As legislators gathered in Tallahassee for the annual legislative session, The Orlando Law Group has been closely following HB 913, something all condominium owners and condo associations should pay close attention to.
You can see the progress of the bill from when we firstdiscussed proposed changes to Florida Condominium law in April, and then again in early June, when the bill passed both houses in Tallahassee.
Now the bill is official as Governor Ron DeSantis has signed it into law, meaning the entire act will be enforceable on July 1.
Perhaps the biggest thing being talked about is that there is some relief for Florida condominium associations struggling to pay for the repairs and reserves needed after the results of milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies.
While there are new options to help cover those costs, primarily by allowing a line of credit instead of just cash, the reality is that for most condominiums in Florida, the deadline to have those done was just extended a year.
Condominium associations throughout the state that have three or more habitable stories are still responsible for having milestone inspections and structural integrity reserves by the end of 2025, instead of 2024.
It is still a major financial burden for condominium owners and a requirement for condos across the state.
The attorneys at The Orlando Law Group can help Orlando condominium associations and any Florida condominium associations with any changes that might come, ensuring your association remains in compliance with any new state statutes enacted this year.
New Ways to Pay for Repairs and Reserves
After the Surfside Condominium collapse, lawmakers wanted to ensure Florida's condominiums were safe for residents. Many of the state's high rises were built decades ago and the Surfside tragedy showed that structural issues developed over the years could cause a significant loss of life.
The goal was to ensure the condos were safe by inspecting nearly all condos in Florida with what was called a milestone inspection. Along with that, a structural integrity reserve study was required to make sure the funds to repair the buildings are available.
Unfortunately, the result was that many, many condominiums in Florida were faced with millions of dollars required to be set aside or used for repairs. With many condominiums owned by retirees on fixed incomes or used as rental properties, owners struggled to pay assessments.
As the deadline approached for the end of this year, many were seeing a potential significant selloff of condo units throughout Florida, possibly crashing the state's robust real estate market.
Something had to be done, but there was no appetite with looming budget shortages for the state government to provide a bailout of condominium owners. Instead, the legislature helped in a few ways.
First, any reserves required by the study could now be held through a loan or a line of credit approved by a majority vote of the association. (Not the association's board, but a majority vote of the total voting interests of the association.)
The advantage of this form of financing over a special assessment is that it can be paid over the years, while a special assessment requires a large sum immediately. When your residents are on a fixed income, finding tens of thousands of dollars is simply not feasible.
In addition, most Florida condominium associations can pause collections on any reserves for two years if they need the time, but they must perform another study before restarting collections. And, it only pushes the underlying issue – collecting money from people who don't have extra money to give – down the road.
Other forms of relief
Many smaller condos in Florida were excluded from the study requirements in the bill with the addition of one word to the state statutes: Habitable.
As we discussed in our previous article, the Florida Building Codesays that habitable means: A space in a building for living, sleeping, eating or cooking. So with this change, any three-story condominium building where the first floor does not have living units will be exempt.
For instance, the first floor may be parking spaces or storage units. If that's the case, and there are only two floors of habitable space above the first floor, a milestone inspection is not needed.
Another part of the bill put some guardrails on shady engineering firms that were using the studies as a way to fund large repair contracts.
Now, if the engineering or architectural firm has any connections to a company wanting to bid on design or repairs to the building, they must disclose that when proposing to perform the study. This includes a disclosure even if just a family member works for the company and wants to perform the repairs.
The goal is that condominium associations would be able to see any sort of collusion between engineers and construction companies.
There are a slew of other elements to this bill that will affect condominium associations in Florida. We'll review those in a second article.
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