RESERVE STUDY REQUIRED!!!!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published June 24, 2022
It is now in the statutes: STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY RESERVE
STUDIES ARE REQUIRED for condominiums and co-ops three
stories or higher (FS 718.112(1)(g) + FS 719.196(1)(j).
And these reserve studies have now to be created by a “qualified
study company – with specialized engineers or architects on the
payroll. That means: No more reserve studies made up by board
presidents who consider themselves “experts”!
But the writing is already on the wall: Associations will
quickly find out that there are – minimum in the moment – not
many “qualified” companies here in Florida who offer these kind
of required services. Associations will have to get going real
quick if they want to meet the deadline of December 31, 2024
to have the required reserve study in place.
Make no mistake: These reserve studies with all the requirements
described in the new
Condo Safety Reform Bill (SD 4D) will not come
cheap. It’s not done any longer by walking around the building
and “estimate” possible life-time and possible repair cost for
all the items listed in the bill.
This is just the beginning of a long list of high costs created
by the CONDO SAFETY REFORM BILL.
Condo owners will quickly realize: SAFETY DOESN’T COME CHEAP!
This requirement for reserve studies – together with mandatory
reserve funding – should have been added to the statutes many
years ago, but it seems that our legislators always wait for
something real bad to happen before they act. Legislators should
listen to “COMMON SENSE”, not to some highly-paid
lobbyists who normally work for the industries, not for the
constituents who vote these legislators into office.
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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