ORLANDO, Fla. — Until lawmakers passed new legislation last month, Florida didn’t have any statewide inspection requirement in place for high-rise condominium buildings. Senate Bill 4-D changes that. 

Before, condo buildings across Florida weren’t technically required to be inspected by a licensed architect or engineer after being built and occupied. Now, that must happen once a building turns either 25 or 30 years old, depending on its proximity to the coast, and again every 10 years afterward.

It’s welcome news for forensic structural engineer Joel Figueroa Vallines, who heads up SEP + A in Orlando. Following last year’s tragic building collapse in Surfside, he was one of 12 engineers chosen to investigate the disaster and recommend new structural inspection standards.

“If you don’t feel good, you go to the doctor — and if you ignore it for a while, your condition may get worse,” Figueroa Vallines said. “Buildings are no different. Over time — especially in Florida, with continuous cycles of hurricanes hitting the state — they need care as well.”

But SB 4-D includes another big change, too — one most condo associations aren’t prepared to handle, according to industry experts who spoke with Spectrum News. 

Under the new law, condo associations must have enough money in their reserves to fund all repairs necessary to maintain the structural integrity of all buildings three stories or higher. Existing associations must meet this requirement before 2025.

“I believe it is going to be a big shock to a lot of associations,” said Anastasia Kolodzik, a professional reserve analyst at Expert Inspectors in Daytona Beach. 

Kolodzik supports the intention behind SB 4-D, calling it “a very much needed process” to reform condo laws and enhance building maintenance. But she’s worried associations might not be able, or willing, to comply with the new law in time.

“As of the last three or four weeks, we have been showing full funding in our reports, to the effect of associations just flat out saying, ‘We can’t do that,’” Kolodzik said.

Paying for building repairs

Before SB 4-D passed in May, condo associations in Florida could vote to waive their reserves, meaning effectively, they didn’t have to reserve any funds at all.

Instead, many associations rely on special assessments of unit owners to pay for repairs whenever they arise. If a roof needs to be replaced, for example, and the association is short $400,000, that amount gets divided up between unit owners, who might need to take out a loan or dip into savings to cover the cost, Kolodzik explained.

“It gets very taxing on the unit owners, in a financial sense,” Kolodzik said, adding that a history of special assessments can also make it harder to sell units, or gain property insurance.

Just weeks before Surfside's Champlain Towers South collapsed, the association’s board president informed unit owners they would soon need to pay high assessments to repair structural damage that had “gotten significantly worse” since 2018. But before they made repairs, the building collapsed, killing 98.

(Structure model of the Champlain Towers in Surfside)

Figueroa Vallines says there are three crucial “pillars” to a strong building: design, quality control during construction, and maintenance over time, which SB 4-D finally addressed.

“What started as maybe a hairline crack, over time, can become a serious structural issue if it doesn’t get addressed in time,” he said. 

That’s the case for buildings all across Florida, regardless of their proximity to the coast, he added, explaining that the entire state is susceptible to corrosion from humidity and salt.

He said that along with enhancing building safety, regular maintenance helps keep costs down.

“If you catch it early and repair it now, it costs you a dollar," Figueroa Vallines said. "If you defer it or you wait too long, it’ll cost you $1,000.” 

“Don’t wait, accelerate”

Before the statewide law took effect in May, only Miami-Dade and Broward counties required condo buildings to be inspected on a specific timeline: once a building turned 40 years old. Champlain Towers South collapsed at 39. 

Surfside’s chief building official, James McGuinness, called it a “terrible, tragic wake-up call.” A week after the disaster, he wrote a letter urging local condo associations to prepare early for their 40-year inspections.

“‘Don’t wait, accelerate,’ was our battle cry,” McGuinness said. 

Some building owners were receptive to the request, he said, but not all, so the county pursued a new, stricter mandate for buildings to be inspected by age 30, not 40.

That new local regulation passed earlier this year, paving the way for lawmakers to enact change at the state level.

“Our actions here spurred a similar response in Tallahassee,” McGuinness said.

Although Florida lawmakers failed to pass new building safety requirements during 2022’s regular legislative session, they agreed on SB 4-D during May’s special session, which focused on homeowners’ insurance.

“We believe that now that there are inspections happening more often, if there’s any potential problem in a building, it’ll get picked up fairly quickly,” said Republican State Rep. Daniel Perez (District 116), who co-sponsored SB 4-D.

Perez said he hopes Florida counties with lots of coastal condominiums will take it upon themselves to pass even stricter measures that go beyond the new state law. 

As for Figueroa Vallines, he sees SB 4-D as a positive step forward — and a change that was long overdue. 

“I would say that a pretty significant portion of what we recommended is in that legislation, from a technical engineering standpoint,” he said. 

But for him and the other experts who spoke with Spectrum News, it’s still too early to tell how effective the new law will actually be. Figueroa Vallines said it will be crucial to monitor the structural inspections as they get going — and gather data on how condo associations respond to the findings.

“I’m not a fan of saying ‘one and done,’” Figueroa Vallines said. “I think it’s a very strong start.”