Florida condominium owners are begging for relief after a new building safety law passed in the aftermath of the deadly Surfside collapse burdened them with staggering fees — and one lawmaker is warning that it could trigger the “next wave of homeless people.”
The issue of condo safety has become a lightning rod in Florida since Senate Bill 4D was passed in 2022. Now, lawmakers, Gov. Ron DeSantis, and homeowners are struggling to find a middle ground between two seemingly conflicting goals: ensuring that older properties have sufficient funds to carry out critical repairs, and not bleeding homeowners dry by forcing them to fund those repairs.
Rep. Mike Caruso, a DeSantis ally, has been ringing the alarm about the potentially disastrous impact of the strict new condo safety measures, especially on older owners living on fixed incomes.
If not amended, the law could trigger the “next wave of homeless people,” he said.
This hot-button issue was once again highlighted last week, when a segment of state lawmakers who support the controversial law refused to put it on the agenda of a special legislative session in defiance of the governor.
Caruso said he was shocked by this move and predicted that retired condo owners will soon face foreclosures because they “could no longer afford the triple reserves or the quadrupled dues,” according to the Miami Herald.
“It’s sad, and we’re not going to address it here in the Florida House. I’m shocked by it,” he added, according to the publication.
The divisive law was adopted in response to the partial destruction of the Champlain Towers South condo in the upscale Miami suburb of Surfside, FL, in June 2021, which killed 98 people.
While the bill aimed to make older condo complexes safer to prevent another tragedy like the one that happened in Surfside, critics of the measure have expressed concerns that the tangle of new safety requirements and increased financial demands could bankrupt homeowners and condo associations alike.
What Floridians are saying about the law
Charles Burkett, the mayor of Surfside, suggested to Realtor.com® in an email that lawmakers jammed through the condo safety bill before federal investigators had a chance to find the official cause of the collapse—a process that is still ongoing nearly four years later.
“The tragedy is that many very, very expensive solutions have been put forward for a problem that may or may not exist,” Burkett said. “The result is our condo owners are suffering badly from it and in many cases, losing their homes.”
The condo crisis triggered by the rising fees could hit seniors living on a fixed income particularly hard.
George Prybys, an 84-year-old retiree from St. Petersburg, FL, told ABC Action News that his HOA fees “ridiculously” have jumped from $400 to $900.
On top of that, the octogenarian, who is living off his Social Security and savings, was slapped with a $12,000 assessment to replace or fix all the balconies in his condo building.
“I told them I retired on the SKI plan. S-K-I, which is ‘spend the kid’s inheritance,’” he joked.
Law boosts safety for older condos
The legislation requires condo associations with properties that are three stories or higher and over 30 years old to undergo what is known as “milestone inspections,” have sufficient reserves in their budget to carry out major repairs and maintenance, and conduct a survey of reserves every 10 years.
About 90% of Florida’s 1.6 million condominiums are more than 30 years old, reported the Associated Press.
Condo associations had until Dec. 31 to complete a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, or SIRS, detailing the condition of each building and anticipated repair costs.
Condo owners will be required to make monthly contributions to their associations’ reserve funds to support long-term repairs and renovations. Unlike in the past, condo boards can no longer vote to waive funding reserves.
The growing financial burden associated with the new law, exacerbated further by mounting home insurance premiums and skyrocketing HOA fees in Florida, has left many condo owners fearful of losing their homes and sent others rushing to sell their properties, even at a loss.
Still, other homeowners have found themselves unable to offload their properties, because they cannot find buyers willing to take on the burden of the stupefyingly high HOA fees.
GOP lawmakers clash over condo safety law
Some Republican lawmakers share homeowners’ concerns, and even DeSantis, who signed Senate Bill 4D into law in May 2022, has called on the state legislature in Tallahassee to reform it.
But supporters of the bolstered condo safety measures have remained defiant. Last week, they refused to include a discussion of the law during a special legislative session, reported Miami Herald.
House Speaker Daniel Perez, who co-sponsored the bill, said in a speech that the legislation was too complex to take up during a special session—even though that is exactly how it was originally passed.
“The tragedy of the collapse in Surfside is a painful reminder of what happens when we don’t get the law right,” said Perez. “And the truth is, I dislike special sessions because they inhibit the very thing the legislative process should encourage: the push and pull of meaningful conversations that lead to the development of good and better ideas.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis pushes for condo law reform
Since affixing his signature to the bill less than a year after the Surfside disaster, DeSantis has come out in support of amending the legislation.
“We’re now seeing some problems that I think were unintended that have popped up, and we have a responsibility to act to make sure that people can stay in their condo units,” he said earlier this month, according to Florida Politics. “The Legislature should not be doing anything that’s going to cause someone to have to flee because of an artificial mandate.”
In calling on the Legislature to take up the condo costs issue during the special session, DeSantis suggested that a single law could not be relied upon to fix all the problems that have been plaguing Florida’s condos for years.