The mounting costs to cover renovations and build up reserve fund
s have strained residents in the condo haven of South Florida, especially retirees and those living on fixed incomes.
Condo owners along the state’s southwest coast have taken
the extra hit of last year’s back-to-back hurricanes, which clo
bbered waterfront communities in the Tampa Bay area and forced additi
onal renovations and repairs.
“It’s a full-time job for me keeping track of this,” condo owner Earl
e Cooper said of the repairs to his building in Belleair. “Hurricanes just multiply the problems.”
The new measure allows certain condo associations to fun
d their reserves through a loan or line of credit. It also gives residents greater flexibility to pause payments into their res
erve funds while they prioritize needed repairs and extends the deadline for associations to complete structura
l integrity studies. Some smaller buildings will be exempt from having to do those analyses.
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“I think that this will provide relief,” DeSantis said. “But to the extent th
at there needs to be some cleanup next year when the legislature reconvenes, we got to be willing to do that.”
“Now it’s time to make the change,” Hooper said. “Elderly people ar
losing their condos because they could not afford to make the increase in their monthly HOA fees. That’s just wrong.”
Condo owners in Florida faced rising costs under the 2022 law, which requires condo associations to have sufficient reserv
es to cover major repairs. In the aftermath of the Surfside disaster, some
residents were caught off guard by hefty fees levied to cover years of d
eferred maintenance expenses required to bring their buildings into compliance with the 2022 legislation.