On December 15, 2021, a Miami-Dade County grand jury released several recommendations concerning condominium building safety in the wake of the devastating Surfside condo collapse earlier this year. Our firm’s managing partner, Mary Ann Ruiz, contributed to and was quoted in a USA Today article regarding the grand jury’s report, which you can read more fully here.
The report recommends several policy changes at the municipal and county levels, such as drastically lowering the 40-year recertification period, and calls for better coordination between buildings and building inspection officials.
On a statewide level, the report arrives just in time for the 2022 Florida Legislative Session beginning in January, and calls for sweeping changes to the Condominium Act.
Notably, the grand jury stated that the Florida Legislature made a “huge mistake” when it repealed in 2011 a provision to Section 718.113 requiring buildings greater than three stories in height to undergo maintenance and useful life inspections every 5 years. Our firm advocated for the Florida Legislature to reenact this provision for months now, as shown on this NBC6 News South Florida feature and letter to the Miami Herald editor.
Highlights of the grand jury’s main recommendations are provided below.
- Buildings to undergo certification inspections no less than 10 years and no more than 15 years after construction, with updated inspection reports required every 10 years thereafter
- Local Building Officials to require building owners to paint and/or waterproof their exterior buildings at least every 10 years to prevent water intrusion
- Local Building Officials to adopt the developer turnover report guidelines, pursuant to Section 718.301(4)(p) of the Condominium Act, as the new standard and scope of areas of inspection for recertifications
- Require condo board officers to file a document certifying that regular and routine maintenance of structural components of their building has been conducted within the past 12 months
- Impose specific duty upon condo board officers that periodic inspections and repairs be performed at least every 10 years
- Engineers certifying a building in connection with the 40/50 year recertification process must have Florida license and previously designed and inspected at least 3 buildings of the same or greater height
- Condo boards be required to post maintenance documents and inspection reports online to increase transparency with condo residents and unit owners
- Local governments of coastal areas to form collaborative agreements and action plans to ensure that construction of buildings in marine environments be done under guidelines designed to ensure their long-term safety
- The Florida Legislature to repeal the waiver provision in the Condominium Act regarding the obligation to fund reserves for condo repairs, or in the alternative, require a supermajority vote of unit owners (at least 70%) to waive same
- The Florida Legislature to amend the Condominium Act to provide that funds reserved for condominium repairs shall not be repurposed for other uses
- Condo boards to take Department of Business and Professional Responsibility (“DBPR”) educational courses within 6 months of being elected or appointed
- DBPR to prepare training videos for unit owners to educate them on their rights, obligations, and responsibilities as unit owners
- The Florida Legislature to enact a statute making the willful failure to provide official records a crime
- The Florida Legislature to create a special unit of investigators who are trained and qualified to investigate condominium fraud and criminal allegations involving condo boards
Other task forces, such as those organized by the Florida Bar and professional engineers, have also examined condominium safety in the wake of the condominium collapse. We broke down their respective recommendations, which you can read about more fully here and here.
Certainly, the tragic events in Surfside show us that an overhaul of Florida condominium laws is long overdue. Our firm is committed to advocating for condominium legislative reform. For particular condominium issues you may be experiencing, please do not hesitate to schedule a consultation with our office.
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Photo from Canva
