New Florida Condo Bill: HB913 (PART 2)

As we said last week, as far as condominium law goes, The Florida Legislature ended the legislative session in a big way by passing ONE BIG CONDO BILL that is 191 pages long.  LAST WEEK WE COVERED RESERVES.

We learned that reserves can now be funded with loans or special assessments and that if your milestone inspection was done in the last two years, you can vote to waive reserves for two years.   But Reserves was only one small part of the bill and today we’ll talk about some other provisions.

Here is a provision dealing with CONFLICTS OF INTEREST. 

Any design professional or contractor who submits a bid to the association for performing any services recommended by the milestone inspection may not have an interest, directly or indirectly, in the firm or entity providing the milestone inspection or be a relative of any person having a direct or indirect interest in such firm, unless such relationship is disclosed to the association in writing.

Analysis:  This makes sense.  Perhaps the person performing the milestone inspection won’t say that lots of repairs are necessary if they know they would not be getting the repair work.  You want the person performing the inspection to simply do just that, and perform the inspection with integrity.

But suppose the contractor and the person doing the inspection turn out to be related?

The new law also provides:

A contract for services is voidable and terminates upon the association filing a written notice terminating the contract if the design professional or licensed contractor failed to provide the written disclosure of the relationship required under this subsection.

Here’s a new law that answers the question: “does the state even know how many buildings need to have a milestone inspection?  Who is keeping track of all this?”

And this new statute tries to answer just that.  Here’s what it says:

On or before December 31 2025, and on or before each December 31 thereafter, the local enforcement agency responsible for milestone inspections shall provide the department, in an electronic format determined by the department, information that must include, but is not limited to:

1. The number of buildings required to have a milestone inspection within the agency's jurisdiction. 

2. The number of buildings for which a phase one milestone inspection has been completed. 

3. The number of buildings granted an extension under paragraph (3)(c).

4. The number of buildings required to have a phase two milestone inspection.

5. The number of buildings for which a phase two milestone inspection has been completed.

6. The number, type, and value of permit applications received to complete repairs required by a phase two milestone inspection. 

7. A list of buildings deemed to be unsafe or uninhabitable as determined by a milestone inspection. 

8. The license number of the building code administrator responsible for milestone inspections for the local enforcement agency. 

(b) The department shall provide to the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) all information obtained from the local enforcement agencies under paragraph (a) by the date specified and in a manner prescribed by OPPAGA. OPPAGA may request from a local enforcement agency any additional information necessary to compile the information and provide a report to the President of the Senate and the  Speaker of the House of Representatives

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT OPPAGA IS GOING TO DO ONCE IT GETS ALL THIS INFORMATION.

We’re not even close to finishing review of this massive new condo bill.  Join us next week for more or watch our latest episode of Condo Craze and HOAs for a lively discussion of the new laws...

S3E14 - Aired Sunday, May 11th