'Enough is enough': Florida condo owners beg for reform from legislature

Article Courtesy of ABC Action News WFTS Tampa Bay

By Nadeen Yanes

Published January 30, 2025

ST. PETERSBURG — Governor Ron DeSantis has nearly demanded that Tallahassee lawmakers come back to Tallahassee early for a special session tackling immigration and condo reform.

'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'

Since last summer, ABC Action News has covered what many say is a collapse in Florida's condo market.

Tuesday, we heard from retiree George Prybys, 84, who told us the price of affording paradise is becoming nearly impossible for condo owners.

"It's gone up ridiculously. My HOA went from $400 to $900," he said.

That total does not include a $12,000 assessment imposed on him to replace and repair all the balconies in his building. George is relying only on Social Security and savings to survive.

"I told them I retired on the SKI plan, S-K-I — which is, 'spend the kid's inheritance,'" he said, laughing.

We spoke with his condo association president as well, Tom Schoeller, who is the board president for Casa Del Mar 1 within the Isla Del Sol condos in St. Pete.

"It's become a full-time job, basically 8 to 5," he said about his volunteer role. "Every time we go through budgets, it's 'Well, why is this rate going up? What is that rate?' Especially my retirees that are on a fixed-income."

As Florida lawmakers buck calls from Governor DeSantis for a special session on condo reform, condo owners are left begging for help.

He said, thankfully, his condo association balanced the budget well, even going as far as fully funding reserves for repairs before it was made into state law.

"We got lucky, very lucky, and it's because a board previous to mine decided they thought this was that important," he said. "These associations that don't have reserves or structural reserves, they are seeing radical increases, radical increases."

Still, with new state mandates and after Hurricane Helene flooded 32 of the first-floor units, the association is having to dip into those savings. He also said sky-high insurance rates are driving up the costs, a conversation he doesn't hear lawmakers talking about when discussing condos.

"At what point do I say, 'Enough is enough, and then where do I go?'" Schoeller said. "So yeah, if they care about the citizens, if they care about the people that live here, they need to do something."

REFORM AFTER THE 2021 SURFSIDE COLLAPSE

Part of the pressure on condos right now results from reforms made just weeks after the 2021 Champlain Tower collapse in Surfside, Florida.

Known as Senate Bill 4-D on building safety, the new laws require:

All condos three stories or higher and older than 30 years old must undergo mandatory "milestone inspections"
All condos three stories or higher must get "structural integrity reserve study" also known as SIRS
Required to fund reserves to come up with repairs

All of those requirements had to be met by Dec. 31, 2024.

According to a January 2025 report from the Florida Policy Project, this impacts more than 1.1 million condos in Florida. The majority of them, 58%, are in eight coastal counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Manatee counties.

"As a result of the inspections and assessments, some owners may face eviction, or the building could be condemned," the report states.

SOLUTIONS AHEAD OF SPECIAL SESSION

Tom Schoeller invited us to attend a meeting of condo association presidents. They came to clarify the current laws and the consequences of missing the December deadline and discuss possible solutions to propose to state lawmakers ahead of a special session on Monday.

"What we are looking for is a softening of the funding requirements," said Debbie Reinhart, CEO of Resource Property Management. "Can we come up with a reasonable pathway that may give some of you a benefit, most of you a benefit, especially considering what everyone has gone through with the hurricanes?"

Back in September, Reinhart sat in on a round table held by Governor Ron DeSantis in Pinellas Park, listening to the impacts the reforms are having on condo owners. Those conversations led to DeSantis wanting to act on the issue.

Other solutions proposed by condo owners we spoke with include delaying funding requirements to fully fund repairs, offering zero or low-interest loans to condo owners and associations to afford those repairs, and making sure insurance is part of the conversation as well.

"If they care about the citizens, if they care about the people that live here, they need to do something," Schoeller added.

WILL LAWMAKERS ADDRESS CONDOS ON MONDAY?

There's been a political back and forth in Tallahassee in the last week as DeSantis has doubled down on calling for a special session on immigration, which will also include work on condo reform.

"This is a legislative mandate that was put forward from Tallahassee that is causing all this, so can we give them peace of mind and reform this in a way that's not going to have those unintended consequences? I think we can. And so, so I'm ready to do that for sure," DeSantis said at a news conference Monday.

However, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle favor waiting until March to address condos.

"I think the condo portion of the call for special session is premature," said Jason Pizzo, (D) Broward, Miami-Dade. "As it relates to condos, it needs a very deliberate, extensive, more profound, greater depth, not as easy to just file a bill, pass it, and not. It's not checkers. It's more chess."