Non-judicial Foreclosures

Many of us remember when various states began adopting legislation to allow for the non-judicial foreclosure of timeshare realty. We all celebrated at the time, but later it became apparent that while HOAs could now regain inventory in cases where the owners were not paying their annual maintenance fees, they still needed to pay expensive fees to a lawyer to go through the paperwork. Large developers could perhaps handle the process more easily if they were in active sales and needed the inventory. However, the ‘little guy’ was out of luck.

We recently caught up with Kevin Mattoni, VP of Cunningham Property Management, who says they have created a solution. Along with Sharon Cunningham and Richard Cunningham, Mattoni operates a multi-site management company, Cunningham Property Management, based in Florida. “As most of our resorts are more than twenty years old, many of them were facing a possible crisis,” he says. “In many cases, aging owners were not paying their annual maintenance fees, a situation that was only exacerbated by the recent recession. Associations needed to get delinquent weeks back so they could resell them to fees-paying owners who would once again use and enjoy their vacation ownership property.”

This situation is what originally prompted the group to create Cunningham Asset Recovery Services LLC (CARS) by retaining an attorney who would provide a lower price when processing a larger number of cases. “We realized that we could gain even greater efficiencies if we were to broaden our scope to open an entity that would provide foreclosure services to other management companies, HOAs and developers. Presently, CARS is available to any condominium, owner association, developer or lender desiring non-judicial foreclosure services at extremely low costs.”

Since they officially launched CARS last year, Mattoni reports they have grown significantly. “We are now serving over 20 associations spread throughout Florida, and are in discussions with resorts in Nevada and South Carolina,” he says. “Plus, we are exploring expanding into Massachusetts, Colorado, Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont. We manage every step of the process from recording the lien and completing mandatory title searches to the final trustee sale and recording the trustee’s deed. Our services are available for every size resort, from small self-managed properties all the way to larger projects under developer-control. CARS’ step-by-step process assures clients of clear title qualifying for title insurance, including clearing title clouds relating to bankruptcy, divorce, death or owners who cannot be located.”

Mattoni and the Cunninghams have been in the property management business for over 30 years. As a matter of fact, Sharon Cunningham was appointed to Florida’s Regulatory Council of Community Association Managers by Governor Rick Scott. This was approved by the Florida State Senate after a full vetting of Sharon and the company.

“We are excited by the opportunities we have for further growth,” remarks Kevin. “We are currently working on our website,
www.timesharenonjudicialforeclosure.com, and have a number of meetings scheduled during the ARDA World convention.”