TREASURE ISLAND — Of the more than 100 new laws that take effect Tuesday, two of them focus on providing relief and resources to condo owners.
House Bill 393 makes changes to the My Safe Florida Condo Pilot Program, which launched formally when the 2024-2025 budget was approved last July. The grant-based program helps condo associations make upgrades to their buildings to make them more hurricane ready.
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Greg Wickham, president of the Land’s End
Community Association, says that change was much needed.
“It was problem because you could have trouble for a variety
of reasons,” he said. “Seventy-five percent is much better
and makes a lot more sense. You don’t want one recalcitrant
owner… or unable to find an owner to get them to vote… to be
the downfall of the process.”
Wickham’s building at the Land’s End condominiums in
Treasure Island’s sunset beach neighborhood was one of the
first applications the state received through the My Safe
Florida Condo Pilot Program. The condo building is in need
of a new roof, and Wickham says they had an inspection from
a professional hired by the state in June, and recently
received a report saying they qualify. Now, they’re waiting
for a final assessment and bringing the grant application to
a vote.
“We stalled on getting the vote from all of the owners
because we weren’t sure what the rules were and we wanted to
be able to correctly tell people what they were voting for
very specifically,” he said. “We’re just in the process now
of putting that out in an electronic vote in the next week
or two.”
Wickham believes it will be another six to 12 months before
work on the roof would begin. Other buildings in the
community that needed more urgent roof repairs chose to move
forward with making the fixes themselves as opposed to
waiting for the grant funding through the state program.
“It’s chicken and egg, I guess the process is we can’t start
until we’re formally approved,” Wickham explained. “Then of
course we need to spend our own money and then submit the
proof to get money back from the program. Which isn’t a
problem, it’s just a delay. You have to make sure you have
the money ready to go to fund the whole project.”
HB 393 also restricts eligibility to buildings that are
three or more stories high and contain at least two units.
It also now includes roof coverings in the eligibility
requirements.
A second round of legislation helps condo owners by walking
back and delaying some changes previously made to condo
regulations. After the Surfside condo collapse in 2021, more
inspections were required and more money set aside for
repairs which priced many people out of living in their
condo.
The new law eases up on some of the requirements giving
condo associations more options for funding reserves.