Florida’s 2025 Legislative Session Kicks Off: What’s Next for Community Associations?

Florida’s 2025 Legislative Session Kicks Off: What’s Next for Community Associations?

03/04/2025

The 2025 Florida Legislative Session begins today, March 4th, and once again, lawmakers are considering a slate of bills that could significantly impact the millions of Floridians living in shared ownership communities. The effects of the sweeping statutory changes enacted in response to the Champlain Towers South tragedy in 2021 are still unfolding, with media reports warning of a statewide “condo crisis.” Miami Herald: Florida’s Surfside law helps developers as condo owners face spiking fees and foreclosures

The pressing question now is whether this year’s proposed legislation will bring much-needed relief or impose additional burdens on an already struggling population. Stay tuned as we track the developments that matter most to Florida’s community associations.

These are the bills to watch:

HB 675/SB 696: Grants for Low-income Senior Citizen Condominium Unit Owners
Representative Mitch Rosenwald, D-Oakland Park, and Senator Rosalind Osgood, D-Tamarac teamed up to create a program to provide one-time grants of up to $2,500 to help with special assessments levied to fund a condominium’s reserve accounts. Low-income senior citizens (defined as people 60 and over) whose condominium is their homestead would be eligible for this program.

HB 913: Condo 4.0

Rep. Vicki Lopez (R-Miami), has once again taken up the mantle of condominium reform in a 99-page bill which introduces sweeping reforms aimed at protecting condo owners and enhancing association accountability. Key provisions include:

Requires associations to maintain adequate property insurance and comply with inspection requirements in order to be eligible for coverage through Citizens Property Insurance Corporation.
Mandates reserve studies every 10 years and allows pooling reserves for multiple components.
Strengthens financial reporting requirements and ensures unit owners receive timely disclosures on inspections and reserve studies.
Confirms that owners are not responsible for removal/reinstallation costs of hurricane protection unless a Declaration of Condominium specifies that such costs are the owners’ responsibility.
Allows associations to levy special assessments and secure loans without membership approval to address urgent health and safety repairs.
Bans companies/entities conducting reserve studies from profiting from subsequent repairs.
Adds four-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories above ground to the exemptions from the structural integrity reserve study.
Increases penalties for board members who violate record-keeping rules and strengthens owner rights to access records and board meetings.
Clarifies the recall process and requires associations to pay for an owner’s legal fees if a court or division rules in favor of that owner.
Allows members (rather than just the board) to opt for electronic voting.
Revises procedures for terminating condominiums.

HB 1415/SB 690: Condominium Structural Integrity Reserve Studies

Citing the problem of surging fees, Senator Rosalind Osgood, D-Tamarac, filed this bill which reduces the requirement for the mandatory structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) to only condominiums that are six stories or higher, rather than the current requirement for condominiums that are three stories or higher. Rep. Bruce Antone, D-Orlando, filed a matching bill. Condominiums with five stories or less may opt out of the inspection and may vote to waive or reduce contributions to SIRS.

HB 393/SB 592: My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Program (Lopez-Miami; Hunschofsky-Parkland and Leek-St. Augustine)
These bills would limit eligibility for the My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Program, to condominiums three stories or higher, with at least one residential unit. Detached units on individual parcels of land would not be eligible.

At least 75% of all unit owners living in the building must approve participation in the mitigation inspection.
Grants must be matched with $1 from the association for every $2 provided by the state toward the actual cost of the project.

SB 1742: Condominium And Cooperative Associations
This bill from Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, focuses on mandatory reserve funding by:

Allowing association boards to invest reserve funds.
Allowing unit-owner-controlled associations to substitute a line of credit for all or part of the mandated reserve fund.
Allowing associations that have completed a milestone inspection within the previous two years to pause reserve funding in budgets adopted on or before Dec. 31, 2028, until a SIRS is completed.
Allowing associations who obtain a milestone inspection to delay a SIRS for up to two budget years.
Allowing associations to pause reserve contributions or reduce reserve funding if a local building official determines the entire building is uninhabitable due to natural emergency, allows the association to use reserve funds to make it habitable again
Blocking designers and builders bidding on work recommended by the SIRS who have a financial connection to the person or firm who performed the SIRS.

SB 1316: Resilience Districts

This bill from Sen. Erin Grall, R-Fort Pierce, would allow communities to create special resilience districts to collect funds for flood and sea level rise mitigation projects; to increase access to property during flood events; septic to sewer conversions; and redevelopment of mobile home parks, manufactured housing and areas where most of the first floor is below base flood elevation.

SB 1600: Recall Voting Rights (Sen. Kristen Aston Arrington, D-Kissimmee) prohibits a board from suspending the voting rights of owners who are casting a recall vote and refines arbitration and voting rules.

HB 137/SB 120: Homeowners’ Association Ombudsman
These bills create the office of Homeowners’ Association Ombudsman under the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes. Currently, the Condominium Ombudsman’s Office is under the Department of Business & Professional Regulation.

HB 983/SB 368: Community Associations
Senator Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, and Representative Juan Carlos Porras, R-Miami, sponsored these bills to pursue corruption in HOAs. They would create a Condominium and Homeowners’ Association Economic Crime, Fraud, and Corruption Investigation pilot program in Miami-Dade County under the Department of Legal Affairs to investigate condominium and homeowners’ association-related economic crime, fraud, and corruption in Florida.

The department would have the power to contract with private entities, issue subpoenas and conduct audits, but would refer cases with sufficient evidence for prosecution to the appropriate state attorney. The department would be shuttered in 2030 unless reenacted.

The bill would also:

Exempt the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes Trust Fund from contributing to the State’s General Revenue Fund.
Require the Division to establish and maintain a searchable, cloud-based database of every condominium in the state by July 1, 2027.
Require the Division to forward complaints of fraud or corruption to the Office of the Condominium and Homeowners’ Ombudsman.
Restricts associations from levying fines more than $1,000, assessing fines more than once for the same violation, or aggregating fines to create a lien against a parcel.
Allows parcel owners to attend hearings remotely.
Waives fines or suspensions if a violation is cured before the hearing, reduces fines by 50% if the violations are cured within 30 days after the hearing, allows associations to be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs if the violation is not cured and the fine is not paid per the association’s written notice.
Allows parcel owners to make a written request for all amounts due the association to be provided with 10 days or all pending violations, fines or penalties are waived.
Payments to the association for violations must be applied to outstanding amounts due first, and then to assessments, fines, interest or other fees.

HB 6005/SB 586: Construction Defects. Removes the protections previously provided for consumers to file construction defect claims pursuant to the “statute of repose”. This bill is particularly pernicious as it has the ability to take away your rights to pursue contractors and builders for delivering defective work and latent defects. The bill is scheduled to be debated before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Regulated Industries Committee. Please consider contacting those committee members to discuss your community’s need to have your rights preserved under the statute of repose.
Contact members of the Senate Judiciary Committee by clicking here.
Contact members of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee by clicking here.

HB 1015/SB 948: Real Property and Condominium Flood Disclosures: Requires sellers of homes and condos to include information in sales contracts whether the developer has filed a claim or received assistance relating to flood damage and a notice that homeowner’s insurance does not include coverage for damage resulting from flooding.

HB 799/SB 1200: Special Alcoholic Beverage Licenses Issued to Residential Condominiums: Exempts certain residential condos that sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on premises from license limitations.

HB 1073/SB 1020: Coverage by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation: Allows Citizens to raise premiums up to 10% annually in counties without “a reasonable degree of competition.”

With Florida’s condo market already under intense scrutiny, some of the foregoing bills could bring much-needed clarity and protections—or add new complexities for associations and owners alike. As these bills move through the Legislature, CALL will be closely monitoring their progress and advocating for policies that balance safety, financial stability, and homeowner rights.

Stay engaged, stay informed, and let your voice be heard. The future of Florida’s shared ownership communities depends on it.