Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a bill aimed at giving more rights to condo owners, in the latest attempt to reform the laws governing Florida‘s often problematic community associations.
The new law, called “Condominium 3.0,” imposes educational requirements on board members, requires more condo communities to create member websites, makes it harder for boards to crack down on dissent and gives the state more power to investigate abuses.
Florida condo owners have often been frustrated in attempts to get the state to investigate allegations of corruption, unfair governance and other abuses because the law previously prevented the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation from investigating their complaints.
“This is a game changer,” said Rep. Vicki Lopez, a Miami Republican who sponsored HB 1021. “They will really be able to help everyone, whether they are property managers, condo owners or board members of condominiums. “They will be able to offer much-needed assistance, because very often people have filed complaints and received responses saying ‘it’s not within our jurisdiction,’ and now they will have a lot of jurisdiction and a lot of money.”
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These are the highlights of the new law:
- New board members must receive four hours of education on how to run a condo association, a move that would make them less vulnerable to manipulation by outside vendors, lawyers or their own residents.
- Condominiums with 25 units or more must set up web pages that include documents such as bylaws, budgets, and lists of vendor contracts. Previously, the requirement applied only to condominiums with at least 150 units. The law requires boards to meet four times a year, up from the current two.
- Boards are prohibited from retaliating against dissidents by filing defamation suits. The use of defamation lawsuits to silence dissent was highlighted in a South Florida Sun Sentinel series last year about abuses in condominiums and homeowners associations.
- The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation will gain more authority to investigate wrongdoing by condo boards and receive funding to hire additional staff.
About half of Floridians live under the authority of community associations, as homeowners or renters in condominium buildings and in neighborhoods governed by homeowners associations.
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The legislation, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Jennifer Bradley, one of a series of reforms attempted in recent years, comes at a difficult time for Florida community associations. Insurance costs are skyrocketing, leading to crushing increases in homeowners’ monthly rates.
High-rise condos are absorbing the costs of increased maintenance requirements imposed after the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers condo building in Surfside. There have been a series of highly publicized cases of abuses by the boards, including the arrest of members of the Hammocks Community Board in Miami-Dade County for what prosecutors say was a vast embezzlement scheme. .
The legislation follows another law recently signed by the governor aimed at preventing abuses by homeowners’ associations, which differ from condominium associations in that they govern single-family home communities. That bill, HB 1203, prohibits homeowners associations from imposing excessive fines, which can lead to late fees, liens, litigation and, ultimately, the loss of a home.
That law prohibits fines for leaving trash cans out too long or leaving Christmas decorations past the association’s time limit, among many other restrictions on associations’ right to impose fines on residents.
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