Crushing Assessments are destroying the ability of Seniors on a fixed income to stay at home!
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday said Florida lawmakers should take action this year to address a condominium crisis that could see owners priced out of their homes, striking a more urgent tone than just a month ago when he deferred to legislators about whether such action was needed.
“We do need to do something this year,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Miami Lakes. “This is not something that we can put off until next March or April. I think there are a lot of looming deadlines and we have to have a plan forward to keep people in their units if that is what they want to do.”
Condominium associations across the state are facing a Jan. 1, 2025, deadline to have an engineer inspect their buildings for safety and figure out how much they need to set aside for repairs. The deadline is part of a condo safety law passed in the aftermath of the Champlain Towers collapse that killed 98 people.
Associations could face millions of dollars in repairs.
Increasingly, condo owners are anxious about shouldering hefty special assessments and higher monthly fees that could force them out of their homes.
In August, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, rejected calls to reconvene the Legislature before March to make changes to the state’s condo laws. Incoming House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and incoming Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Bartow, have said they do not want to rush any changes to the state’s condo safety laws without a thorough vetting of ideas.
DeSantis could call the Legislature into a special session but has not done so. Instead, he is publicly pressuring lawmakers to come up with ideas to help people pay for reserves.
The governor floated the possibility of delaying the Jan. 1 deadline for some buildings or allowing for interest-free or low-interest loans that can help residents pay for special assessments and repairs.
“The bottom line is we want residents in Florida to have a safe but affordable place to live,” DeSantis said.
“We have an instance here where we are going to have to provide some relief.”
[It is as simple as reverting the value of property to the original price paid for the home. We bought the house in 1981 and by now I am close to having paid more for Real Estate Taxes than what the house was worth. This is because the value of our homes is pegged to the sales price of similar homes sold in our area. People speculated with home ownership, selling and buying homes, but we bought our house to live here our entire lives! STOP the abuse of high taxation because, now, on a fixed income, I am being taxed out of my ability to age in place. The cost of Real Estate Taxes and Property Insurance is ABUSIVE! Unaffordable! 44 years! At what point will the abuse end?]
At the news conference, DeSantis urged legislators to talk with their constituents and to start coming up with ideas that can be implemented “in time to prevent people from being forced out of their homes.”
“I think there are some things that need to be done,” he said. “I don’t know that every single repair will prevent a Surfside, that’s just the reality. So why would we want to be forcing people to have to make a choice to leave based on repairs that may need to be done but may not need to be done in this instant or may be able to be done over a period of time where you can absorb the cost better.”
[Worse, the repair, replacement and upgrade triggers a higher valuation and cost of permits, inspections, aggravating the situation!]
“Let’s be nimble with this,” he said.
DeSantis also considered the possibility of low-interest or interest-free loans for either condo owners or associations. He said the goal of the loans would be to get repairs done and avoid the displacement of residents.
“We don’t want to see people forced out of a unit because they have a crushing assessment,” he said.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article292184315.html#storylink=cpy
领英推荐
TALLAHASSEE
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is calling on Florida lawmakers to do something about a looming condominium crisis that could see thousands of owners priced out of their homes.
In a letter to the incoming Republican leaders of the Florida Legislature, the newly re-elected Democrat said lawmakers should prioritize changes to the state’s condo laws when they reconvene for the 2025 legislative session in March. In response, incoming House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said the fixes are not as easy as some suggest.
[Why not? If the United States is $35 Trillion in debt... if we send billions to other nations for all sorts of efforts...
HELP AMERICANS FIRST!]
“The important question that is not being asked about this very important issue is not ‘when?’ but ‘what?’
How do we properly balance issues of economic impact with the safety of our citizens?”
[STOP scaring us about SAFETY because if we lose our homes we shall have no safety!]
Perez said in a statement to the Miami Herald on Wednesday. He added that lawmakers need to first figure out how to strike that balance before talking about changing existing laws.
Condominium associations across Florida are facing a Jan. 1 deadline to figure out how much they need to set aside for repairs. The repairs could cost the associations millions of dollars. Unit owners would be forced to shoulder the burden with hefty special assessments and higher monthly fees — all while facing rising insurance costs.
“Residents across our state are feeling the pressure, and we are deeply concerned that these challenges will intensify the affordability crisis we have worked so hard at the state and local level to address,” Levine Cava wrote. “We ask that you tackle this escalating issue and urge the Legislature to work collaboratively across the aisle for solutions.”
The call comes a week after Florida lawmakers rejected calls to reconvene the Legislature before March to amend new condo safety laws passed in the aftermath of the Champlain Towers collapse in Surfside in 2021 that killed 98 people.
After the collapse, state lawmakers banned association from waiving reserve contributions — a form of savings for routine maintenance projects — and delaying structural repairs. Champlain Towers was doomed by structural issues, and despite several warnings from contractors, the owners deferred repairs due to the multi-million-dollar cost for renovations and upkeep.
Now, condo associations with buildings three stories or higher owe the state a reserve study by January 2025, essentially providing a savings plan for repairs needed every 15 to 25 years. If those buildings are 30 years or older, they’ll have to undergo a structural inspection, too. As a result, many condo association leaders are approving higher homeowner fees.
“I know some residents are anxious, understandably, but the people of Florida deserve something better than us taking the easy way out and just letting history repeat itself — because I said then, and I will say it again now, I will never let a tragedy like Surfside happen again under my watch,” Perez said. Incoming Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Bartow, echoed that his focus is on ensuring a tragedy like Surfside doesn’t happen again.
“As a father and grandfather, my gut tells me that when I look to prioritize affordability and safety, safety is going to win every time,” Albritton said in a statement to the Herald on Wednesday. “With that being said, I do hear the economic side of this issue loud and clear. Inflation is stretching budgets across the state, and families and seniors are having a hard time making room for increased assessments needed to cover years of deferred maintenance.”
Rising HOA fees and insurance costs are some of the reasons condo prices keep falling in South Florida. Across the state there are similar trends. The number of condos and townhomes on the market has shot up 92% since last year, according to the most recent data from Florida Realtors. Meanwhile, sales fell 20%.
Levine Cava said affordability should be prioritized along with safety when it comes to rethinking the statutes that govern condominiums. While she did not suggest specific proposals, she noted the county has distributed millions of dollars in loans to help low-income condo owners pay for special assessments.
“But to truly tackle this crisis and provide relief to homeowners while continuing to promote building safety, we need further support and action from the state level,” she said.
Perez said he will continue to have conversations with condo owners and state lawmakers to come up with solutions.
“And once we know what to do — how to strike the right balance between affordability and safety — then we can talk about when to consider changing the existing laws,” Perez said.
Albritton agrees. “These are serious issues that are going to take time to sort out,” he said. “I’m open to ideas.”
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article291587335.html#storylink=cpy