WEEK 5 OF THE 2025 LEGISLATIVE SESSION -- A SUMMARY

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published April 4, 2025

Week 5 of the 2025 Legislative Session just followed the pattern of the first 4 weeks: Condo bills (HB 913 + SB 1742 and HB 393 + SB 592) are on their way to floor votes -- with some amendments as expected.

Two more bills from our PRIORITY LIST finally got committee hearings:

SB 724 (dubbed The Fallen Tree Act) was unanimously approved by the Senate Committee on Judiciary. This is an important bill for homeowners since it would change the liability of damages caused by fallen trees to the tree owners -- something that might owners want to take better care of their trees. Proper pruning may avoid trees causing damage to neighbors' homes.

And HB 983 finally got in front of the first committee. The House Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee (WATCH VIDEO) voted unanimously in favor of the bill, after giving a favorable vote to two amendments filed to the initial bill. The bill carries some excellent provisions and would definitely help with prosecuting bad actors -- if there wouldn't be the change to the recall provisions contained in this bill. I already pointed out the problems of these changes to existing recall provisions -- well established since 2004 -- in my blog headlined "KILLING RECALLS IN HOAs?". Representative JC Porras obviously doesn't understand that the new provisions would make it a lot more difficult for owners to recall bad boards -- not even considering that owners voting for recall would now be liable for legal fees if they make some mistakes. It was remarkable to see that the bill was heavily supported by law enforcement agencies.

Let's just hope that Representative Porras will understand the serious problems of the "newly proposed" recall provisions and will -- for the next committee hearing -- file an amendment removing all language about recall provisions in this bill referencing FS 720.303(10).

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