VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – With a deadline of Dec. 31 just around the corner, over 150 condo associations along Volusia County’s coast still have not turned in their “milestone” inspection reports.
The state-wide deadline is for many of Florida’s condo buildings to get their mandatory engineering assessments done, which became law after the Surfside condo collapse in 2021.
News 6 reached out to the cities along Volusia’s coast and the county to ask about the condos in unincorporated areas beachside. The data received showed out of the roughly 230 condo properties that need the inspections in these areas, only about 65 have submitted their reports so far.
Many leaders News 6 spoke with think timing and money are the main holdups for submitting reports.
“Insurance is up about 600% and then when we started getting the ‘milestone’ and the SIRs that’s when we started seeing more folks putting their units up for sale,” Becky Carpenter said.
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Carpenter manages five condo properties in Daytona Beach Shores and is the president of the county’s Building Association Managers group. She said the first step of each condo association finding and hiring an engineer to do an inspection is one of the costly parts.
“Depending on the size of the building, it was 10, 12, 15, 20 thousand dollars. So until you knew what you were doing and had your bid in hand, you didn’t have it in your budget,” she said.
The state legislature passed SB4D after the Surfside condo collapse in 2021 as a way to ensure all buildings were maintained and had the reserve funding needed for repairs.
“I think the need for the inspections was there. I think perhaps so aggressively implementing it and the SIRs, maybe there was a better way to ensure safety,” said Carpenter.
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Now, condo associations in buildings 30 years or older and three stories or taller have to submit these “milestone” inspections by Dec. 31.
It’s 25 years or older if the building is near the ocean. Then, they have to repeat the inspections every 10 years.
The condo associations and owners now have to fund the engineer’s study, then find the money for any needed repairs if they don’t have it in the budget already. If they don’t pass the engineer’s first inspection, then they have to do another phase of inspections that’s even more expensive.
Carpenter said many of the condos, especially beachside along Central Florida’s coast, also had damage and have construction work still going on after hurricanes in the last three years. She believed some associations have been trying to juggle the timelines so as to not have to redo any inspections.
“I understand that if I fail phase 1, it’s going to be more expensive, so am I prepared to go ahead and do phase 1, or do I have to do some other work and then I’ll do phase 1?” she said.
As part of the report, the associations then also have to prove they will have enough reserve money to cover the cost of any future repairs the engineer thinks the building might need.
“Once I do the reserve study and it’s turned in, the budget that I pass next year - I have to have that included,” said Bob DeRose, a real estate broker in New Smyrna Beach.
He said the legislation originally asked for a lot to be done but was later simplified so that condo associations now just have to prove eight components in the inspection.
DeRose said he believes many condo associations are accidentally still tacking on more work than is truly needed, therefore adding to even more costs for owners. He suggests all condo unit owners make sure they’re paying attention.
“If your maintenance fees go up more than $100, something is wrong. You should get with the board and really zero in on why did it go up so high because you probably have too many things in there,” he said. “If you have more than eight components, then you have to decide, is that important?”
If the condo associations don’t make the Dec. 31 deadline, Volusia County leaders and many of the cities said they will have their Code Enforcement departments start working with the properties. Eventually, though, there could be fines.
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