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HOW EFFECTIVE WILL THE CONDO SAFETY REFORM BILL REALLY BE?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published September 9, 2022
SB-4D creates huge changes to
the way Florida’s condo hi-rises will have to be managed. The
provisions of the bill create some requirements that will put
great financial burden on the owners of these buildings. And we
all know that many families will be unable to pay for seriously
increasing maintenance fees and special assessments.
According
to various official publications less than 5% of all the
buildings that are falling under the law have fully funded
reserves (see chart).
That
means that the other buildings have their work cut out trying to
meet the deadline given to them by the Florida Legislature. The
magic date: JANUARY 1, 2025!
But will
all these new provisions really be enforced. The Legislature –
in its infinite wisdom, pt the enforcement in the hands of the
Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes,
an agency that has proven to be pretty useless.
But the
structural repairs need to be done if we don’t want to see
another disaster like the collapse of the Champlain Towers South
in Surfside that cost the lives of 98 people – and they will
cost big bucks. The money has to come from somewhere and banks
are not easily willing to hand out loans. Inflation and high
interest rates have made things even more costly.
And that leaves many families living in these condo buildings
with the question: WHERE WILL ALL THE NEEDED MONEY COME
FROM?
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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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