Workers make repairs to the facade of the Parker Tower Condo in Hallandale Beach on Dec. 5, 2024. | Marta Lavandier, AP
Published on May 1, 2025 at 11:20 am
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Saying they are responding to residents’ concerns about rising costs, the Florida Legislature on Wednesday signed off on proposed changes to condominium safety laws passed after the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside that killed 98 people.
The measure (HB 913), approved unanimously by the House and Senate, is now headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made changing the condo laws one of his top priorities of this year’s legislative session.
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The laws, passed in 2022 and tweaked in 2023, included requiring “milestone inspections” of older buildings and “structural integrity reserve studies” to determine how much money should be saved for future major repairs.
Milestone inspections were supposed to be completed by the end of 2024 for certain older buildings that are three stories or higher. Some condo associations hit owners with large assessments in the race to comply with the deadline. Assessments are in addition to homeowners’ regular association fees.
Sen. Jennifer Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican who shepherded the condo safety issue in the Senate, said this year’s plan takes into consideration input from dozens of condo association meetings and thousands of residents.
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“This bill comes from a lot of listening to owners talk about how they know their building needs to be safe but pleading that the process be fair and workable,” Bradley said.
The laws have strengthened condo safety but are posing economic challenges for some owners, Bradley said.
“With each milestone inspection, our condos are becoming safer, but financial impacts are reverberating. Our commitment remains steadfast to assist condo owners who have absorbed a tremendous amount of change,” Bradley, an attorney, said during Senate debate Wednesday.
The measure would extend by one year the deadline for structural integrity studies, which currently must be completed by Dec. 31 and which Bradley said many condo associations are “struggling to meet.”
The bill also says the milestone inspections and structural reserve studies apply to buildings that have three or more habitable stories. Current law requires the buildings to have three stories or more.
The proposal also would allow for a temporary pause in reserve funding for two years immediately after a milestone inspection and give condo associations “critical flexibility” on meeting reserve requirements, Bradley said. The bill would allow associations to use lines of credit or loans to satisfy reserve obligations, if a majority of owners approve.
“The process has revealed some very real pressure points, both financially and otherwise, and that is no surprise. Big change is difficult, but it’s our duty to adjust thoughtfully when circumstances demand, and that’s what this bill does,” Bradley said.
The bill was a compromise between the Senate and the House, which passed a version of the condo-law revisions last week. The Senate on Wednesday made changes to the House bill and sent it back to the House, which passed the revised bill hours later.
The measure also addresses a variety of other issues, including condominium association managers and management companies.
In addition, the plan would give local officials until Oct. 1 to report to the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation certain information about milestone inspections, including the number of buildings that were inspected and a list of buildings that have been deemed unsafe or uninhabitable.
The bill also would require design professionals, such as architects and engineers, as well as contractors who bid on milestone inspections and structural integrity studies to disclose if they intend to bid on related maintenance, repair or replacement work.
Under current law, the structural reserve studies target features that affect buildings’ structural integrity or safety, including roofs, plumbing, electrical systems, windows and exterior doors. The studies also include other items that have deferred maintenance expenses of more than $10,000, which the bill would raise to $25,000.
Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, said he has hundreds of condo associations in his Pinellas County district.
“This is probably one of the most important pieces of legislation that this body is going to vote on,” DiCeglie said. “Folks are hurting financially. They are up against making decisions of whether or not they are going to leave the dream called Florida. Many of them are on our coastlines, where it is paradise. Safety is also at the forefront of this issue. It is so incredibly difficult to balance that.”
Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, said the laws passed after the Surfside building collapse have worked and praised Bradley’s efforts.
“We had two condos in my district that were on the verge of falling down,” Harrell said. “You have really saved lives along the way, but you’ve also listened. And this bill now is the evolution of where we started. And there was a lot of pushback, there were a lot of problems, but you came to address it.”
Rep. Vicki Lopez, a Miami Republican who has been dubbed the “condo queen” by her House colleagues because of her sponsorship of condo safety measures, said the “incredible bill” approved Wednesday provides financial relief to condo owners and associations.
“We have tried to reach that delicate balance between the safety of our constituents as well as understanding the incredible financial impact that sometimes these particular bills that we passed have,” Lopez said.
