Jesse Scheckner
Bills to further shore up Florida’s condo safety laws are again advancing after undergoing changes in their most recent committee stops.
The House bill (HB 913) by Miami Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez will next go to a floor vote. Its Senate analog (SB 1742) by Fleming Island Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley has one more panel to clear.
Bradley and Lopez introduced strike-all amendments to alter their respective proposals Tuesday. Both included provisions allowing condo associations to use lines of credit to comply with structural integrity reserve requirements and safeguards against self-dealing by condo board members and contractors.
Other changes to SB 1742 largely clarified requirements already outlined in the measure and adjusted some of its timelines. Amendments to HB 913 did similarly and also excised a contentious section unique to the House bill that would have blocked Citizens Property Insurance — Florida’s state-run insurer of last resort — from issuing or renewing policies for condo owners and associations that don’t comply with building inspection requirements.
That’s big. As of last month, most of the more than 11,000 condo buildings with three or more levels that must comply with relatively new rules set in recent Sessions hadn’t done so by the Dec. 31 deadline.
So far, both measures have received uniform support. But there are still notable differences between them that must be reconciled before the Legislature chooses and passes one.
For instance, SB 1742 would allow condo associations to pause or reduce their reserve funding for up to two years after a milestone inspection while they undertake repairs to make their building structurally safe.
That change is needed, Bradley explained, to address widespread complaints that the financial and regulatory strictures Florida established after the Surfside condo collapse are so exorbitant they’re forcing unit owners out of their homes.
“This is a very new process, the inspection process as well as the new reserve requirements (and) now it’s almost a double-dip because they’re having to repair and at the same time, simultaneously, they’re having to build up their reserves,” she said.
“What this bill does is bifurcate that. It says let’s do your milestone inspections so the state knows those buildings are safe … and then we’re going to hit a 24-month pause, at the end of (which) we can better assess going forward what reserves are needed.”
HB 913 would require associations to provide more timely reports and disclosures on studies and inspections to unit owners. It would also allow association boards to levy special assessments to obtain loans for mandated maintenance without prior membership approval and give the Department of Business and Professional Regulation even more oversight and enforcement authority on condo safety and association matters than it received through last year’s “Condo 3.0” law.
SB 1742, meanwhile, would set different standards for data collection and dissemination and require the University of Florida to study and report yearly on statewide milestone inspections. It would also require that if a condo board proposes an annual budget exceeding 115% of the prior year’s spending, it must also propose and consider a substitute budget without such discretionary expenditures.
Lopez said the lines of credit portions of this year’s legislation address the concerns she’s heard from residents, particularly young families and seniors on fixed incomes, who couldn’t afford higher condo fees.
“This bill finally gives them an option,” she said. “They can get a line of credit, which will certainly help … for the future improvements they need to make. So, I think this is going to be a landmark piece of legislation to address all of the financial issues that we have heard about from our constituents.”
It remains to be seen if the amendments Lopez made to her bill Tuesday are enough to satisfy Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed every previous condo bill she sponsored but is now accusing her and House leaders of trying to “sabotage” his work on the issue.
