House Bill 675 and Senate Bill 696: 

Grants for Low-income Senior Citizen Condominium Unit Owners

These bills are another effort to help Floridians with the soaring special assessment fees seen across the state. The aim of the bills is to create a program for one-time grants of up to $2,500.00 to help with special assessments levied to fund the condominium’s reserve accounts. The grants would be available to low-income senior citizens who are 60 years or older and claim the property as their homestead.

House Bill 913:  Condominium Associations

This bill attempts to provide many new protections for condominium owners, while also providing the association power to act in the best interest of the community.

Some of the new proposals in the bill are as follows:

Insurance Policy Renewal – Associations cannot issue or renew an insurance policy for a condominium unit or association unless the condominium association has complied with inspection requirements as detailed in the Florida Statutes.

Financial Statements and Online Voting – The bill would require associations to maintain the most recent annual financial statement and annual budget on association property to ensure access by unit owners. The bill also provides online voting for condo owners.

Enhancement of Board Powers – The new law would give boards the power to levy special assessments and obtain a loan to perform necessary maintenance, repair, or replacement of condo property without the approval of membership. While this could result in additional costs for condo owners, the purpose behind the bill is to protect the health and safety of the unit owners and tenants of the property.

Digital Documents – The association would also be required to provide additional documents digitally on the association’s website. The documents include adopted minutes of all meetings of the association, the board of administration, and the unit owners over the preceding 7 years.

Conflict of Interest for Contractors – There is also a proposed ban of anyone who performs a structural inspection from providing services for the repairs or replacement of condominium property that was the subject of the study or inspection. This is to avoid any potential conflicts on interest.

Recall Elections and Attorney’s Fees – The bill also seeks to bring clarity to the process for recalling board members and requires condominium associations to pay reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to an owner if the division or a Florida court rules against an association in a recall dispute.

*This bill was passed by the House on 4/23/2025 and has moved to the Senate.

House Bill 983 and Senate Bill 368: Community Associations

These bills seek to place additional restrictions and monitoring mechanisms on associations to protect homeowners. Some of the key provisions include:

Oversight of Board Member Elections in HOAs – The new House bill would authorize the Office of the Condominium Ombudsman to appoint an election monitor to attend the annual meeting of the association members and to conduct the election of directors. Upon receipt of a petition of 10 percent of the total voting interests in the homeowners association or eight members, whichever is greater, the ombudsman shall appoint a division employee, a person specializing in election monitoring, or an attorney licensed to practice in Florida as the election monitor.

Crime and Fraud Prevention – The Senate bill would create the Condominium and Homeowners’ Association Economic Crime, Fraud, and Corruption Investigation Pilot Program within the Department of Legal Affairs to fight corruption in associations.

Protecting Homeowners’ Voting Rights – The bills seek to ensure parcel owners are not disenfranchised by an association in recall elections. It would prevent an association from failing to certify a recall based on a technical omission.

The bills also clarify additional requirements for homeowners and associations related to board member elections and provide a mechanism to award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to homeowners when a judgment against the association is rendered in their favor.

How would these proposed changes affect your living situation?

It will be important to keep track of the new laws being passed in 2025, as many legislators continue to work to provide homeowners with additional protections and ways to keep associations accountable. 

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