Florida lawmakers late last week gave final approval to a long-debated condominium bill, one designed to give condo owners a little relief on the high cost of bringing structures up to code.
But the final version of the bill seems to have divided the condo insurance community. Some in the industry now worry that House Bill 913 went too far and may have inadvertently given owners options that could thwart spending on repairs or allow buildings to be undervalued and underinsured.
“It has to be a mistake. It’s the exact opposite of what was intended, it seems to me,” said Phil Masi, agency president of AssuredPartners, one of the largest writers of condo insurance in Florida.
The bill is the latest development to come out of the 2021 Surfside condo collapse that killed 98 people. In 2022, Florida lawmakers put strict new rules on condo associations, mandating regular inspections and upgrades, adequate reserve funding to pay for repairs, as well as limits on condo owners’ ability to veto needed spending.
But after an outcry from owners and associations that the cost of improving condo buildings was proving to be too much, too soon for some owners — and as some insurance carriers backed away from condos and premiums rose, the Legislature this year hashed out a number of changes.
HB 913, if signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, will allow certain condo associations to fund their reserves through a loan or line of credit, will give residents greater flexibility to pause payments to their reserves while they prioritize needed repairs, extends the deadline by which associations have to complete structural integrity studies, and exempts some smaller buildings from having to do those analyses.
“We have strived to reach that delicate balance between the safety of our constituents that live in condominiums, as well as understanding the incredible financial impact that sometimes these particular bills that we pass have,” bill sponsor state Rep. Vicki Lopez, a Miami Republican, said, according to the Associated Press.
