Article
Courtesy of Florida Politics
By Jesse Scheckner
Published January 6, 2024
‘There are still all kinds of problems.’
Since winning her House seat in 2022, Rep. Vicki Lopez has
made it part of her legislative mission to improve
regulations of residential towers in Florida to ensure there
isn’t another tragedy like the condo collapse in Surfside.
Her work helped lead to a voluminous legislative package in
2023 that improved on measures lawmakers passed the year
before to boost condominium safety, supervision and
oversight.
But the changes weren’t enough, according to Lopez, a Miami
Republican who spoke with Florida Politics to preview new
legislation she believes will shore up many of the remaining
deficiencies.
She called the measure “Condo 3.0.”
The to-be-numbered bill, which Lopez described as “very
lengthy” and the product of listening sessions she and
Fleming Island Sen. Jennifer Bradley conducted over the
summer, was in editing as of this writing.
“We learned there are still all kinds of problems, from
transparency issues with condo boards and the owners,
governance issues between access to records and elections,
and financial accountability, a big issue,” she said. “We
also found that we needed to address issues related to
conflicts of interest, hurricane protection and proper
record keeping.”
Another major problem, the lawmakers learned, is that the
Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR)
now has little to no jurisdiction on those issues and others
concerning condo safety once a developer turns control of a
building over to owners and their board.
It’s an issue former Condominium Ombudsman Spencer Hennings
discussed with lawmakers in November. He said the way
Florida statutes are now written, wrongdoers on condo and
homeowners association boards have wide loopholes to evade
punishment or removal, rendering the DBPR and other agencies
under whose purview residential collectives fall “toothless”
in holding them accountable.
Lopez said her bill aims to correct that.
“We recognized that we needed to ensure DBPR has sufficient
resources and jurisdiction in order to regulate condominiums
in Florida. This bill is a pretty big piece of legislation
that is going to address so many of the concerns we heard
from both the community and a pair of reports (on the
matter) from 2007 and 2016,” she said. “Many of those
concerns are still relevant today, which is kind of
frightening.”
Among other things, she said, the bill would:
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Delete a sentence from state statutes limiting DBPR’s
ability to enforce condo regulations after the developer turns a
building over to the owners.
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Empower DBPR employees to attend condo board
meetings, something not currently allowed, and require the agency to
refer to law enforcement any actor it believes is involved in fraud or
theft. “We want to say you’re going to be open to the people who are
regulating you,” Lopez said.
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Require DBPR to conduct random audits of condo boards
and associations to ensure they comply with all state strictures and
submit regular reviews and recommendations to the Legislature.
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Reduce the number of units in a building necessary to
require that a condo board operate and maintain a website with records
for owners from 150 to 25.
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Require condo boards to have more meetings — at least
four per year — to enable owners to meet with board members, ask
questions and give feedback, among other things.
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Update disclosure requirements to address conflicts
of interest. Lopez said some condo board members and owners are now in
“adversarial positions” because board members are “giving business to
their relatives and partners.”
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Provide criminal penalties for malfeasance, including
a first-degree misdemeanor for some first offenses up to a third-degree
felony.
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Correct a “glitch” in the most recently passed condo
safety bill (SB 154) dealing with transparency. The fix, Lopez said,
will guarantee unit owners can obtain a copy of a building’s structural
integrity reserve study within 45 days of its completion. “I thought we
had done that in Senate Bill 154,” she said, “but we only required that
of the master inspection.”
-
Create criminal penalties for fraud in condo board
elections equal to existing penalties for other types of election fraud
in Florida.
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Provide a to-be-determined budgetary earmark to
effect these and other changes.
Lopez said she is also working on another
measure to create a pilot program through which condo owners
and associations can take advantage of home-hardening grants
available to single-family homes and townhouse owners
through the My Safe Florida Home program.
“It’s a separate bill,” she said. “But it’s part of what I’m
trying to do to help lower the cost of insurance for some of
these buildings on the coastline where the higher risk is.”
Another measure deals with Citizens Property Insurance,
Florida’s insurer of last resort, which began offloading
hundreds of thousands of policyholders onto private
insurance companies as part of a “depopulation” initiative
Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky approved on July 31.
Lopez’s bill (HB 893) would require Citizens to develop new
eligibility criteria and rates for policies that provide
wind-only coverage. Such policies are only available today
in “wind-eligible areas” identified by a state-created
commission in 1997.
But the Commission’s work was faulty. Lopez said that rather
than assess which parts of the state were at most
significant risk for wind-damaged property, the Commission
merely surveyed residents about whether they wanted a
wind-only coverage option and drew a map reflecting their
answers.
Nearly a quarter of a century later, many areas — including
Hillsborough County, Martin County, the Panhandle and the
Big Bend region, which Hurricane Idalia ravaged in late
August — are not currently “wind-eligible.”
“My bill would direct Citizens — and I’ve been working with
them on a very collaborative basis — to amend those
wind-eligible areas by developing criteria and the rates for
policies exclusively covering wind, which would have to be
approved by (the Office of Insurance Regulation) before they
bring them back to the Legislature,” she said.
“I’m excited about this because it will help areas that
really are wind-eligible but may not have been included to
get wind policies, which are the most expensive policies.”
Lopez is also bringing back a bill she highlighted ahead of
the 2023 Legislative Session dealing with illicit massage
parlors, which can be hotbeds for human trafficking. She
said the original measure hit a snag with the Department of
Health (DOH), but that has now been resolved in the current
bill (HB 197), which is currently advancing in the
Legislature.
As was the case last Session, Fort Myers Republican Sen.
Jonathan Martin is carrying a comparable companion bill (SB
896).
If passed, HB 197 would give local governments and the DOH
additional authority to shut down massage parlors that house
human trafficking and illegal sex operations. It would also
increase record-keeping requirements and, among other
things, mandate that massage businesses with storefronts
have front windows allowing at least 35% light penetration.
“We’re the third-largest state where human trafficking takes
place, and the three biggest areas are Tampa, Orlando and
Miami — no surprise to anyone there. But this problem even
exists in Collier County, where they have more illicit
establishments than legitimate ones,” she said. “They’re
spreading like wildfire, and the Department of Health and
local government authorities really need help to shut them
down.”
Other measures Lopez is prioritizing in 2024 include HB 93,
which would reauthorize Florida’s Inmate Welfare Trust Fund
to fund prisoner reentry services through 2028, and HM 467,
which would urge U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to
reinstate economic sanctions on the dictatorial regime of
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and companies that do
business with it.
“In my district, we have a lot of residents who are in an
uproar (about Venezuela). They’re now trying to invade
Guyana for their oil, and they’ve issued a criminal
indictment against the enemy candidate that was up against
Maduro,” she said. “So, I’m thinking now is not a time for
us to lift sanctions on Venezuela.”
Bradley has filed an identical companion (SB 520) to HB 93,
while Miami Springs Republican Sen. Bryan Ávila carries a
twin (SM 398) to HM 467.
The 2024 Legislative Session commences Jan. 9 and runs
through March 8.
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