MIAMI — Florida condo owners won’t get any relief from potentially crushing association fees for future building repairs before the end of the year, Republican legislative leaders said this week.

By Dec. 31, many Florida condominium associations must complete a reserve study to budget for those future repairs as part of condo reforms lawmakers passed to prevent another Surfside tragedy.

With that looming deadline, the governor said in recent months that he wanted lawmakers to address it before the end of the year to keep constituents from being “forced out” of their condominium who are facing steep repair costs. It now appears that’s not going to happen.

DeSantis has power to call lawmakers into session but hasn’t done it for this issue and his office has not said when it plans to address condo reforms or how. Republican legislative leaders on Tuesday said the issue should wait until March, when the legislative session begins.

Sen. Nick DiCeglie, a St. Petersburg Republican who attended with some of his constituents a roundtable in Pinellas Park in September with the governor over the impending condominium fees, said he would be “very supportive” of dealing with the problem before the end of the year.

“My position hasn’t changed,” DiCeglie said. For his constituents living in condominiums, he added: “Their situations, if anything, have gotten worse, because now we’re dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes.”

Many condo owners who are facing the looming deadline have held out hope that state lawmakers would hold a special session and push back a deadline that is designed to force them to budget for major structural fixes to their buildings. Technically, under the law as written there’s no penalty if condos fail to meet the deadline but there’s considerable uncertainty over what might happen if they don’t.

Anna Berestova, a Miami Beach condo owner, is one of those residents hoping for a reprieve. She has seen her monthly condo fees increase from $700 to $1200 per month in the last four years. And now, with the mandated reserves study completed for her building, she’s having to put aside another $250 per month.

“We’re asking to get a couple of years of space so we can figure out how to deal with the huge increases,” Berestova said. “Everything increases in life. Store, food, everything increases.”

Where Florida lawmakers stand

House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Miami Republican, said “affordability” is a key priority for him this upcoming session, but said that dealing with condo reforms during a special session before the end of the year is unrealistic.

“The question shouldn’t be when. The question should be what,” Perez said. “What is the solution that people are offering to the issue before condos? It’s an issue we’ll be discussing during session.”

Senate President Ben Albritton, a Republican from Wauchula, echoed that the matter would be best addressed when lawmakers are in session in March, meaning that any legislative fix passed during that time won’t go into effect before next summer.

“We are going to dig very heavily on this,” Albritton said. “We are going to make certain that we know as much as humanly possible through the complexity of this, and how it is going to impact Floridians, especially those who live in condos.”

Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, a Democrat from Sunny Isles Beach who lives in a condominium himself, said that translating condo living to his Senate colleagues who are mostly homeowners is tough.

“I’m one of 40. I’m the only one that lives in a condo,” said Pizzo. “There’s no financial bailout coming for this.”

But there is some wiggle room on the deadline. Pizzo noted that there is nothing in state law that creates penalties for associations that don’t comply. And Sen. Jennifer Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican who worked on the condominium reforms following Surfside, said associations won’t have to budget the money until they adopt their budgets for 2025, which for many associations won’t happen until next fall.

Pizzo and Bradley will be holding a condo summit on Dec. 3 to learn more about problems facing their constituents, Bradley added.

Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, is among the state lawmakers determined to do something on the condo crisis. While there are “no definitive plans” yet, she said there are various forms of assistance for condominium owners that can be explored, including options like zero-interest loans that would help pay for special assessments and repairs.

“I believe it is better fiscally for everyone to support older senior housing, even if the state provides the money for repairs in older low-income and middle-class critical areas, enabling residents to remain in their homes instead of becoming dependent on state support,” Garcia said.

That would be the “just and equitable” approach to this issue, Garcia said. “Historically, assistance has primarily gone to banks and insurance companies rather than directly to homeowners,” she added.

‘What if a building falls?’

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez who was at the Capitol Tuesday for the organizational session said “of course” his constituents were telling him they were having problems now preparing for the impending condo fees.

“Cost of living is a major issue,” Suarez said. “Condo association bills are just one of the fees that continue to mount.”

But Suarez stopped short of calling for any condo reforms before the end of the year, pointing out that the laws were passed to prevent a deadly building collapse like the one in Surfside.

“What if a building falls?” Suarez said, calling the devastation from Surfside “horrific.”

In September, DeSantis floated the possibility of offering low-interest or zero-interest loans to condo associations and said he was open to pushing the deadline for some residents.

“The bottom line is we want residents in Florida to have a safe but affordable place to live,” DeSantis said. “We have an instance here where we are going to have to provide some relief.”

Since the collapse of Champlain Towers in 2021, condo associations have gone on to raise monthly condo fees, creating financial pressures, motivating many communities in South Florida to consider condo buyouts.

“Some may look to fight, but others might not be able to afford [to stay]. They might have to panic sell,” said Peter Zalewski, a condo analyst and founder of the downtown Miami-based consultancy firm Condo Vultures.

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Times/Herald staff writer Lawrence Mower contributed to this report.

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