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Fences block residents and visitors at Heron Pond, a 304-unit Pembroke Pines condo community in Broward County, Fla. City officials determined the complex was so unsafe that everyone had to evacuate by Aug. 29. |
After the inspection determines an
association has qualifying improvements that would increase
its resistance to storms, it pays each association up to
$175,000. For every $1 the association spends on improving
windows, doors and roofs that the association holds in
common, the state grant gives the association $2.
The money, for which $30 million was allocated for last
year, was aimed at improving condos’ storm-worthiness and
thus lowering their insurance costs. A bill analysis
indicates that last year’s allocation will be rolled over
for another year.
Munera says her association delayed the replacement of one
of its roofs, anticipating the inspection and then the state
grant.
“It’s so crazy to me, because we followed up with them (the
Department of Financial Services, administering the grant)
for six months, getting all this information,” Munera said.
“They told us, ‘Oh, you're on our short list.’ We went back
and forth.”
State Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, said getting information
back from the first set of inspections during the program’s
pilot year produced some insights. And, in the program’s
second pilot year, legislators decided to focus the grants
on those associations that must meet the new condo
guidelines passed after the 2021 Surfside disaster, Lopez
said.
Spurred by reports of the physical deterioration and
membership money squabbles before the 40-year-old, 12-story
building’s collapse, laws tightened the rules that condo
boards must comply with or face fines. Condo associations
with buildings of at least three habitable stories must
undergo a study of building deficiencies and whether they
have sufficient reserves to cover building repairs.
“The revisions that we made were necessary to ensure that
they aligned with the condo bill,” Lopez said. “It was all
such a new program that we didn't really understand what we
needed to do to clarify in terms of criteria (for
eligibility) until they started the inspection phase.”
That rationale is cold comfort to Munera, though. Her
association also faces the increased expense that taller
condo buildings must meet because of Surfside’s fallout.
Two-story condos in Pembroke Pines must also comply with
reserve and building deficiency studies, like the state’s
new condo rules. The ones that got in line last year should
be grandfathered in, she said.
“We were so diligent, right?” she said. “We should be
rewarded for that — we were on top of it. But instead, we're
being punished and kicked out.”
Others among the 165 associations green-lighted for
participating in the first year’s pilot may also find they
are ineligible for the condo grant money. Another provision
in the law would require some to rejigger the division of
individual and common property if they’re going to remain
eligible for the grant, for example, Lopez said.
“In the case where the exterior doors and windows are the
responsibilities of the individual unit owners … they
wouldn't be able to get a grant, because you'd have to
ensure that every single person in that building upgrades
their own exterior doors and windows in order to get the
insurance credit,” Lopez said.
“These are all the things that we found out when we were
first initially trying to implement the program through
inspections,” Lopez added.
In addition to the requirements, other new provisions in the
law say that:
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Only those improvements that result in an insurance discount are eligible.
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Mitigation improvements must be made to all openings, including exterior doors, garage doors, windows and skylights, if doing so is necessary for the building to qualify for an insurance discount.
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All condos approved for grants must have completed their milestone inspections and reserve studies that the Surfside condo rules lay out.
Still, Lopez pointed out, all those who
were initially approved to be in the program did get
something — even if the new provisions make them ineligible
for the improvement grants.
“They got a free inspection,” she said.
For now, Munera hangs onto the shred of home that the new
legislation the House and Senate passed somehow doesn't
become law — which is possible if DeSantis vetoes it.
"That would be awesome," she said.