenders, but the maintenance violations on a vacant house in pre-foreclosure are cited against the owner of record, and that is still you until the certificate of title issues.
What happens to the lien when you sell
A code lien is paid at closing like any other lien, unless the buyer agrees to assume it. With a conventional buyer, the title company requires the payoff letter, the lender requires clear title, and the seller’s net shrinks by the full amount, plus the daily fine from the payoff date to the closing date, plus the $10 Broward recording fee for the release ($8.50 for each additional page). If the fine is still running because the violation is uncured, most lenders will not fund at all.
As a direct buyer I do it the other way around. I price the house as if the lien did not exist and the violation were cured, then subtract three things: the cost to cure, the realistic settlement value of the lien after cure, and my margin. I buy with the case open, I pull the permits and do the work as the new owner, and I take the Section 36.30 settlement application to the city myself. Florida Statute 553.79(17)(a) helps here: a building department may not deny a permit, issue a violation notice or penalize an arm’s-length purchaser solely because a prior owner’s permit was never closed, and subsection (16) lets the new owner close out an expired permit under the code that was in effect when it was issued. Code liens do not vanish on transfer, but the running fine stops the day the violation is corrected, and the city settles with an owner who fixed the problem far more readily than with one who could not.
Here is the arithmetic on a real pattern: a 1960s house in the Hollywood Hills area worth $520,000 renovated, with an illegal garage conversion and a $64,000 code lien accruing at $250 a day. Listed, the seller is looking at six percent commission ($31,200), about two percent in closing costs ($10,400), a $64,000 payoff that grows $7,500 a month while the house sits on the market, and $15,000 to $25,000 to legalize or remove the conversion before a lender will fund, if a buyer waits that long. My offer on that house is in the $385,000 to $400,000 range, closing in seven to ten days, with the lien and the conversion assumed. The seller nets within a few thousand dollars of the listing path and is finished in a week instead of five months, with no risk that the deal dies at the lender’s desk.
Where the Hollywood market stands
The context for all of this is a Broward market that has slowed but not fallen: the July 2026 MIAMI REALTORS report shows a $650,000 county single-family median, up 4.8 percent, with 34 days to contract and 74 days to close, and a condo median of $255,000, down 3.8 percent, with 86 days to contract and ten months of inventory. Hollywood’s Zillow home value index was $433,845 in early 2026, down six percent year over year, with 81 median days to pending. A house with a running code lien in that market is not unsellable. It is unsellable to a buyer who needs a lender.
Frequently asked questions
Can the City of Hollywood foreclose on my house for a code lien? Yes, after three months from recording, by authorization of the Special Magistrate, unless the property is your homestead under Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution. Homestead blocks foreclosure of the lien; it does not erase it.
Does a Hollywood code lien expire? The lien runs 20 years from the recording of the fine order, consistent with Florida Statute 162.09(3). The daily fine stops only when the violation is corrected or a foreclosure judgment is entered.
How do I find out how much is owed? Order a municipal lien search from Hollywood Treasury Services ($163 standard residential, $248 expedited) and a Code Violation Search from Code Compliance. The lien search shows recorded liens and charges; the violation search shows open cases that have not yet been recorded.
Can the lien be reduced? Yes, through the Lien Settlement process under Section 36.30, but only after the violation is corrected and the hard costs are paid. The centennial amnesty that offered 100 percent reductions closed June 30, 2026.
Will a cash buyer take the house with the lien? We do. We buy with the case open, cure the violation as the new owner, and apply for the settlement ourselves. The price reflects the cure cost and the realistic settlement value, and you are not charged commissions, closing costs or repairs.
Sources
- City of Hollywood Code of Ordinances, Sec. 36.02 Jurisdiction. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-35837
- Sec. 36.03 Definitions (Special Magistrate; repeat violation within five years). https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-35842
- Sec. 36.27 Alternative Code Enforcement Procedures ($75/$150/$250/$500; lien; three-month foreclosure; homestead). https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-35916
- Sec. 36.29 Enforcement Orders; Fines and Other Remedies ($1,000/$5,000 per day; recording; accrual; 20 years; priority). https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-35956
- Sec. 36.30 Settlement, Disposition of All Collected Fines and Liens. https://dev-codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-35975
- City of Hollywood, Liens (interest rules, $40 release fee, Lien Settlement process). https://www.hollywoodfl.org/220/Liens
- City of Hollywood, Requesting a Lien Search (fees and turnaround). https://www.hollywoodfl.org/489/Requesting-A-Lien-Search
- Sec. 38.80 Lien Searches (15-day completion). https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-36477
- City of Hollywood, Lien Amnesty Program Fact Sheet (2025). https://www.hollywoodfl.org/DocumentCenter/View/24603/Lien-Amnesty-Program-Fact-Sheet
- City of Hollywood newsletter, June 2, 2026 (amnesty extended to June 30, 2026). https://hollywoodfl.org/CivicSend/ViewMessage/message/291867
- Fla. Stat. 162.09 (2026), Administrative fines; costs of repair; liens. https://m.flsenate.gov/Statutes/162.09
- Fla. Stat. 553.79 (2026), Permits; subsections (16) and (17) on closing prior permits and arm’s-length purchasers. https://m.flsenate.gov/Statutes/553.79
- City of Hollywood Code, tidal flood barriers, Ord. O-2022-01. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-82502
- Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals, Policy 05-05, Building Safety Inspection Program (eff. June 12, 2024). https://broward.org/CodeAppeals/Documents/Board%20Policy%2005-05.pdf
- City of Hollywood Code, Sec. 151.123 Building Safety Inspection (penalties). https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-53706
- City of Hollywood Code, Sec. 90.08 Registration of Abandoned Real Property. https://dev-codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywood_fl/0-0-0-51048
- Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury, recording fee schedule. https://www.broward.org/RECORDSTAXESTREASURY/TAXESFEES/Pages/FeeSchedule.aspx
- Broward County Clerk of Courts, Foreclosure Sales. https://www.browardclerk.org/Divisions/CircuitCivil#ForeclosureSales
- MIAMI REALTORS, Broward County single-family and condo reports, July 2026. https://www.miamirealtors.com/2026/08/17/broward-county-total-home-sales-increase-for-fifth-consecutive-month/
- WSVN Help Me Howard, “$541,000 fine for code violation” (City of Miami, no mitigation), Dec 5, 2022. https://wsvn.com/news/help-me-howard/541000-fine-for-code-violation/
Petru Pusta is a licensed Florida real estate broker (BK3293808) and the founder of All About Real Estate LLC, 5347 SW 25th St, Hollywood, FL 33023, a direct cash buyer of residential and commercial property throughout Florida since 2014. This article is general information, not legal advice; code lien questions on a specific property should go to a Florida real estate attorney.
