Florida requiring condos to recertify

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida will require statewide recertification of condominiums over three stories tall under legislation that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Thursday as a response to the Surfside building collapse that killed 98 people.

But while the measure was hailed by lawmakers, the senator who represents Surfside, Democrat Jason Pizzo, warns there’s a lot more to do — and the state doesn’t have enough structural engineers to handle the workload required to make sure all the state’s highrise condominiums are safe.

“Tell your nieces and daughters and sons to go study engineering,” Pizzo said.

The governor’s signature came the day after the House unanimously passed the bill during a special session originally called to address skyrocketing property insurance rates. The condominium safety bill was added to the agenda Tuesday and immediately passed by the Senate.

Recertification will be required after 30 years, or 25 years if the building is within 3 miles of the coast, and every 10 years thereafter.

The Champlain Towers South was 40 years old and was going through the 40-year recertification process required by Miami-Dade County when it collapsed last June.

At the time, Miami-Dade and Broward were the only two of the state’s 67 counties that had condominium recertification programs.

There are more than 1.5 million condominium units in Florida operated by nearly 28,000 associations, according to a legislative analysis conducted this year. Of those, more than 912,000 that are home to more than 2 million residents are more than 30 years old.