Florida condos need a spending plan to make repairs — but there’s an issue with the law
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Condo crisis in South Florida
Aging buildings, new laws and spiraling fees and assessments have affected condominium residents and the real estate market in Miami-Dade and Broward.
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Florida is requiring condominiums to disclose their spending plans to make major repairs as part of the laws that went into effect after the deadly building collapse in Surfside.
But a state lawmaker appearing at a Miami Herald event this week disclosed that there are no consequences if associations don’t comply.
“There is that element we’re starting to see,” Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, said at Wednesday’s panel discussion at the United Way in Miami, “Priced out of Paradise.”
“Boards are just like, ‘What are they going to do to us?’ ”
Lopez said legislators need to address creating penalties for condo associations that don’t comply.
In January 2025, condos with buildings three stories or higher will owe the state a structural integrity reserve study, essentially providing a savings plan for repairs needed every 15 to 25 years.
Condo associations have to hire an engineer to inspect their communities for safety and repair concerns and explain how much they need in reserves. Each association will then have to start saving a year later, in 2026.
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The looming costs come at a time when condominiums have increased condo fees and special assessments to make sure buildings are up to code and address immediate risks and concerns.
And condo residents are feeling it. Miami-Dade County’s median monthly condo assessment fee of $900 from April through June this year is up 59% from the $567 fee over the same stretch in 2019, according to data from Redfin.
The spiraling costs have become a burden to many condo residents, who suddenly find themselves unable to afford South Florida housing that was once affordable for them. Some condo residents have had to get a second job. Some retirees are returning to the workforce. And others are trying to sell and move elsewhere.
It’s a building crisis for a region that has by far the most condo buildings in Florida.
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Ground zero are older buildings that were converted from rental apartments to condos in the 1970s, said Ned Murray, associate director of the Florida International University Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center. Even more recently, from 2003 to 2006, about 35,000 units were converted in Miami-Dade County, he said.
Condos were once “safe and decent affordable housing,” Murray said.
But the costly requirements, and the fallout from the Surfside disaster, are changing all that.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who also was on the Miami Herald panel, said the county is stepping in to help financially strapped condo owners with loans to pay for association repair assessments.
“We can’t afford for people to lose their homes. We can’t afford to lose them,” she said.
Lopez said condo associations have to comply with the laws.
“That is another issue you’ll see us attacking this legislative session. There have to be consequences,” she said. “If less than 50% have even completed their structural integrity reserve studies, that tells me there are associations not paying close attention or are intentionally not complying with the law.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not called for a special session on the issue.
Changes to the law were made after the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside in June 2021, killing 98 people. Many countywide and statewide changes went into effect within a year of the catastrophe, and now requirements for a reserve study to be submitted by January have raised a rising number of concerns.
Lopez sponsored Florida’s new condo laws, and represents 667 condominiums in her Miami-area district, including those in parts of Little Havana. She said she wants to propose statewide penalties through building safety and structural integrity legislation as an incentive for boards to comply with the new laws and requirements.
Wednesday’s Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald’s “Priced out of Paradise” event also featured moderator Tom Hudson, WLRN’s senior economics editor and special correspondent, and Peter Zalewski, founder of real estate consulting firm Condo Vultures.
The panelists gathered to discuss the rising financial pressures burdening condo owners in Miami-Dade, available resources and possible solutions.
Levine Cava characterized the condo issues as a “serious problem” and “so many people are affected by this.”
This story was originally published September 19, 2024 at 4:33 PM.
