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SB 4D – ARE WE SEEING THE FINAL VERSION?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published June 10, 2022
The ink of the Governor’s signature under the Condo Safety Bill
isn’t even dry yet – and we already see the so-called experts
fighting over the meaning of the provisions of the bill.
I already stated my opinion about the bill – SB 4D – in my Op-Ed
“BUILDING
SAFETY BILL SB4D – AN OPINION”.
I am pretty sure that this will not be the final version of the
“CONDO SAFETY” provisions that will be imposed on
Florida’s condo-owners.
Remember the fight over the fire sprinkler system bill? Year for
year the wording of this provision changed – especially the
final date – and would say that more changes would have been
proposed during this year’s legislative session if the
catastrophe in Surfside wouldn’t have directed the attention of
our legislators on a more important issue.
But condo board members – and owners – should not forget that
now the cost of
retrofitting each hi-rise building with either a fire sprinkler
system or an engineered life safety system as specified in the
Florida Fire Prevention Code and the cost of all the provisions
required by the new condo safety bill are falling into the same
time-zone.
I can only hope that our legislators can latest in the next
legislative session agree on a final version of all the safety
provisions, so the owners in all the hi-rise buildings really
know what to expect.
But I doubt that the main issues contained in this new bill will
really change a lot. There may be a little change of wording –
for clarification purposes – but generally the main provisions –
and the cost attached to these provisions – will stand.
In my opinion condo boards and the members should already
prepare for fulfilling all the safety provisions enacted by SB
4D, because otherwise they will have an even worse awakening
than they had when the Condo Safety Reform Bill was enacted.
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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