The Kalmia Condominiums in Clearwater wasn’t Ronni Drimmer’s dream retirement destination.

She bought a two-bedroom unit there for her mother in 2001 but ended up moving in when her mom died 18 months later.

“It’s not a fancy place,” Drimmer, 72, said. “There’s a swimming pool. There’s a clubhouse that looks like it’s in the year 1950. That’s pretty much it.” The maintenance fees were cheap and the buildings had been kept in decent shape. That was enough to satisfy Drimmer and the nearly 300 other residents at her 55-plus community, many of them snowbirds and retirees living off Social Security. For decades, seniors seeking a slice of the Sunshine State on a budget have flocked to condos like this one. But skyrocketing insurance rates and regulations passed after 2021's deadly Surfside building collapse that dictate how much condo associations must save and spend on repairs have spiked costs and upended the real estate market. Even though inspectors found no structural issues at Drimmer’s building, monthly maintenance fees for its 70 owners could climb by more than a third next year. That’s on top of an estimated 21% increase for insurance and a $500,000 special assessment to replace the roof. For condo towers that require significant repairs, the price will be much higher. Those who can’t afford to pay may be forced to sell — if they can find a buyer. Condo and townhome listings are up 65% year over year and sales are down 20%, according to statewide data from Florida Realtors. The median sales price has dropped more than 3%. The outlook is bleaker in places like Tampa Bay and Miami, where there’s a higher concentration of older condos.

Ronni Drimmer, President of the Condominium Association Board for building #5 at the Kalmia condominium complex in Clearwater, said many condominium residents fear they may have no choice but to sell due to new building safety requirements, skyrocketing insurance costs and damages from this hurricane season.

 

“A lot of these buildings are already dead man walking,” said Joe Hernandez, an attorney with the Miami law firm Bilzin Sumberg who specializes in condo terminations. “There’s going to be a lot of people that will pay much higher costs and sometimes to the point that they can’t afford to stay in Florida.”

After the Champlain Towers South condo collapsed in Surfside three years ago, killing 98 people, the Florida Legislature unanimously passed strict building safety guidelines in hopes of preventing another tragedy.

At the time, the legislation was applauded as a bold but necessary step toward bringing aging condos up to code, especially those like Champlain Towers, where the board had continuously underfunded reserves and postponed major repairs to keep costs down.

As the end-of-year deadline approaches, both condo owners and legislators are speaking out about the devastating financial toll these regulations could have, even at buildings that have been deemed safe.

Seniors stand to lose the most, said 78-year-old Connie Weitlauf, another resident of the Kalmia Condominiums. “When you’re getting old and you’re by yourself and you’re on a fixed income and you really can’t afford a place to live, it’s just scary,” she said.

Before the Surfside-inspired reforms, only two counties required regular inspections for condos. Condo boards had near complete control over how much they saved and what repairs they made.

Now, all condo buildings 30 years and older and three stories and higher must be inspected every 10 years to determine if they are structurally sound. A mandatory reserve study will dictate how much condo boards must save each year to cover routine maintenance.

Hernandez said there will be a “rude awakening,” and many older condos will not survive. Developers are already looking for opportunities to buy these properties and rebuild.

Still, he said, the changes are intended to make condos safer and more financially stable.

“This was always the norm in the commercial building world,” Hernandez said. “It’s now time to bring condominium buildings up to that same standard. … They need to be professionally run.”

To Drimmer, who is the condo board president for her building, some of the requirements feel like “overkill.”

Her board has been responsible, she said, saving money each year for things like the roof and elevators. The engineer who inspected her building found no signs of dangerous conditions.

Still, they’ll be forced to set aside funds for everything from electrical to plumbing, leading to much higher maintenance fees. Drimmer’s monthly bill will go from $475 to $675, but the exact costs will differ per unit.

“It should be more targeted to the people that are actually the bad actors and didn’t put money away,” Drimmer said. “We’re not stupid. We’ve managed to figure things out all of these years.”

The bill is coming due at a time when Florida’s insurance market faces unprecedented challenges. Insurance premiums for condo associations across the state increased more than 70% on average since 2022, according to data from NSI Insurance Group, Florida’s largest privately owned insurance firm.

Rates will continue to rise, especially after this year’s devastating storm season, said Oscar Seikaly, CEO of NSI Insurance Group. Older condos will be impacted the most.

“If you have no money in the bank and you’re struggling to collect from unit owners who are retired and on a fixed income, then you know there’s an issue there,” he said. “Insurance companies are paying close attention to that.”

Drimmer’s building is covered by Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer of last resort. This year, Citizens told the board it would terminate coverage unless the building got a new roof. Drimmer claims the roof recently had about $60,000 worth of restoration work and is still under warranty for five more years.

Drimmer said she’s disappointed by the lack of urgency from the same lawmakers who rushed to regulate condos without considering the unintended consequences.

When she was invited to speak at a September condo roundtable hosted by Gov. Ron DeSantis, she encouraged him to call a special session to tackle the oncoming crisis.

DeSantis told her that the Legislature would come up with a solution for condo owners but did not commit to a specific timeline.

Over the summer, Senate President, Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, rejected calls for a special session.

Nick DiCiglie, the state senator for District 18, where Drimmer lives, said there will be plenty of time to fix things once legislators returns to Tallahassee in December ahead of the regular session.

But for some condo owners, the damage has been done.

In the Tampa metro area, monthly fees for condo owners shot up more than 17% year over year, according to a July report from the real estate firm Redfin. Fees increased more than 16% in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale and almost 13% in West Palm Beach.

In South Florida, investors are buying out whole condo communities, the Miami Herald found. Hernandez said he expects that trend to accelerate as owners become more desperate for a way out.

“Eventually, people are going to realize that it’s not worth staying in a building that costs more and more to maintain yet the value continues to decrease,” he said.

After months of waiting to see how things might shake out, Weitlauf has decided she can’t afford to stay in the one-bedroom unit she bought three years ago.

She’s not sure where she’ll go. None of the apartments or other condos she’s looked at in the area fit her budget. She may move to Idaho to live with her son

“I’m very comfortable here,” she said. “I thought this would be it for me. Now I’m just hoping I break even when I go to sell.”