Lawmakers put lipstick on condo safety

The condo-safety bill passed in May is a big whiff — a swing and a miss. The bill mandates structural inspections of all condo buildings over three stories after 30 years, as if Florida’s condos fall all the time because we are not inspecting them.

Yet our deep-red lawmakers acted like Democrats and passed a foolish bill so they can stand in front of news reporters and congratulate themselves on “taking action.” Whiff.

The Surfside condo collapse was not the result of a failure to inspect. The community management failed to repair known problems, a result of the weak system of governance we rely on for condominium communities.

These communities are run by boards of directors who must be unit owners who serve without pay. The directors need not know anything about construction, maintenance, electricity, plumbing, painting, stucco, paving, landscaping, irrigation, drainage, project management, accounting or the law. Communities blunder along with whomever they can get to sit on the board while being the punching bag for every dissatisfied unit owner. The wisest, most educated unit owners never volunteer to be on the board because it is such an undesirable job.

Because board turnover is high, they tend not to accumulate wisdom.

Board members have a huge conflict of interest when their duties require them to take action, such as passing special assessments, usually unpopular with neighbors.

In 2016, Katherine Fernandez Rundle published “Addressing condo owners’ pleas for help: Recommendations for legislative action,” about the state of condo management in Florida. Our lawmakers would better serve Florida’s condo owners by reading that report and taking action to improve condo management.