CLEARWATER, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills on Monday aimed at giving relief to condominium owners.
DeSantis signed House Bill 913 and House Bill 393 during a news conference at a restaurant in Clearwater.
Press play above to watch DeSantis’ remarks
HB 913 will make changes to the regulation of condos and cooperatives. It will also increase transparency and accountability on condominium associations, and it will provide needed financial relief for condo owners.
“People need to be able to afford to live in these units and especially if they’re getting assessments on things that maybe they do need to be done. But, it isn’t like the integrity of the structure is at risk here. They need to be able to work those out, and you shouldn’t have this mandate apply in that way,” DeSantis said.
HB 393 makes improvements on the My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Program based on feedback and input from condo owners.
HB 913 - Condominium and Cooperative Associations
This bill specifically tackles five different things:
- Extend the reserve study requirement: This will provide a one-year extension that will immediately give condo owners relief from sudden and burdensome fee assessments.
- Alternative funding options: Provides financial flexibility to help associations meet reserve requirements in alternative ways.
- Builds upon the prioritization of legislation: Ensures transparency among condominium associations. Unit owners will have access to what the boards are doing, and particularly to financial records regarding their association.
- Accountability: This legislation holds condo board members and community association managers accountable, but without penalizing unit owners
- Report: It requires condos to report information about their association to the department, which will allow the DBPR to best contact associations.
HB 393 - My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Program
The bill revises provisions of the My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Program (Program) within the Department of Financial Services to:
- Exclude detached units on individual parcels of land from the definition of “condominium.”
- Limit participation in the Program to structures or buildings on the condominium property that are three or more stories in height and contain at least two single-family dwellings.
- Prohibit an association application for an inspection or mitigation grant unless the windows of the subject property are established as common elements in the declaration and the association has complied with the inspection requirements in ss. 553.899 and 718.112(2)(g) and (h), F.S.
- Require approval of at least 75 percent of all unit owners who reside within the structure or building that is the subject of the mitigation grant, rather than a unanimous vote of all unit owners.
- Specify the roof mitigation techniques that may receive a grant award.
- Require that the improvements must be verified during the final hurricane mitigation inspection to qualify for grant funds.
- Provide that grant funds may only be used for water intrusion mitigation devices or mitigation improvements that will result in an insurance premium mitigation credit, discount, or other rate differential for the building or structure to which such device or improvement is applied or made.
- Require that it is a condition of awarding a grant that mitigation improvements be made to all openings if doing so is necessary for the building or structure to qualify for a mitigation credit, discount, or other rate differential.
- Eliminate the restrictions that limit grant contributions to:
- For a roof-related project, $11 per square foot multiplied by the roof’s square footage, not to exceed $1,000 per unit, with a maximum grant award of 50 percent of the project’s cost.
- On an opening protection-related project, a maximum grant award of $750 per window or door, not to exceed $1,500 per unit, with a maximum grant award of 50 percent of the project’s cost.
These bills will take effect on July 1.