Time is up for condo owners across Florida to meet safety guidelines passed in the wake of 2021’s deadly Champlain Towers collapse.

Condo associations had until Dec. 31 to inspect aging buildings and come up with a plan to save for routine maintenance.

The market took a nosedive in the lead up to that deadline as owners rushed to list their homes to avoid paying for newly mandated repairs.

By the end of this year, associations will be required to fund reserves fully for the first time. Associations that have neglected to save for years could have to scrape together millions of dollars in a matter of months. That burden will likely fall on the shoulders of owners in the form of special assessments.

“I think you’re going to see bankruptcies, I think you’re going to see people losing their homes,” said Jeff Brandes, a former state Senator who runs the Florida Policy Project, a nonprofit studying statewide issues including the condo crisis.

Here’s what to expect in the months ahead.

How will this make buildings safer?

All condo buildings 30 years and older and three stories and higher were supposed to submit two pieces of documentation to their local building department by the end of last year.

One was a study outlining how much the association needs to save to cover maintenance over the decade. The other was an inspection report. If inspectors discovered “substantial deterioration,” a more thorough inspection was required.

Some condo associations still have not handed in the required paperwork, said Kevin Garriott, building official for the city of Clearwater. His department is missing 36 inspections out of the 191 they were expecting.

Local agencies like his are tasked with enforcing the rules. But Garriott said the state has provided little guidance on how they should do that.

Clearwater sent reminder letters to the delinquent condos in December. Condos that fail to comply could be cited and face penalties or fines, Garriott said.

The law gives condos a year to schedule repairs after submitting inspections, but certain municipalities may impose tighter timelines.

How is the real estate market responding?

Statewide, condo listings shot up nearly 43% in 2024, according to data from Florida realtors. The number of homes sold remained flat and the median sales price fell about 4.5%.

The new rules have revealed difficult truths that are turning off some potential buyers, said Tom Steck, president of Pinellas County Realtors and co-owner and operator of TomKat Realty in Madeira Beach.

“If they talk to anybody, they’ll find there have been assessments, and there’s no guarantee that there won’t be further assessments,” he said.

As demand continues to dwindle, prices could drop further. Steck said he fears more and more owners will sell at a loss.

Older condos may be the hardest hit.

The Florida Policy Project commissioned a study of nine metro areas with large concentrations of condos. Listings for condos 30 years and older went up even more, about 56% year over year.

Every condo will turn 30 eventually and be subject to the same scrutiny, Brandes said. That has people rethinking the entire concept of condo life.

“There is going to be a repricing of condos across the board,” he said.

Joe Hernandez is a real estate attorney with the Miami firm Bilzin Sumberg. He specializes in condo termination, a process by which owners vote to dissolve the condo association, usually with the goal of selling the property.

While more buildings have started to market themselves for a potential bulk sale to developers since the initial deadline for inspections passed, “I haven’t seen the floodgates open yet,” Hernandez said.

Many developers are holding off on scoping out potential condo conversion deals while they wait for the results of a Miami lawsuit that could impact the rules for terminating a condo.

Will the Legislature act?

Leading up to the deadline for inspections, condo owners hoped the Legislature might provide relief.

Gov. Ron DeSantis urged lawmakers to reconvene to discuss condos before the end of the year, but he did not call a special session.

Several legislators have said they hope to take up the issue when the next legislative session starts March 4.

One solution that has been raised is creating a loan program to help associations fund repairs without a special assessment.

State Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Democrat from Broward County, has filed a bill that would offer individual grants to low-income seniors who need help paying condo special assessments. Miami-Dade County has a similar program that could serve as a model.

But Brandes said the state doesn’t have enough resources to cover every condo that’s in trouble. And even if they make loans available, many of these condo associations likely could not afford them.

Hernandez said he hopes lawmakers will consider measures that will give condos a clearer path to termination. Right now, just 5% of owners can block a termination vote under state law.

Steck, who is a condo owner, said he never understood why the Legislature would require associations to have every aspect of building maintenance fully funded at the same time.

“The repairs could be rank-ordered,” he said. “Those that are the most serious would be mandated to be done first.”

This could lessen the burden on condo owners who might have the ability to pay over time but can’t afford to take on a massive lump sum.

Ultimately, the Legislature doesn’t have many good options to help struggling condo owners while prioritizing safety, Brandes said.

“It is a bitter pill that gets us healthy,” he said. “But it’s going to cost people their homes, and their life savings for some of them.”