The 2021 Surfside Condo disaster, which claimed many lives, made it urgent for the authorities to implement new safety regulations. However, there is currently a deadline for hundreds of condo projects in the Tampa Bay area.
Condos in Florida have five months until December 31 to do their re-inspections, but some might not be able to for a variety of reasons.
Within the next five months, 225 condominium complexes in the City of St. Petersburg must comply with state standards for milestone inspections. Less than half, according to Chief Building Official Don Tyre, had completed theirs, during a committee meeting on July 11.
Out of 225, 68 have finished the process thus far.
“I’m hoping to get a good three quarters of the buildings to submit by December,” Tyre stated to the city council members. “There are going to be some issues. This is a new regulatory requirement. There’s only so many engineering firms that do this work.”
Senate Bill 4D mandates that a condo be inspected for structural soundness by the end of this year and then every ten years after that if it is at least three floors and thirty years old, or twenty-five years old if it is close to seawater. If a structure is not inspected or the essential repairs are not started, there may be severe implications.
“We do have to evacuate the building to either evacuate it or indicate that it’s safe,” Tyre stated.
According to the City of Tampa, it complied with Senate Bill 4D’s provisions when it mailed 28 letters to condominiums earlier this year. Every condo’s development is being monitored on a public website.
While some people have finished the process, others still need to make the necessary repairs.
JC Hudgison, the main construction official for the City of Tampa, stated last month, “We want people to be compliant. So ideally, not having to chase after a condo that hasn’t done it. So the ones that have, we appreciate it. We appreciate their diligence. Because they’re protecting the people that are occupying those structures.”
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Paying for repairs found during inspections is another issue condos face. Many condo owners now have to pay enormous special assessment costs.
According to Ciara Willis, an attorney who represents a number of condo complexes, “some of the older buildings are having to work on a lot of projects to get everything up to code and up to the standards that are being required, which is a good thing.” “But it’s also difficult on the current owners.”
Although Florida’s deadline was rescheduled once, most analysts don’t believe it will happen this year.
