By Lisa J. Huriash South Florida Sun Sentinel
A Broward County panel on Wednesday warned that senior citizens in particular are struggling with mounting condo assessments — and the problem could grow as costs rise and owners cannot sell their homes.
Those who own condos are facing the prospect of more financial assessments: There’s a Jan. 1 state deadline to have buildings inspected and shape plans to fund any repairs. The new regulations were put into place following the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium, which killed 98 people in Surfside in 2021.
“Every owner is concerned about what’s going on right now,” said panelist Donna DiMaggio Berger, an attorney with Becker & Poliakoff, a firm that is well-known to represent condos.
The condominium-related concerns were raised by a panel of speakers Wednesday during the Broward Housing Council’s “2024 Affordable Housing Workshop: Condo Reform,” presented at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood.
Condos represent 40% of Florida’s housing market that will be affected by the reform, said Teneshia Taylor, a managing partner at TAJ Realty. Among Broward’s condos, occupants “in large part” are retirees, seasonal residents and first-time homebuyers, she said. Thousands of the seniors are low-income, she said.
Already “people can’t afford to buy condos” because of the assessments tacked on, and those who want to walk away because they can’t afford the assessments can’t find a seller, warned panelist Charlotte Mather-Taylor, the CEO of the Area Agency on Aging of Broward County.
Some residents hadn’t been paying attention to the association to know that sufficient assessments hadn’t been collected and were too busy “just living their lives,” she said. Those residents are blindsided when “they’re being asked to pay assessments they can’t afford.”
“For lower-income seniors, it really is impossible for them to pay these assessments,” she said. “We’re looking at people who actually are potentially looking at not eating as well, not purchasing their medications, things that they need on a daily basis to be able to survive having to say, ‘Well, can I get this money together to pay the assessment.’ “
She floated the idea of low-interest loans to help low-income seniors pay the assessments. But she said relief is needed so seniors don’t lose their homes: “This is just one added thing they can’t afford,” she said. “There are so many things expensive in Broward,” she said, including food.
Panelists said fewer residents might buy condos as hefty assessments are added, and not tacked onto the mortgage.
Broward County property numbers seem to back that up: Since 2020, condo sales in Broward were the highest in 2021, with 20,649 sales.
That went down to 17,623 in 2022; and 13,384 condos sold last year.
But so far this year, there have been just 8,768 condos, according to data provided to the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday by the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office. The office was not part of the panel.
“A lot of buyers are deciding to sit it out,” said panelist Beth Daly, a RE/Max realtor. Some buyers are not ready to purchase because they believe “the prices are going to come down. In the buildings that have deferred maintenance they are coming down hard and fast.”
In one building where homes would normally sell for the $600,000-$700,000 range, there was a $200,000 assessment and a unit just sold for $200,000, she said. Some of the blame should be assigned to condo boards who haven’t been doing proper maintenance, she said, and now unit owners have to pay the bills.
“I have sat with elderly people. … And they’ve cried and said, ‘Beth, I cannot afford my blood pressure medicine, I’m cutting my pills in half, how am I going to pay for this?’”
Experts urged the audience to advocate for policy changes to support condo owners. But legislators said there is no appetite in Tallahassee for a quick fix.
“There is no state bailout coming,” warned State Sen. Jason Pizzo to the audience Wednesday.
As condo assessments and home insurance rise, creating higher bills, there’s also concern among some mortgage lenders about the prospect of default.
“Yes, we are definitely concerned,” said panelist Michele Collie, a senior vice president at City National Bank of Florida.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash
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