A sinkhole tore open beneath the back of a townhome in the Villas of Costa Del Sol neighborhood Sunday evening, sending residents scrambling out of their homes and prompting the City of Orlando to condemn two units on the spot. Up to eight people are now displaced, with no timeline for when — or if — they’ll be allowed back inside.
According to WKMG ClickOrlando, Orlando police and fire crews arrived at the property around 5 p.m. Sunday, and the Red Cross responded as well, according to one resident. Yasmin Kernek, who lives in the gated townhome community in East Orlando’s Azalea Park area, told the station that police, fire crews and the Red Cross helped get residents out of the affected homes safely. “It was very scary,” Kernek said of the moment the ground gave way directly beneath the back portion of a home.
The city posted neon condemnation notices on the two townhomes, officially barring residents from stepping back inside. Those notices aren’t just a formality — under Florida Statute § 627.706, a government condemnation order is one of four conditions that must all be met simultaneously, alongside an abrupt ground collapse, a visible surface hole and structural foundation damage, before standard homeowners insurance is required to cover a catastrophic ground cover collapse, according to Ilabaca Law. With Orlando’s condemnation order now on record, the displaced homeowners appear to clear that legal threshold, though questions remain about what exactly caused the ground to fail.
HOA Says the Repair Bill Lands on Homeowners
The homeowners association sent residents a message Monday afternoon laying out its position: because the hole opened on private property, fixing it is the homeowners’ responsibility, not the HOA’s. The HOA president said the association only learned of the sinkhole Monday morning and estimated that roughly seven or eight people have been displaced. The HOA’s management company added that it currently has no action available to take…