Condo Crisis: Communities approved for safety inspections can't count on state grants yet

Yahoo

12-05-2025

Their roof is aging and members have been battered with multiple years of gargantuan insurance increases, so a Pembroke Pines condominium association made sure they were among the first in an avalanche of applications for state condo-hardening grants.
My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Project proved so popular in November that the window of opportunity to grab one lasted only six days. But now, with the Florida Legislature approving a new round of condo improvement grants, Dawn Munera, president of Pierpointe V Condo III, has learned her board's efforts are coming up short despite quickly getting in line.
Just as hurricane season is bearing down, starting June 1, the new legislation cuts out condo buildings that, like her association's 36-year-old buildings, are just two stories. The new legislation requires the buildings to have at least three habitable stories to be eligible for the state money.
'This (grant money) could have given them (residents) just enough relief not to have another assessment, at least for a year,' said Munera, explaining that their special assessments have been needed for several years of 50% increases in insurance costs.
The collapse of Champlain Towers South nearly four years ago caused the deaths of 98 people and injured 11 others prompted the state Legislature to adopt a law creating new standards for condo buildings three stories or higher. It has left many Floridians wrestling with the option of paying significant association fees, selling their unit or going into foreclosure.
Once Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the bill the House and the Senate both unanimously passed this past session, 52 associations among the 165 that were approved to be in the grant program last year will have buildings ineligible for portion of the program that doles out money after the inspection because of their height.
After the inspection determines an association has qualifying improvements that would increase its resistance to storms, it pays each association up to $175,000. For every $1 the association spends on improving windows, doors and roofs that the association holds in common, the state grant gives the association $2.
The money, for which $30 million was allocated for last year, was aimed at improving condos' storm-worthiness and thus lowering their insurance costs. A bill analysis indicates that last year's allocation will be rolled over for another year.
Munera says her association delayed the replacement of one of its roofs, anticipating the inspection and then the state grant.
'It's so crazy to me, because we followed up with them (the Department of Financial Services, administering the grant) for six months, getting all this information,' Munera said. 'They told us, 'Oh, you're on our short list.' We went back and forth.'
State Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, said getting information back from the first set of inspections during the program's pilot year produced some insights. And, in the program's second pilot year, legislators decided to focus the grants on those associations that must meet the new condo guidelines passed after the 2021 Surfside disaster, Lopez said.
Spurred by reports of the physical deterioration and membership money squabbles before the 40-year-old, 12-story building's collapse, laws tightened the rules that condo boards must comply with or face fines. Condo associations with buildings of at least three habitable stories must undergo a study of building deficiencies and whether they have sufficient reserves to cover building repairs.
'The revisions that we made were necessary to ensure that they aligned with the condo bill,' Lopez said. 'It was all such a new program that we didn't really understand what we needed to do to clarify in terms of criteria (for eligibility) until they started the inspection phase.'
That rationale is cold comfort to Munera, though. Her association also faces the increased expense that taller condo buildings must meet because of Surfside's fallout. Two-story condos in Pembroke Pines must also comply with reserve and building deficiency studies, like the state's new condo rules. The ones that got in line last year should be grandfathered in, she said.
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'We were so diligent, right?' she said. 'We should be rewarded for that — we were on top of it. But instead, we're being punished and kicked out.'
Others among the 165 associations green-lighted for participating in the first year's pilot may also find they are ineligible for the condo grant money. Another provision in the law would require some to rejigger the division of individual and common property if they're going to remain eligible for the grant, for example, Lopez said.
'In the case where the exterior doors and windows are the responsibilities of the individual unit owners … they wouldn't be able to get a grant, because you'd have to ensure that every single person in that building upgrades their own exterior doors and windows in order to get the insurance credit,' Lopez said.
'These are all the things that we found out when we were first initially trying to implement the program through inspections,' Lopez added.
In addition to the requirements, other new provisions in the law say that:
Only those improvements that result in an insurance discount are eligible.
Mitigation improvements must be made to all openings, including exterior doors, garage doors, windows and skylights, if doing so is necessary for the building to qualify for an insurance discount.
All condos approved for grants must have completed their milestone inspections and reserve studies that the Surfside condo rules lay out.
Still, Lopez pointed out, all those who were initially approved to be in the program did get something — even if the new provisions make them ineligible for the improvement grants.
'They got a free inspection,' she said.
For now, Munera hangs onto the shred of home that the new legislation the House and Senate passed somehow doesn't become law — which is possible if DeSantis vetoes it.
"That would be awesome," she said.
Anne Geggis is the insurance reporter atThe Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at [e-mail]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New Florida law puts condos approved for program in limbo