Article
Courtesy of Florida Politics
By Jesse Scheckner
Published February 29, 2024
‘This bill is the next necessary step.’
Legislation to shore up Florida’s condo laws and give state regulators more
power to punish unscrupulous board members is bound for the Senate floor
after clearing its final committee with uniform support.
Passing the measure (SB
1178) would mark a major overhaul of state statutes governing condo
oversight and management by providing for criminal penalties for records
violations, kickbacks and condo board election fraud.
It would create new education requirements for condo managers and improve
transparency by requiring that building records be available online to
owners. The bill would also clarify obligations for hurricane protection and
revise Florida’s anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public
participation) laws to bar board members from using condo association funds
for defamation actions.
Notably, it would also delete a line from Florida Statutes that today
hinders the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) from
enforcing condo and condo association laws.
The legislation is dubbed “Condo 3.0” by its House sponsor, Miami Republican
Rep. Vicki Lopez, because it builds on a couple of laws the Legislature
approved since 2021 to prevent another tragedy like the one that befell 98
residents of the Champlain Towers South condo that June.
“We have spent a lot of time over the last several years following the
tragic Surfside collapse enacting changes to protect the millions of
Floridians living in condos throughout our state and ensuring that older
condo buildings are safe (and) in good financial health to protect both life
and property,” said Fleming Island Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley, the
bill’s sponsor. “This bill is the necessary next step.”
An amended version of the measure, which the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee
unanimously approved Tuesday, includes a $7.4 million earmark — $6.1 million
in recurring funds, $1.3 million nonrecurring — to pay for additional DBPR
operations and 65 full-time employees to enforce the law.
The changes Bradley made to her bill make it again line up largely with the
House version of the legislation (HB
1021), which similarly awaits a floor vote after undergoing numerous
amendments and receiving uniform support in the committee process.
|