Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says special session to fix condo law is up to Legislature

As condominium owners throughout the state face significant hikes in their homeowner association assessments, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it's up to the Legislature to convene a special session to fix the law that spurred the increases.

“If the Legislature has ideas about how to make this more sensible for people, I’m totally open to all that,” DeSantis told reporters during an appearance in Aventura on Thursday.

Reacting to the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South, a 12-story condo in Surfside, Miami-Dade County, lawmakers unanimously passed legislation (SB 4-D) and DeSantis signed it into law in May 2022. The collapse killed 98 people.

It requires condo buildings of three or more stories to receive an inspection after 30 years. Condo associations also are required to conduct studies of the necessary reserves needed to pay for large maintenance repairs, including roof replacements, and any needed structural upkeep or replacements.

The new requirements have led to large jumps in assessments, with some reaching six figures. In response, many condo owners are opting to sell their units. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that condos for sale in South Florida have doubled since the first quarter of 2023, to 18,000 units.

“The Legislature did this, they did hearings and stuff and I was like OK, fine,” DeSantis said. “But there was always the possibility that there could be unintended consequences, so they owe it to their constituents to listen to them, to figure out.”

Under Florida’s constitution, a special session can be convened by DeSantis, by the leaders of the House and Senate or by a vote of no less than 60% of the rank-and-file members of the Legislature.

Requests for comment are pending with House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples. If a special session isn’t called, the Legislature isn’t scheduled to meet for its next regular session until March 4, 2025.

“If the legislators talk to their folks and have some proposals to provide some reforms that would alleviate some of that burden, I think that would be a welcome thing,” DeSantis said. “But that’s going to have to be something that they’re developing after talking with the folks who were affected by it.”

Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: Condo law fix up to Legislature