After the fatal Champlain Towers collapse in 2021, Florida condominium owners will take time to meet safety guidelines.
Until December 31st, the Condominium Association had to inspect the aged buildings and plan to save money for routine maintenance.
The market went on a plunge to reach that deadline as the owner rushed to list the house to avoid paying for the newly mandated repairs.
By the end of this year, the association will need it to fund its reserves for the first time. Associations that have been neglecting to save for years may have to rub millions of dollars in months. That burden can be placed on the owner’s shoulder in the form of a special evaluation.
“They’re not a big deal,” said former state senator Jeff Brandess, who runs the Florida Policy Project, a nonprofit that studies statewide issues, including the condo crisis.
This is what we look forward to in the coming months.
How does this make the building safer?
All condominium buildings over the age of 30 are due to submit two documents to the local building department by the end of last year.
One was a study outlining how much the association needs to save to cover maintenance over a decade. The other was the inspection report. If the inspector discovered “substantial deterioration,” a more thorough inspection was required.
Some condo associations have yet to hand over the necessary documents, said Kevin Garriott, who builds Clearwater City officials. His department lacks 36 tests out of the 191 they had hoped for.
Local agents like him are tasked with implementing the rules. But Garriott said it provided little guidance on how the state should do that.
Clearwater sent a reminder letter to the delinquent condo in December. Condos that cannot be complied with will be cited and may face penalties and fines, Garriot said.
The law gives a condo a year to schedule repairs after submitting an inspection, but certain municipalities could impose a more stringent timeline.
How does the real estate market respond?
Condo lists across the state rose nearly 43% in 2024, according to data from Florida real estate agents. The number of homes sold remained flat, with median sales prices down approximately 4.5%.
According to Tom Steck, president of Pinellas County Realtors and owner/operator of Madeira Beach’s Tomkat Realty, the new rules reveal the difficult truth that is erasing potential buyers.
“When they talk to someone, they’ll notice that they’ve got a rating, and there’s no guarantee that there’s no further rating,” he said.
Prices could drop even further as demand continues to decline. Steck said he fears more and more owners will be at a loss.
Older condos may be the most difficult hit.
The Florida Policy Project commissioned a survey of nine metro areas with a high concentration of condominiums. The list of condominiums over 30 has increased by about 56% year-on-year.
All condos will eventually turn 30 and will be subject to the same scrutiny, Brandes said. It rethinks people’s entire concept of life in a condominium.
“The condos will be re-reconstructed across the board,” he said.
Joe Hernandez is a real estate attorney for the Miami company Bilzin Sumberg. He specializes in laying off condos. This is the process by which owners vote to disband the Condo Association, usually with the goal of selling the property.
Since the initial deadline for inspections has passed, more buildings have begun selling themselves for potential bulk sales to developers, but “I still have the floodgates open.” I haven’t seen them there.”
Many developers refrain from scoping potential condominium conversion transactions while awaiting the outcome of the Miami lawsuit that could affect the rules for terminating a condominium.
Will the law of parliament be enacted?
Until the inspection deadline was reached, condo owners were hoping that Congress might provide relief.
Gov. Ron DeSantis urged lawmakers to reconvene by the end of the year to discuss the condo, but he did not call for a special session.
Several lawmakers say they hope to bring up the issue when the next legislative meeting begins on March 4th.
One solution raised is for the association to create a loan program that will help repair funds without any special evaluations.
Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Democrat from Broward County, has introduced a bill that would provide individual grants to low-income seniors who need to help pay special valuations for condos. Miami-Dade County has a similar program that acts as a model.
But Brandes said the state doesn’t have enough resources to cover all the condos that are experiencing problems. And even if they made the loan available, many of these condo associations would not have been able to afford them.
Hernandez said he hopes lawmakers will consider measures that give condos a clearer path to firing. Currently, only 5% of owners can block termination letters under state law.
Condominium owner Steck said he didn’t understand why Congress would require the association to fund all aspects of the building’s maintenance at the same time.
“Repairs may be ranked,” he said. “The most serious ones would be mandatory to be done first.”
This could reduce the burden on condominium owners who are capable of paying over time but may not be able to afford a massive lump sum.
Ultimately, Congress doesn’t have many good options that will help condo owners struggle, while prioritizing safety, Brandes said.
“It’s a bitter medicine that will make us healthy,” he said. “But it will sacrifice their homes to people and save their lives for some of them.”
