Florida’s ongoing condo crisis is not only affecting older residents on fixed incomes, but also young professionals in Palm Beach County who are feeling the financial strain and are weighing up whether they can afford to stay in their units or will be forced to sell.
One young condo owner told WLRN the “super overwhelming” future assessment fees — jacked up to several hundreds of dollars per month — has already pushed him out, forcing him and his fiancé, a nurse, to put their unit in West Palm Beach on the market.
A condo safety law following the deadly collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside in June 2021 requires condominiums 30 years or older — which are largely located in South Florida — to undergo a financial inspection called Structural Integrity Reserve Study, or SIRS.
It requires condo associations to set funds aside by 2025 for potential structural repairs and replacement costs. The requirement is resulting in condo owners dishing out more money per month in condo fees, a high burden residents are struggling to manage.
The looming deadline for the milestone inspection report is Dec. 31, with subsequent maintenance for key essentials like plumbing, electrical, foundation, load-bearing walls, roofs and windows every 10 years.
READ MORE: How condo reform laws sent monthly assessments for condo owners through the roof
The condo owner said the estimated increase in assessment for his unit at the Whitehall Condominiums of Palm Beach Lakes is about $800, which is on top of his already $600 in Homeowners Association payments.
It “suddenly makes it feel like an additional rent on top of a mortgage,” said the 25-year-old firefighter, who did not want to be identified to discuss freely his condo finances.
The requirements reflect just one of the issues facing condo owners. A May report from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation noted that the average homeowner’s insurance premium is approximately $3,600, about $1,000 more than the national average, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“We were happy, we were living, we were managing things. We just started planning our wedding... now suddenly we are house-hunting and thinking about what we're going to do."West Palm Beach condo owner
This illuminates the widespread challenge many Florida condo owners are facing as financial pressures mount, resulting in more older condos being put up for sale. But since stubborn interest rates remain high at nearly 7% for a fixed 30-year mortgage, those sales fell by double digits across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.
Despite a promise to provide reprieve before the end of the year to condo owners facing debilitating association fees, Republican legislative leaders are now revisiting potential condo reforms in the regular legislative session, which begins in March 2025.
Condo board in West Palm Beach is trying to buy more time
Discussion surrounding condo reforms at the March 2025 legislative session is what Whitehall Condominiums of Palm Beach Lakes, a community of 480 units, is betting on.
The state law requires a fully funded proposed budget to include the required SIRS study, but in an effort to give condo owners more time to make personal decisions, condo owners at the Whitehall voted on Dec. 16 not to fund its 2025 SIRS reserves.
According to an email sent to condo owners, the board at Whitehall is hoping that the Florida Legislature will pass potential reforms to current regulations in the coming year, which led to the Board encouraging all owners “to waive (NOT FUND) the SIRS reserves,” giving owners more time to plan for the 2026 budget.
Under current state law, there’s no penalty for missing the Dec. 31 state inspection deadline, but there’s huge uncertainty over what could happen if condos fail to comply — it could, for example, result in insurers dropping coverage because structural safety is an important reason to insure properties.
Democratic State Sen. Jason Pizzo, who represented Surfside at the time of the collapse, said it's understandable to worry about anticipatory costs but that is why objective inspections of older buildings are necessary.
Nearly 90% of the 1.6 million condos in Florida are more than 30 years old, and Pizzo said it is concerning that they haven’t had critical inspections.
“They’re going to get a milestone inspection, and they may find some immediate repair or replacement requirements as a result of it," Pizzo said. “That’s not really by operation of law. That’s by operation of common sense.”
Luis Konski, a Miami attorney who deals with construction and commercial liability cases, said previous condo regulations kept fees low by failing to save money for future repairs, and then owners were hit with special assessments when repairs finally needed to be done.
READ MORE: It may be a little cheaper to buy a home — not because of prices
Konski said this encouraged many associations to ignore necessary but expensive maintenance, which is what likely led to the Surfside building collapse.
Konski said that if associations can continue to delay maintenance with inaccurate surveys and minimal oversight, it’s only a matter of time before another disaster. “It’s a question of do you save money or do you save lives?” Konski said. “You can’t do both.”
'We were happy'
Still, the West Palm Beach owner voiced concerns to WLRN that even without immediate fee increases, future assessment fees could become simply unaffordable. And he feels like the vote is simply just kicking the can down the road.
“We were happy, we were living, we were managing things. We just started planning our wedding and taking on the finances and the normal stress that comes with that,” he said.
“And now suddenly we are house-hunting and thinking about what we're going to do and kind of put the wedding on the back burner and figure out our finances — in the sense of, we need to be saving up for a house, let alone a wedding,” he said.
His fiancée is “overwhelmed” and “hates the situation as much as I do.” He said they've decided to leave despite the vote to hold off new assessment fees.
“We truthfully love it. We love our condo. We love the location. It's in a good area. We've made friends in the area, our neighbors and we're happy here,” he said. “But at the same time, we just simply can't afford to pay that additional $1,400 a month on an already tight budget and tight economy.”
