Miami-Dade considers new disclosure rules for condo associations

Home buyers considering a condominium can’t inspect key documents covering repair reserves and structural safety until they’ve signed a sales contract. That could change after the Surfside condominium collapse, with elected leaders and advocates pushing for transparency measures on the privately owned buildings.

At a meeting Friday led by a Miami-Dade commissioner, industry representatives asked for Florida to beef up disclosure requirements and management standards for condominium associations. And an insurance seller warned higher bills are coming for older complexes — assuming they can find an insurance provider at all.

“We’re going to see a lot of condo associations face a very difficult time in the near future in obtaining insurance,” Dulce Suarez-Resnick, vice president of sales at Acentria Insurance, told a county subcommittee led by Commissioner Raquel Regalado that’s looking at post-Surfside legislative changes. “Or even keeping the insurance they currently have.”

Suarez-Resnick said that before the June 24 collapse, carriers asked her condo clients for documents on reserves, budgets and roof conditions. “Now, all of a sudden, they’re asking you for the 40-year certification and they’re asking you for an engineer’s report. It’s gotten much more strict.”

Condo shoppers don’t have access to those documents, a situation a representative for the real estate industry said should change.

Danielle Blake, head of government affairs for the Miami Association of Realtors, pointed out there were 22 sales at Champlain Towers South in the 12 months before the partial collapse that killed 98 people. At the time, the complex was preparing to start a $15 million renovation for the 1981 tower after a 2018 engineer’s report flagged structural issues that needed to be fixed.

“What did the buyers really know before they went in to purchase?” Blake said. She said current Florida law only requires condo sellers to turn over engineering reports and association financial documents once a unit is under contract.

“Those documents should be published, so everybody is on the same page before I enter into what would be probably the most expensive purchase of my life,” she said.

The county commission recently passed a resolution by Regalado urging Florida to create a statewide online database of condo documents to make searches easier for both residents and buyers. “We’re also going to be talking about what we could be doing here in Miami-Dade County,” she said.

Though Regalado was the only commissioner participating Friday, the panel is part of the board committee she chairs on Infrastructure and Operations. It plans a report to another post-Surfside county panel led by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Commission Chairperson Joe “Pepe” Diaz that includes state and federal lawmakers.

Paul Kaplan, managing director at the KWPMC condo-management firm in Miami, told the Regalado panel that Florida needs to tighten laws on condo planning when it comes to future repairs and maintenance. Current law allows condo boards to waive a state requirement to set aside reserves.

“We find it happens way too often,” he said. “We never recommend it.”