Fourth DCA Vacates a $66,704 Award to a Condo Association That Never Filed a Counterclaim: Built Green v. Environ Condominium II

Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal has drawn a firm line for condominium associations that try to collect assessments as a by-product of someone else’s lawsuit. In Built Green Corp. v. Environ Condominium II, Association, Inc., decided September 23, 2026, the court reversed a $66,704.03 award to a Broward County association because the association never pleaded a counterclaim seeking that money ¹. For association counsel, unit owners and managers, the decision is a reminder that collection disputes have procedural rules that matter, and that years of litigation can still end without a collectible result.

Five years, three lawyers and no enforceable judgment

Built Green bought a condominium unit at a tax deed sale in October 2019 ¹. It soon fell behind on special-assessment installments that came due after the sale, and the association began collection activity, including a demand for rent directed to the unit’s tenants ¹. Built Green took the position that the tax deed wiped out the association’s preexisting interest, and in February 2020 it filed a quiet title action ¹. That case ended with a judgment in Built Green’s favor as to pre-tax-deed debts, but it expressly preserved the association’s claims to assessments that came due after the tax deed and recognized that the declaration still encumbered the unit ¹.

The fight continued. In November 2021, Built Green sued again, seeking a declaration of what it owed and an accounting ¹. The association answered with affirmative defenses alleging delinquency and asked for “such other relief” the court deemed proper, but it filed no counterclaim ¹. After about three years of litigation, and after Built Green’s third lawyer withdrew, the trial court granted summary judgment for the association and awarded $66,704.03 in assessments, interest, attorney’s fees and costs ¹.

What the court held

The Fourth District affirmed one part of the ruling. Built Green argued that the trial court should not have held the summary judgment hearing before the company, which could not appear without a lawyer, found new counsel ¹. The court found the issue unpreserved because the motion for more time was never set or ruled on, and in any event saw no abuse of discretion: the court had given 20 days to find counsel and the hearing took place about a month after withdrawal ¹.

The money award was another matter. A trial court “may not award relief that was neither requested in the pleadings nor tried by consent,” the court wrote, and a judgment granting relief wholly outside the pleadings is void ¹. The association’s allegations of delinquency could defeat Built Green’s request for a declaration that it owed nothing, but they “did not state an independent cause of action for a money judgment” ¹. A general prayer for judgment and attorney’s fees could not substitute for a counterclaim, and a summary judgment motion cannot enlarge the pleadings ¹. The court reversed the monetary award and remanded ¹.

Practical takeaways

The underlying debt does not disappear. Section 718.116 makes each owner responsible for every assessment that falls due during its ownership, no matter how it took title, and it lets an association pursue both a lien foreclosure and a separate suit for a money judgment, with reasonable attorney’s fees available in each ². What Built Green changes is how the association must ask:

• Plead the claim. An association that wants a judgment for assessments, interest and fees needs a counterclaim or its own complaint, not an affirmative defense and a general prayer for relief ¹.
• Track what earlier judgments preserved. The quiet title judgment carved out post-tax-deed assessments and surplus proceeds, which set the boundaries of everything that followed ¹.
• Count the cost of the process. The dispute began in 2019 and is still not resolved, over a balance the trial court put at about $66,700 ¹.

Disputes over what a buyer at a tax deed or foreclosure sale owes are often arithmetic questions wrapped in years of procedure, which makes them strong candidates for early, structured negotiation. Association counsel and owners looking for a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator can check Tony Roca’s live availability and book a mediation.