TAMPA — There are just a few days remaining for condos to get rigid inspections wrapped up to comply with the new condo safety law.

It targets condos that may have bypassed structural repairs and waived the fees to cover the cost of repairs over several years.

“This is something that was long overdue,” said Eric Glazer, a board-certified attorney specializing in condo law. “In the state of Florida, we were allowing buildings to go unchecked and unrepaired.” The condo safety law aims to ensure condominiums across Florida are more resilient after the Surfside condominium collapse in 2021. However, complying with the legislation is pricing many condo owners out of their homes. Right now, many buildings across the state are going through a very stringent inspection process to determine if there are any structural deficiencies.

However, many condo owners are unable to pay for the large assessment fees to cover the cost of repairs.

“We weren’t requiring condos to put any money away for a rainy day,” Glazer said. “Ultimately, when a condo got around to look at the condition of the building, they found it was millions of dollars to repair leading to a building getting more dangerous.”

In many cases, the repairs needed to improve the structural integrity of the building are long overdue.

In June 2021, the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside collapsed, killing 98 people inside.

Since then, Florida legislators have passed a new law that requires inspections for all condominiums and cooperative buildings that are three stories or higher.

Structural integrity reserve studies must be completed by Dec. 31 to determine if there are any issues with the structure or foundation of the building.

A ‘milestone’ inspection is required for buildings that are more than 30 years old.

“It’s being passed for a reason,” Glazer said. “You better do these safety requirements by the time that’s required. If not, you’re going to suffer the consequences.”

Complying with the new legislation comes with a steep cost that’s passed onto condo owners in the form of hefty special assessment fees.

There’s another challenge.

Condominium associations must have sufficient reserve money available to cover the cost of any structural repairs.

These new mandates from Florida legislators are prompting many condo owners to sell their properties before the assessment fees are due.

According to the law, it is a breach of a board member or officer’s fiduciary duty if an association fails to complete a structural integrity reserve study.

“By failing to do that structural integrity reserve study and a dangerous structural condition is not caught, someone could get injured as a result of that,” Glazer said. “The liability is going to rest solely on the individual shoulders of the individual directors. The director’s own financial funds may be taken away from them because it’s deemed to have been considered a breach of their fiduciary duty.”

The legislation includes the following mandates:

Regarding building safety inspections, the bill:

• Requires condominium and cooperative association buildings that are three or more stories in height to have a “milestone inspection” of the buildings’ structural integrity by an architect or engineer when a building reaches:
  30 years of age and every 10 years thereafter, or
  25 years of age and every 10 years thereafter if the building is located within three miles of a coastline.

Regarding the funding of reserves for the continued maintenance and repair of condominium and cooperative buildings, the bill:

• Requires condominium associations and cooperative associations to complete a structural integrity reserve study every 10 years for each building in an association that is three stories or higher in height.

• Requires associations existing on or before July 1, 2022, that are controlled by non-developer unit owners to have a structural integrity reserve study completed by December 31, 2024.

• Defines “structural integrity reserve study” as a study of the reserve funds required for future major repairs and replacement of the common elements based on a visual inspection of the common elements.