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11 Fla. L.J. 1 (1937)

handle is hein.barjournals/florbarj0011 and id is 1 raw text is: FLORIDA LAW JOURNAL VOL. XI JANUARY, 1937 No. 1 1935 MECHANICS AND MATERIAL MAN'S LIEN LAW AND OTHER LAWS EFFECTING THE TRANSFER OF TITLE TO REAL ESTATE An address by WILLIAm H. ROGERS, of the Jacksonville Bar, Before the Jacksonville Real Estate Board. It has been several years since I had the pleasure of addressing you on the sub- ject of the Torrens Law. Your interest in what I had to say on that occasion leads me to believe that you are greatly interested in the simplification and facilitation of the transfer of title to real estate. Moreover, that is an incident of your everyday life, and so I have reason to believe you should be deeply interested in what I have to say today. The ideal thing would be for our Legislatures to simplify the transfer of title to real estate in Florida, and make it less troublesome and expensive year after year; but unfortunately that has not been our experience. On the contrary, session after session of our Legislature adds to the difficulty, trouble and expense of transferring real property. To mention just a few of the recent enactments, let me refer you to the Docu- mentary Stamp Acts which add greatly to the expense, to the Intangible°Tax Act, which adds to the trouble and risk, and to the Corporation Franchise Tax which like- wise adds to the trouble and risk. Intangible taxes are liens on real property through- out the State. If an owner living in Jacksonville sells a lot he owns in Orlando, the buyer must not only search the tax records of Orange County, but also the tax rec- ords of Duval County to see if the owner's intangible tax is paid. Most people don't know this. And if you buy land or take a mortgage on land from a corporation, you must send to Tallahassee to find out if the corporation's annual franchise tax is six months delinquent, or if. it is, the corporation has no legal authority to convey or make a mortgage. Real estate is the fundamental source of all wealth. By the same token, it is also the most obvious thing on earth, and naturally the Legislature is inclined to stick taxes on it and on dealing with it and to help collect other taxes by preventing transfer of real estate if those otker taxes are not paid up. I'm not blaming our Legislators; we are all human. But real estate and the transfer of title to real estate doesn't get fair treatment. It is not because of prejudice against your business. These pieces of legislation are all right in themselves; but real property is so universally held that that the easiest way to collect intangible taxes and corporate franchise taxes and things of that kind is simply to saddle them on real estate directly or indirectly. And now along comes the new 1935 lien law, which is even worse, and very great- ly increases the difficulty, trouble and expense of transferring real estate and adds to it a very serious additional risk. I refer to the. Uniform Mechanics' Lien Act of 1935, Chapter 17,097 Laws of Florida, effective June 4, 1935. It is not my purpose here this afternoon to discuss with you the serious questions which arise. under Sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Act, and especially Section 5 concern- ing payments by the owner. These sections have seriously complicated the matter of

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