At the risk of stating the obvious, we’re living in a very polarized political environment. Everyone in government, national and local, is going to their corner and waiting to make their next move; therefore, it’s gratifying to see cooperation among our elected officials.
Since June of last year when the Champlain Towers South condos in Surfside collapsed, there have been non-stop conversations in Tallahassee, on Anna Maria Island and in other waterfront communities all over Florida about inspections and regulations on how to make our older waterfront condominium communities safer.
A couple of weeks ago, Florida legislators began work on updating the state’s condominium regulations by advancing a bill through the Florida Senate imposing inspections and stricter standards for buildings near the coastline. The bill, SB 1702, was unanimously approved by the Senate Community Affairs Committee as a baseline to attach to other condo-related reforms.
Briefly, the bill would establish a mandatory structural inspection program for multi-family residential buildings that are greater than three stories and larger than 3,400 square feet. This is estimated to affect as many as 2 million residential condos in Florida. At this point, I have not found an absolute clear yes or no answer as to whether three stories is two living levels above under-building parking or three living levels above under-building parking. This makes a real difference to condos on Anna Maria Island and in Cortez, where many are configured with two living levels above under-building parking.
The outline of the state’s proposal is based on Miami-Dade and Broward counties’ inspection regulations requiring buildings 30 years old or older to be inspected and then every 10 years thereafter. Inspections must be done by licensed architects or engineers and the cost paid by the condo association. It has also been suggested that there should be a requirement for minimum education for board members, which I personally think would be a very good idea.
One of the flaws is that based on state law, once the repairs are identified, there is nothing that requires condo associations to assess their residents to pay for the repairs. As we now know, Champlain Towers did have a 40-year recertification which identified major repairs. However, because of the estimated $15 million required in repairs, the condo board and residents took a long time to make a decision for the assessments, which probably contributed to the building failure even after repairs were underway.
As stated, there are an estimated 2 million residents in the state of Florida who reside in more than 912,000 condominium units that are 30 years or older. In addition, it is estimated that there are probably another 250,000 units in the state that are either 20 to 30 years old or more than 50 years old. It is true that non-waterfront condos may have fewer issues as they age, but nevertheless, this involves an enormous number of people and work on the part of the state.
Local incorporated cities like Holmes Beach are already taking some action as far as inspections. And maybe the best way to handle this is for the state to set guidelines to help cities and counties to perform their own inspections.
Don’t expect anything from the state any time soon. It is an ambitious plan with many moving parts. It’s just nice to see government at least trying to make a difference by working together.
