Glades County approves SHIP mortgage transfer and 8-year forgiveness schedule for heir

Glades County commissioners voted Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, to transfer a SHIP-program mortgage from a deceased homeowner to a qualifying heir and to adopt revised forgiveness terms that require occupancy and compliance over eight years.

Why it matters: the transfer changes repayment terms for a property subject to a State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) mortgage. The new schedule accelerates annual forgiveness so the qualifying heir can receive full forgiveness after eight years if they meet program requirements.

County staff presented the request to transfer a SHIP promissory note and mortgage from Joyce Ash to her heir, identified in the materials as Sierra Brown. SHIP staff said the principal balance is $139,113.25 and that the county will replace the original mortgage terms with an eight-year schedule that forgives 10% of the balance for each year of compliance; if the homeowner remains in compliance the remaining balance will be forgiven at the end of the eight years.

SHIP staff said the heir must live continuously at the residence, keep homeowner insurance in force, keep property taxes current and maintain the property so code-enforcement violations do not occur; failure to meet any of those conditions would render a year noncompliant and delay forgiveness. Staff also said the county will apply the same inspection and compliance process used for other SHIP mortgages.

A motion to approve the mortgage transfer and new eight-year forgiveness schedule passed unanimously. The county clerk recorded the vote as 4-0; Commissioner Taylor was absent.

Details of the prior mortgage forgiveness schedule were described in staff remarks as different from the new schedule; staff said the change was intended to avoid heirs inheriting an uncompromised large balance when a mortgagor dies.

Next steps: staff will finalize loan documentation and record the amended mortgage documents to reflect the new terms.