Legislative Update
Currently, HB 959 is winding its way through the Florida Legislature and is intended to reform some condominium law and provide associations some relief in other areas of their management and operations. The highlights of the bill contain the following:
• Provides that a condominium building of less than four stories in height, and is constructed with exterior corridors, is exempt from the requirement to install a manual fire alarm system.
• Allows a condominium association to collect assessments from a tenant of a delinquent unit owner.
• Extends the current deadline for retrofitting with sprinklers in high-rise condominiums from 2014 to 2019.
• Provides that condominium associations and homeowners associations may deny use of the common areas to members who are more than 90 days delinquent.
• Repeals the requirement that high rise residential structures provide for emergency power for elevators and alarms.
• Provides that a condominium that has 1-½ hour or higher fire-rated interior walls separating condominium units and is not a high-rise building need not retrofit the inside of units with fire alarm systems.
• Repeals the requirement that a condominium unit owner must obtain insurance coverage on the unit and the requirement that the association be named as an additional insured on an individual unit owner’s coverage.
These changes and amendments should have been made well before this time, however, it is what it is! We will try to keep you apprised of ongoing developments in this extremely important legislative issue. In the meantime, there is a “Find Your Representative” Tab on this MyFlorida House.gov page. When you put your address in this search box, the representatives for the Florida House and Senate will be provided, along with your representatives for U.S. Congress, both the House and the Senate. Contact your legislators now and let them know what is happening in our community associations and how important it is for them to protect us, rather than the special interest groups in Tallahassee.
Comments on this entry are closed.