Condo safety bill clears Legislature, heads to governor’s desk

Aging high-rise condos will have to undergo safety inspections while condo boards will have to save money for structural repairs if the governor signs a new condo safety bill that cleared the Legislature on Wednesday.

The bill is meant to prevent another catastrophe like last year’s collapse of the Champlain Tower South in Surfside, which killed 98 people.

During the regular session earlier this year, the bill failed to clear the legislature, but will now go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

It was introduced unexpectedly on Tuesday afternoon after a few legislators, including sponsors from the House and Senate, reportedly met Monday night to hash out an agreement that could be passed during this week’s special session on insurance reform.

The Senate passed it Tuesday night and the House took it up Wednesday afternoon after passing a controversial package of property insurance reforms.

Approval of the condo safety bill was unanimous in both chambers.

If enacted, buildings three stories or higher will have to undergo structural safety inspections by the year they turn 30 and every 10 years afterward. If they were built before July 1, 1992, the first structural inspection must be performed before Dec. 31, 2024.

Buildings within three miles of the coast must be inspected before age 25 and every 10 years afterward.

Inspection reports must identify significant structural deterioration, whether the deterioration is dangerous or unsafe, and whether it should be repaired. Copies of the reports must be distributed to all condo unit owners.

Condo boards must conduct reserve studies every 10 years to determine how much money owners must be assessed to cover future repairs.

Boards will be prohibited from waiving the reserve requirement or using money in the reserves for other purposes.

Should they become law, the new requirements will be enforced by the state’s Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes.

Christina Pushaw, Gov. DeSantis’ press secretary, did not directly answer when asked if DeSantis planned to sign the bill. But she noted in a statement that DeSantis had encouraged the Legislature to reach consensus on condo safety reforms.

The statement called the bills’ passage a “welcome step” toward ensuring a similar tragedy never happens again.

“In addition, as the governor has mentioned, there are ongoing federal and local investigations into the finite details of the Champlain Towers South disaster,” the statement said. “When those investigations are complete, we will review their findings and carefully consider any recommendations for further reforms based on those findings.”

Up until now, only Broward and Miami-Dade counties required inspection and recertification of high-rise condo buildings. But compliance and enforcement was inconsistent, and condo residents often pressured their boards to waive requirements to maintain reserves. After the Champlain tower fell, Boca Raton passed a 30-year inspection and certification law in August 2021.

Condominium law attorney Peter Sachs, partner in the Boca Raton-based law firm Sachs Sax Caplan P.L., said the safety reforms are necessary to protect Florida condo residents. “These buildings were satisfactory when they were built, but now it’s 50 years later,” he said. “As important as expenses and budgets are, safety is the most important thing and that this bill is meant to ensure,” he said Wednesday.

Dennis Eisinger, a Hollywood-based attorney who represents community associations throughout Florida, said he was “thrilled” by the unexpected passage of the safety measures but wishes the bill imposed harsher sanctions on non-compliant governing boards than a finding that they “breached their fiduciary duties.”

But a harsher penalty could make it difficult for associations to find owners willing to serve on boards, he said.

Eisinger also said he would have preferred that the bills extended inspection and reserve requirements to all high-rise buildings. “What about high-rise office buildings [populated by] 500 employees a day?” he said. “Why aren’t other buildings protected as well?”

The bills lack several recommendations of a 179-page report released by the Florida Bar’s Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section last October, Eisinger pointed out.

Among them was a recommendation to eliminate limitations on civil actions by associations and unit owners against developers for design and construction flaws. It also called for creation of a “cause of action” that would enable unit owners to sue associations that fail to meet inspection, maintenance and other requirements.

On the House floor Wednesday, some members said they felt better about passing the safety bill than they did about voting for the insurance reforms that brought them back to Tallahassee this week.

“This bill makes this trip worth it, at least for me,” said Rep. Michael Grieco, a Democrat representing a district in Miami-Dade County that abuts the collapsed building’s southern property line. He spoke of seeing family members being allowed onto the site for the first time after the collapse. “To hear those folks screaming into the rubble ... they were screaming to people who might still be alive in there. I’ll never forget that sound.”

Rep. Joseph Geller, whose district includes the Champlain Tower South, spoke of a close friend who lived in the Surfside building and survived. “They heard a loud noise in the middle of the night,” he said. “They opened their door and there was six feet of hallway and then nothing. And they tried to get down the stairs. And it was blocked and there was water down in the basement. And they had to retreat and get pulled out of their apartment off the balcony by cherry-pickers. And they were the lucky people.”

Geller added, “This matters. This means there won’t be a repetition. This is a big deal.”