Florida's New Condo Law Hailed as 'Game-Changer'
Wind gusts blow between condominiums as Hurricane Ian churns to the south on September 28, 2022 in Sarasota, Florida.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday signed into law a sweeping new condominium bill that tries to defend the rights of unit owners against board members' abuses.
House Bill 1021, which was passed unanimously by the Florida legislature in March, is intended to fight corruption and malfeasance amid condo board members and associations by strengthening oversight on their work while giving more rights to condo owners. It also gives state authorities more power to investigate potential abuses.
"Condo 3.0," as the new law has been dubbed by its sponsor, State Representative Vicki Lopez, a Miami Republican, will come into effect on July 1. Lopez described the law as "a game-changer" for the sector.
"They will really be able to help everybody, whether they're property managers, condo owners or condo board members," Lopez said, as quoted by the South Florida South Sentinel. "They'll be able to offer the assistance that's so needed, because so often people made complaints and got back responses that said 'not within our jurisdiction,' and now they'll have plenty of jurisdiction and plenty of money."
The bill creates new education requirements for condo managers, demanding that board members spend four hours learning how to run a condo association, and creates more transparency around them. The law says that condos with 25 units or more must set up webpages including documents such as bylaws, budgets and lists of contractors with vendors. Condo boards are also prohibited from stifling dissent through the filing of defamation lawsuits.
Crucially, the law also addresses a previous loophole in the authority of the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), eliminating a line from Florida Statutes that prevented it from enforcing condo and condo association laws. Condo owners will now have their rights protected by state law and will be able to complain about mismanagement or corruption to the DBPR, which will have the undiscussed jurisdiction to intervene.
The bill secures $7.4 millions in funds to support the DBPR in enforcing the relevant laws to regulate condos in Florida.
Newsweek contacted Governor Ron DeSantis's spokesperson and State Representative Vicki Lopez's office for comment by email early on Monday.
Florida is facing a difficult time amid soaring insurance costs and growing fees for homeowners. The Sunshine State, which has been struggling for years with excessive litigation and widespread fraud in its insurance sector, is now seeing residents crushed by skyrocketing premiums as insurers try to keep up with the higher risk posed by more frequent and more severe natural disasters.
However, the biggest incentive for lawmakers to strengthen regulations around condos was from the catastrophic collapse of a condo tower in Surfside, Florida, in 2021, which caused the death of 98 people.
Among the causes of the disaster, investigators identified several potential structural failures that had compromised the integrity of the building. Some of the condo's parts did not meet standard building-code requirements at the time the tower was constructed in the 1970s. Part of the blame was attributed to the condo association, which had deferred structural repairs on the building.
However, the new bill hasn't been welcomed by all condo unit owners with the same enthusiasm. Some in South Florida are threatening to sue if lawmakers don't change provisions in the bill that give developers more control over common areas in mixed-use buildings, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times.
Common areas in mixed-use buildings are often at the center of controversies and disputes between condo owners and their associations and developers over who should shoulder the cost of repairs and maintenance and who controls these spaces.
The new law, according to critics, would take control of these common areas away from unit owners.
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