In Florida’s sweeping push to ensure aging condo buildings are kept safe, there are many key things that have — and haven’t — happened so far this year.
Many condo associations for older buildings with three or more stories were required by Dec. 31 last year to submit inspection paperwork. It’s necessary under new safety guidelines that were enacted after the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside that killed 98 people.
While many associations successfully submitted the reports, some others missed the deadline. For example, as of early February, Palm Beach County still hadn’t received the documentation from about a sixth of the more than 500 eligible buildings in the county’s unincorporated parts, officials said.
Amid these safety efforts, condo owners face the potential for higher costs to shore up reserves and pay for building repairs. Doug Wise, the director of Palm Beach County’s building division, said he has met with lawyers and focus groups working with condo boards that had virtually empty reserves. And it’s clear: The costs are top of mind.
“It’s easy to speculate, but people don’t have money,” said Wise, who also is the county’s building code administrator and is working directly with what are known as buildings’ “milestone inspection” reports. “Everybody I talk to right now is like, ‘We can’t afford these assessments.’”
Some communities that missed the deadline cited different reasons for why forms weren’t turned in on time: running out of time, lacking sufficient funds, or drawing obstacles related to inspections. But as time goes by, the pressure only will keep mounting to get everything done.
“With the new regulations, you can’t just hide your head in the sand and not take any action,” said Carolina Sheir, an attorney at Eisinger Law who handles condo and community association law. “Whatever the inspection results are is what they are, and the municipality is going to require that you undertake whatever steps are necessary to address those deficiencies.”
What’s necessary
The state requires condos with three or more stories that are 30 years or older to undergo a structural inspection and certification as well as set aside sufficient funds in the condo’s reserves for repairs.
The milestone inspection process begins with the so-called Phase 1, which entails a state-licensed architect or engineer to examine the habitable and uninhabitable parts of the building. If no repairs are needed and the building passes, the inspection ends there, and the next milestone inspection isn’t due for another decade.
If the inspector finds substantial deterioration or something that needs to be further investigated, then Phase 2 is initiated to address additional issues.
At a Palm Beach County Commission meeting in January, officials discussed the potential of levying punishments — such as fines — to encourage compliance from condo boards that hadn’t yet sent in their paperwork, a practice that already has taken hold in other municipalities.
Originally, 124 condos were found to be noncompliant, but after county officials sent out notices on Jan. 15, the initial list was whittled down to 95 condos as of Feb. 7.
As of that date, 67 buildings in unincorporated Palm Beach County had not submitted a Phase 1 report, and 28 had yet to submit a Phase 2 report, according to county records.
Many reasons cited
Condo associations were allowed to submit extension requests, allowing an inspection report to be submitted after the Dec. 31 deadline. Some of the condos that submitted extension requests later went on to file milestone reports, as expected. A few others hadn’t filed them.
According to Palm Beach County records, 17 extension requests were sent to the county in 2024 for various reasons, including:
— A law firm representing the Mansfield at Century Village Condos in West Boca wrote an extension request letter stating: “Due to the sheer number of buildings, the engineers will not be able to complete all inspections” within the allotted timeframe.
— A special inspector firm drafted an extension request to the county on behalf of the Laurel Oaks Condominium in West Boca for more time to complete a waterproofing project and exterior wall repairs.
— The president of the Beach Sound Condo Association in Jupiter requested an extension because the owners planned to sell the building by the end of December 2024, but the developer who wanted to buy it asked to close on the sale in December of 2025 instead. In turn, the condo association’s president wrote the community would move forward with the Phase 1 milestone inspection after all.
— A manager requested an extension on behalf of Whitehall Condominiums in West Boca, citing how an engineer, enlisted to do an inspection, had a death in the family, so more time would be needed.
— An inspector, Stanley Swaysland, requested an extension for The Anchorage at Jonathan’s Landing Condominium in Jupiter to have more time for repairs, which included structural concrete repairs to the exterior walkways and balconies. Its report was subsequently completed.
Swaysland said “significant repairs” typically require more time than what’s given, which is why extensions are often necessary. He said that by and large, associations are taking the requirements seriously and may fall behind because of how long it takes to conduct the inspection, find and contract a firm to conduct the repairs, and then actually have the repairs completed.
John Cadden, the managing principal of the Condominium Advisory Group, which provides consulting services to condo associations facing challenges, said he believes there are a “number of different reasons” for why reports were not submitted on time.
Some boards may have been given bad advice, he said, potentially being told they would “fail” the report, so they should try to repair the condo first and then conduct the inspection, but that led to the clock running out.
“Then when they realized the extent of the repairs, a lot of those people said, ‘Oh, well, we don’t have the money to do that. We’re not going to get that done in time,’” Cadden said. “Every individual condo has a different reason for why they are doing what they’re doing or what their reasoning is, and so there’s not one reason that’s the same. But at the end of the day, it’s hard to understand why, if you knew you had a deadline, you didn’t meet it.”
More legislation on the horizon?
Gov. Ron DeSantis has urged state lawmakers to address the condo law and its effects. Earlier this month, key lawmakers told the News Service of Florida that condo owners shouldn’t expect financial “bailouts” to cover the increased costs, noting that any new proposals for the legislative session in March wouldn’t involve direct financial aid.
On Wednesday, DeSantis discussed the effort to surface solutions and help condo owners. “I just want people to be able to make ends meet,” DeSantis said. “If somebody is going to potentially lose, have to be forced out (of their condo), if there’s something we can do to prevent that, I want to do that.
“But I don’t have any hard and fast demands on this. I just want to listen to people. We have done that. We have listened to people around the state.”
Of potential remedies, DeSantis said, “Some ideas are good. Some may not make it to the finish line.”
Tara Stone is the CEO of Stone Building Solutions, a firm that specializes in helping condos through engineering and reserve studies. She said many condo owners are indisputably struggling with higher fees, and this often manifests unfairly for newer buyers.
“Can you imagine if you moved here and you spent your money? It’s already expensive in Miami, and you buy this condo for $450,000 thinking that your dues were going to be $300 a month. And next thing you know, you’re hit with a $50,000 assessment?” she said. “That wouldn’t be right because you didn’t get to live there the whole time. You just moved in. The people that lived there the whole time, they should have paid for it for the last 30 years.”
Stone said the law is generating a shift not only in the structural integrity of South Florida’s buildings, but also with how people are informed about where they live. Stone said the goal is to avoid what happened at Champlain Towers South in Surfside, where the building partially collapsed overnight at about 1 a.m.
“People shouldn’t be dying in their bed in the middle of the night,” she said.
Wise said tackling the condo crisis is critically important because “the reality is, people count on safe buildings every day,” he said.
“You count on every day you go into your house, you turn that switch on the wall, the light will come on. Flames won’t come out of that switch, you won’t get burned. Your house won’t burn down. You turn on the water, and clean water will come out.”
Instilling a sense of urgency
Stone said she doesn’t think fines would be necessary to draw compliance from condo associations. Rather, she said the insurance and bank agencies will step in.
“Within the next six months, I believe the people that haven’t done it because maybe they’re self-managed, or they’re living under a rock, or they don’t have the money or just whatever reason they don’t think they have to, it will come to pass because of insurance and banking that are going to be the regulators,” she said.
Sheir, the attorney who handles condo and community association law, explained that insurance companies won’t want to renew liability policies with condo boards, and banks won’t want to lend money if that condo hasn’t completed its milestone report or reserve study.
Sheir believes once the normal standard becomes that condos have appropriate reserve funds and regularly scheduled maintenance, the market will cool, but not without a “sharp increase” in foreclosures.
“Some buildings are going to be taking a look very closely to determine whether or not it’s feasible to continue operating in that manner, and they may decide that the property needs to be terminated and perhaps redeveloped,” she said.
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