On June 9, 2023, Governor DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 154, which substantially modifies statutory safety and reserve requirements previously enacted in response to the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium. Existing statutory requirements were discussed in a prior blog post. Senate Bill 154 took effect immediately and makes the following primary changes to the current safety and reserve requirements:
Fla. Stat. Ch. 553 – Milestone Inspections
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- Permits the engineer or architect to utilize a team of professionals to conduct milestone inspections.
- Requires the association to perform milestone inspections for portions of building owned under the condominium or cooperative form of ownership, with individual owners to perform milestone inspections in limited instances where portions of buildings are not part of the condominium or cooperative.
- Extends the deadline to December 31, 2025 for submission of first milestone inspection for buildings reaching 30 years of age on or after July 1, 2022 and before December 31, 2024. Buildings reaching 30 years of age before July 1, 2022 must submit milestone inspections on or before December 31, 2024.
Fla. Stat. Ch. 718 & 719 – Structural Integrity Reserve Study and Reserve Funding Requirements
- Permits multi-condominiums with more than 25 condominiums to adopt, with approval of the Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes, an alternative funding method for reserves.
- Clarifies that the association must only reserve for items which are within its repair obligation under its governing documents.
- Allows the association to forego reserves for replacement cost of items with 25 or more years of remaining life but requires reserves for deferred maintenance for such items.
- Increases threshold to waive, reduce, or repurpose non-mandatory reserve funding from majority of members present to majority of all members regardless of whether present. Note: Beginning January 1, 2025, fully funded reserves are mandatory for structural integrity reserve study components, and members may not vote to waive, reduce, or repurpose reserves for such components.
Other Changes to Fla. Stat. Ch. 718 & 719
- Limits director liability to instances where the directors willfully and knowingly fail to obtain a structural integrity reserve study.
- Submits disputes relating to failure of the association to meet milestone inspection and structural integrity reserve study requirements, to fund reserves, or to perform repairs to alternative dispute resolution requirements (pre-suit mediation or non-binding arbitration).
- Requires the association to perform required deferred maintenance identified by the developer pre-turnover until the association obtains independent inspections.
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