New Year, New Condo Rules

ORLANDO, Fla. — A new year, another condominium law. We ring in this new year with a 2023 condominium law that created a future deadline for sales contracts entered into after December 31, 2024, to include new statutory language. Here’s what you need to know.

The law

Starting on January 1, 2025, contracts for the sale of a condominium require statements to be included in conspicuous type regarding the milestone inspection (Milestone), turnover inspection report (Turnover), and structural integrity reserve study (SIRS). There are three scenarios that require a statement:

1. If the Association is required to complete the Milestone, Turnover, and SIRS on or after July 1, 2023, and the Association has not completed them;
2. If the Association is not required to complete the Milestone, Turnover, and SIRS; or
3. If the Association is required to complete the Milestone, Turnover and SIRS on or after July 1, 2023, and the Association has completed them.

The law also states that a contract for the sale and purchase of a condo that does not meet these new requirements is voidable at the option of the buyer prior to closing. Thus, it is important for a seller to provide accurate answers to the buyer about these three documents as it pertains to these scenarios, so the buyer does not exercise their potential right to terminate the contract.

Updated forms

To ensure that the parties are complying with the law, both the Florida Realtors®/Florida Bar (FR/BAR) A. Condominium Rider (CR-7_A) (“Condo Rider”) and the Contract for Residential Sale and Purchase (CRSP) Condominium Addendum F (CRSP16xxxx_F) (“Condo Addendum”) have been updated with the new required language. These forms can be found on Form Simplicity.

The updated Condo Rider and Condo Addendum present the seller with a series of checkboxes to fill out for each of the Milestone, Turnover and SIRS documents. The seller will need to check the appropriate boxes that correspond to one of the three scenarios listed above. The seller will need to contact their Condo Association regarding the status of these documents to be able to appropriately fill out this new section of the form. If a seller is unsure how to complete this new section or the form, then the seller will need to seek legal advice.  

For more information: DBPR Condo Info and Resources: https://condos.myfloridalicense.com/

Heather Rhodes is Associate General Counsel

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