Relief from those
dreaded special assessments that condo owners must pay to
fund building repairs is a considerable way off.
But a bill recently introduced in Congress by Florida Reps.
Charlie Crist and Debbie Wasserman Schultz could take some
of the pressure off associations whose member-owners are
hard-pressed to pay, according to the Community Association
Institute, a Virginia-based industry advocate that supports
the measure.
Under the Securing Access to Financing for Exterior Repairs
in Condos Act, owners would be able to obtain low-interest
loans to fund repairs through two programs guaranteed by the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The CAI views the bill as a safety act because it would
lower the financial barriers faced by many owners who are
unable to help pay for increasingly high bills to repair
roofs and balconies and other major structural items.
The group cites the doomed Champlain Towers South building
in Surfside that partially collapsed on June 24, 2021,
killing 98 people, where owners faced a $15 million
assessment.
The residents had been warned of “major structural damage”
in the building by an engineering report in 2018. In a
letter to the condo association months prior to the
collapse, the board president described progressive decay at
the building, saying damage in the garage had “gotten worse”
since an initial inspection. She also noted that discussions
among residents about the building’s problems had continued
on for months and even years.
The disaster sent shock waves around the state of Florida,
where tens of thousands of people reside in older buildings
facing expensive repairs. It’s uncertain whether a federal
financial program would have helped expedite the repairs
required in the Surfside tower.
Rescue personnel work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers
South Condo, Friday, June 25, 2021, in Surfside. Advocates
of a new bill in Congress to provide federal financial aid
to condo owners whose buildings need expensive structural
repairs cited the disaster as a key reason to offer the
assistance. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) (Gerald
Herbert/AP)
But Crist, in a statement, says the bill “would build on a
home improvement program under the Federal Housing
Administration to provide an affordable financing option so
seniors and families can stay in their condo safely and
avoid another preventable disaster.”
The program, which originally was intended to help finance
the rehabilitation of apartment buildings, would be amended
to include the following:
Allow condo unit rehabilitation mortgages to fund special
assessments for condo project structural repairs
Make it easier for condo associations when condo owners use
the program to finance a special assessment that will fund
structural repairs
Streamline a property improvement loans program to insure
private lenders against losses when lending to individual
condo owners for special assessments.
Said Wasserman Shultz in the same statement: “While we still
mourn all those we lost in Surfside, the harsh reality is
that untold numbers of aging condos just like Champlain
Towers South may face similar structural safety problems. In
the months and years ahead, countless Florida residents may
be living in an unfolding tragedy—and not even know about it
or have the tools to stop it.”
She asserted the bill would take “meaningful steps to help
prevent that from ever happening again by helping make it
easier for condo owners to afford special assessments when
costly structural and safety repairs arise.”
The bill comes after the Florida Legislature declined to
deliver a package of promised condo safety reforms during
its spring session this year.
While responding to questions from the South Florida Sun
Sentinel, a Crist staff member acknowledged that while much
of the authority to regulate condos is up to the states,
“there are areas where the federal government can step in.
Guaranteeing loans is one of them and expanding access to
financing for structural repairs is one of them.”
No companion bill has been offered in the U.S. Senate.