Florida Bill Targets Condo Associations Failing Safety Compliance
TALLAHASSEE — A bill filed by a Miami lawmaker seeks to remove state-run property insurance coverage for condominium associations that have not met new building safety regulations. The legislation follows a 12-story residential tower collapse in Surfside in 2021. Most condo buildings three stories or higher needed a building safety inspection and study by December 31 of last year, outlining maintenance budgets. However, a majority of the more than 11,270 Florida condominium associations required to complete these studies have not yet done so, according to the secretary for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
The collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Florida, in June 2021 spurred the new safety laws.
Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez introduced HB 913, a 99-page bill addressing condominium laws. One key aspect of the bill proposes preventing Citizens, the state-run property insurer, from offering coverage to condominiums that have not adhered to the new requirements. Lopez has stated the bill is designed to “prioritize safety and financial sustainability for Florida’s communities.”
The plan also allows associations to take out loans or levy special assessments without a vote from members to cover required building maintenance and repairs. However, State Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami colleague of Lopez, expressed concern that the bill could create hardship for many residents. Garcia stated the proposal “threatens to significantly displace thousands of condominium owners in Florida, all in an effort to pave the way for private companies to enter the market.”
Garcia said Lopez is concentrating on penalties but not offering much support. “The bill ties insurance coverage” to “compliance, yet it fails to offer a feasible way for associations to fulfill these obligations,” she said. “As a result, many Floridians could lose their insurance, compelling associations to implement steep special assessments that will hit seniors, retirees, and low-income and residents the hardest.”
Garcia added that Citizens has provided a safety net for residents for some time. At a Miami Realtors condo summit on February 14, Rep. Lopez said there would be “no financial bailouts at all” concerning the building safety laws during this legislative session.
“We’re not in the business of bailing people out who did not do the right thing from the get-go,” Lopez said.
According to Pete Dunbar, a Florida condominium law expert and lobbyist who spoke to the House last week, the idea was proposed after the House discussion as Lopez, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation secretary and others were departing the state Capitol.
Most of the buildings affected by the law are in South Florida. More than half of the 18,468 condominium buildings insured by Citizens are situated in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, a Citizens spokesperson told the Times/Herald on Monday. Around 4,213 associations oversee these buildings.
State officials have had difficulty confirming that condos have finished their required studies. As of last week, about one-third—4,096—of the associations required to comply had done so, according to Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Melanie Griffin.
While these associations must notify the department upon completing the study, they do not need to supply further information, which limits what regulators can learn from the studies. Griffin indicated that the median cost to get a study was $6,000 “of the information self-reported to us.”
