TALLAHASSEE – Two bills currently working their way through the Florida Legislature could significantly impact condominium associations and condominium owners on Anna Maria Island and throughout the state.
Working in unison, Senate Bill 154 and House Bill 1395 seek to clarify and expand the condominium-related legislation the Legislature adopted during a special session last year as Senate Bill 4-D.
The House of Representatives’ staff analysis for HB 1395 also addresses the origins of SB 4-D: “On June 24, 2021, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium building in the town of Surfside, partially collapsed resulting in the death of 98 people. In response, during Special Session, 2022D, SB 4-D was enacted to provide building safety inspection requirements (milestone inspections) and reserve requirements (structural integrity reserve study) for condominium and cooperative association buildings.”
As of Monday morning, SB 154 and HB 1395 proposed mandatory inspection timelines for condo buildings that are at least three stories tall and 30 years old or older, with additional inspections required every 10 years after that. According to the staff analysis of HB 1395, there are currently more than 2 million Floridians occupying condo buildings that are 30 years old or older.
According to SB 154, “If a building reaches 30 years of age before December 31, 2024, the building’s initial milestone inspection must be performed before December 31, 2024.”
The new legislation would delete from last year’s legislation the 25-year milestone inspection requirement for buildings located within three miles of the coastline. Regardless of coastline proximity, all qualifying condo buildings would be subjected to the 30-year inspection requirements.
The term “milestone inspection” refers to a structural inspection of a condo building and its load-bearing elements, walls and primary structural systems. To be conducted by a licensed architect or engineer, the milestone inspection is to determine the general structural condition of the building as it pertains to safety and to identify any maintenance, repair or replacement needed for those structural components.
The proposed legislation would also require impacted condo associations and condo owners to create and set aside reserve funds for structural inspection studies and for any needed structural repairs or maintenance activities which would include roof replacements and exterior painting. Condominium owners are currently allowed to waive state-imposed reserve requirements.
Clarification pending
As of Monday morning, the proposed legislation would likely impact the most common form of condo buildings on Anna Maria Island: those with ground-level parking areas and two elevated, habitable living levels above the parking.
Further and final clarification is still being sought as to whether ground-level parking will be counted as a story when determining how many stories a condo building has. If ground-level parking is counted as a story, the impact on Anna Maria Island would be significant. If not, the impact would likely be limited to the seven-story condo buildings at the Martinique condo complex in Holmes Beach.
Height limit restrictions imposed by all three Island cities now prohibit the construction of any buildings more than three stories tall and ground-level parking counts as a story. Bradenton Beach Building Official Steve Gilbert said he’s not aware of any three-story condo buildings on the Island that feature ground-level living units rather than ground-level parking.
On these issues, St. Petersburg-based lobbyist Travis Moore is representing the Florida Legislative Alliance which is part of the national Community Associations Institute. Cortez condo resident and former Bradenton Beach condo resident Connie Morrow is the delegate for the Florida Legislative Alliance and her focus is on condominium-related issues.
On Monday morning, Moore and Morrow were among those who participated in a Zoom meeting with State Rep. Vicki L. Lopez (R-Miami/Dade), the original sponsor of HB 1395. Monday’s discussion addressed the possibility of amending the proposed legislation in a manner that would not impact three-story condo buildings with ground-level parking and two upper living levels. According to Morrow, Lopez was at least open to the idea, but Moore said he doesn’t expect that change to happen.
When contacted late Monday morning, Moore said, “If you have three stories, including ground-level parking, this will affect you.”
One- and two-story condos would not be affected by the proposed legislation as it currently stands.
Moore noted change is always possible during a legislative session.
“This is a snapshot of where we are right now. There are changes being contemplated. They are moving through the legislative process that ends May 5th. As of right now, they’re working to make it very clear that if it’s three floors or more, it affects you,” Moore said.
According to Moore, most of the condo-related legislation passed in 2022, 2023 and 2024 would not take effect before Jan. 1, 2025.
When interviewed on Saturday, Moore said prior to the 2022 adoption of SB 4-D, Florida had no inspection standards in place for aging condo buildings. During the 2022 session, the Senate members focused more on inspection requirements and the House members focused more on reserve funds and other financial elements. The resulting legislation left gaps legislators and others are now trying to address.
Inspections and reserves
Under the legislation, if an initial phase 1 structural inspection identifies structural deficiencies that require structural repairs, a more-extensive phase 2 inspection would be required.
“All these reports and inspections go to the condo owners and the local building official. If they find damage that has to be addressed, they’ll be told by the local building department that they have to get this done and they have 365 days to start the repairs. The building officials are the ones with the ability to enforce this, or to condemn a building. The condo associations can’t just say ‘We’ve got these repairs that need to be done’ and do nothing about it,” Moore said.
Moore said condo boards provide their association members with a fully-funded annual budget that includes reserves for four specific categories. The association members then vote on whether or not to waive state-imposed reserve funding requirements that would increase their annual assessments.
“With a condo, you might have a hundred different owners that all have a say. So, the decisions are not made the same way regarding maintenance and keeping the buildings well-fortified,” Moore said.
“After Dec. 31, 2024, you can no longer vote to waive the reserves on these structural integrity items. Painting is considered structural because of the waterproofing element. You could waive reserves on other things like renovating the clubhouse or buying new pool furniture. There are some condo associations that haven’t been reserving funds for 20 years. They’ll need to catch up and their association assessments will go up,” Moore said.
Moore noted some longtime condo owners now live on fixed incomes but over the years their condos accumulated increased equity and value. Moore said it probably won’t happen during the current legislative session, but efforts will be made to create a program that would allow condo associations to take out a loan and allow condo owners who can’t afford to write a $10,000 to $20,000 assessment check to pay back their portion of the loan when they sell their unit.
“If you want to just write the check that’s fine, but there should be an option that allows people some flexibility,” Moore said.
The Senate and House bills have each already passed through two committee stops with the unanimous support of Republicans and Democrats alike.
Moore is confident additional amendments made in the two bills’ final committee stops will produce matching bills to be sent to the Senate and House floors for final votes, and then to Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign into state law.
“We’ve been working with the Governor’s office and all indications are that he’s on board. Anything can happen with the legislative process, but it is expected to pass,” Moore said.
Condo owner insight
Morrow and her husband, Bill, live in a three-story condo building in Cortez. They also own a condo in a two-story building at Runaway Bay in Bradenton Beach.
“The whole point of this is safety and the management of safety. The collapse of Surfside exposed the fact that Florida condo owners have been able to vote every year to not fund a reserve. With this legislation, associations will have to have a reserve for critical structural components. It forces people to budget and set up a stream of revenue through the annual association assessment to fund those structural elements.
“Condominium owners on Anna Maria Island are going to be compelled to have a reserve study done, with a focus on the structural elements. They are going to have to build a plan to address the major structural elements and estimate when those structural elements will need to be repaired or replaced. The next thing is to build a strategy to collect the resources to be able to fund those repairs and major maintenance,” Morrow said.
When asked what happens to a condo association that currently has no reserves set aside, Morrow said,
“They will have to establish a reserve and begin contributing to that reserve in order to meet the structural requirements identified through the structural integrity reserve study. They’re going to have to start saving. If they’ve lived and owned in that building, they’ve contributed to its natural deterioration. What we have done previously here in Florida is to allow owners to ignore those obligations. Now the state is saying we have no choice. We cannot ignore those structural elements.”
Morrow supports the efforts to help find alternative funding support for condo owners and associations.
When asked if the proposed legislation is good or bad, Morrow said, “This is an improvement over last year. They had to come back for a special session and what they pushed out had a lot of gaps, but it was a needed step in the right direction. Now they’re going through the process of refining it and cleaning it up and this is good.”
