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.
The HOA’s position is that homeowners are responsible because the hole opened on private property; the Villas of Costa Del Sol is a townhome community.
Why the Ground Keeps Giving Way in Central Florida
Kernek said she's worried the sinkhole could keep spreading, a fear rooted in the geology beneath much of the region. Central Florida sits atop porous karst terrain, where acidic groundwater slowly dissolves the limestone bedrock below, placing Orlando inside a high-risk corridor stretching through Hillsborough, Orange and Volusia counties that's sometimes nicknamed Sinkhole Alley, per WKMG's own reporting on the region's geology. When underground limestone voids can no longer bear the weight of the clay and sand above them, the surface can cave in abruptly.
It's a pattern that's shown up elsewhere in the area recently. In August, Orange County crews evacuated two homes after a 10-foot-wide hole opened across front yards, a case Hoodline reported left families grappling with the same question now facing the Villas of Costa Del Sol residents: whether a 10-foot hole swallows yard was a natural karst collapse or tied to a failed utility line underground.
Florida's Subsidence Incident Database
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection maintains a public database of voluntary subsidence incident reports.
There's also a longer-term wrinkle for whoever eventually owns these units again. Florida sellers must disclose known or suspected sinkhole activity to future buyers, according to Team Renick. For now, though, the immediate issue is simpler and more urgent: several residents have nowhere to go home to. WKMG said it was still waiting to hear back from the City of Orlando on next steps for the property and the displaced residents, and said it would provide updates as more information becomes available.
