Letter Sent to Elected Officials Re: High Insurance Premiums

  Noteworthy Additions to Florida Senate SB 154 (Glitch Bill)

Lines 134 – 138:

(a) The milestone inspection services may be provided by a team of professionals with an architect or engineer acting as a registered design professional in responsible charge with all work and reports signed and sealed by the appropriate qualified team member.

Lines 183 – 191:

The local enforcement agency may extend the deadline for a building’s initial milestone inspection upon a showing of good cause by the owner or owners of the building that the inspection cannot be timely completed if the owner or owners have entered into a contract with an architect or engineer to perform the milestone inspection and the inspection cannot reasonably be completed before the deadline or other circumstance to justify an extension.

Lines 751 – 761:

(1)     Maintenance of the common elements is the responsibility of the association, except for any maintenance responsibility for limited common elements assigned to the unit owner by the declaration. The association shall provide for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of the condominium property for which it bears responsibility pursuant to the declaration of condominium.  After turnover of control of the association to the unit owners, the association must perform any required maintenance identified by the developer pursuant to s.718.301(4)(p) until the association obtains new maintenance protocols from a licensed professional engineer or architect.

Sample Letter

From: w1hsr@arrl.net To: Representative Pat Hawkins-Williams (via email) 

Date: 3/17/2023 8:28 PM 

Subject: Condo Safety Legislation Needs Flexibility 

Dear Representative Hawkins-Williams, SB 154 does a great job of defining terms and clarifying responsibilities of enforcement entities. It also clarifies that responsibility for repair, maintenance, and replacement of common elements and limited common elements are governed by Declaration of Condominium, which puts financial responsibilities where they belong. The financial impacts of these necessary mandates, and the ever-increasing cost of property insurance makes it very important that financial responsibilities are appropriately assigned and controlled as much as possible. Please support this bill. 

I am reaching out to you today as a constituent, and as one of the more than 9,674,000 Floridians who live in 3,855,000 homes in community associations, to make you aware of condominium safety legislation that is important to me and my community. 

After the 2022 passage of sweeping condominium safety reform legislation, known as SB 4D, this year, the House and the Senate introduced legislation (SB 154 and HB 1395) to provide for meaningful changes and clarifications to SB 4D that will result in greater practical application of the law. 

The House and Senate version of the legislation are very different. I am a member of Community Associations Institute and their team has thoroughly analyzed and evaluated both bills and has determined SB 154 is the best bill for Floridians because it offers more flexibility, narrows the number of buildings impacted by the requirements, is less cumbersome and confusing, and it addresses important issues like flood insurance requirements. 

I am asking you to ask you to support the language in SB 154 and urge your colleague, Representative Vicki Lopez, prime sponsor of HB 1395 Management and Safety of Condominium and Cooperative Buildings, to ADOPT the language in SB 154. 

Please SUPPORT SB 154, and tell Representative Lopez to ADOPT SB 154. Thank you for your leadership. 

Sincerely, Howard Robins 

1048 Ventnor O Deerfield Beach, FL 33442 

w1hsr@arrl.net