Judge: property sale will pay fallen Florida condo’s taxes

(AP) - A judge says money from the sale of Florida beachfront property where a collapsed condominium tower once stood will be used to pay property taxes of the destroyed units.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman said in a brief ruling Monday that the 2022 tax payments should not come from the $96 million previously earmarked to compensate owners of the 136 units of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida.

The building collapsed June 24, 2021, killing 98 people.

Instead, Hanzman said the taxes, a little under $800,000, county officials say, should be paid from the $120 million sale of the land formerly occupied by the 12-story building.