A reckoning is coming for Florida's condo owners as buildings face millions in repairs

After five decades working as a teacher and school administrator, Janet Stone envisioned a relaxing retirement in her condo overlooking Florida’s Atlantic coast.

Instead, she’s gone back to work teaching preschoolers with disabilities and living with her son in Las Vegas to pay off a $100,000 bill from her condo association — her portion of a multimillion-dollar project to replace the 53-year-old building’s deteriorating concrete.

“I shouldn’t say it, but it really sucks to work every day and not have a cent and have to wonder, ‘Can I afford groceries this week?’” said Stone, who purchased her condo in Ormond Beach, Florida, for $400,000 in 2021. “Every penny I make goes towards that concrete restoration.”

Across Florida, aging condo buildings are facing rising expenses and millions of dollars in structural repairs to comply with new regulations following the collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium, which killed 98 people in 2021. While new building requirements are intended to prevent a similar tragedy, the costs are pushing some condo owners to the brink financially and jeopardizing one of the last bastions of relatively affordable housing along Florida’s coastline.

“We’ve got to get these buildings back in shape, but for those that are renters and for those that are owners on fixed incomes it means they may have to find other housing,” said Florida House Rep. Vicki Lopez, who helped craft the legislation and whose Miami district includes more than 600 condo associations. “We already have an affordable housing crisis in Florida, so this perfect storm has arrived at a very difficult time.”

In Florida, like across the country, the soaring cost of housing has become a major pressure point on household finances. Home prices in Florida have increased 67% since 2020 and homeowners insurance was up 42% last year. In the vast majority of Florida counties, the median-income household can’t afford the median-priced home, according to NBC News’ Homebuyers Index.

Older condominium buildings have provided an alternative for those who have been unable to afford a single-family home or are looking for a lower-maintenance alternative. The buildings are often home to retirees — some of whom have lived there for decades — along with single-income households and renters.

But now, affording to live in even those buildings is becoming out of reach for some. Under legislation passed by the Florida state Legislature following the Champlain Towers collapse, condo buildings over three stories and older than 30 years must pass a structural inspection by the end of the year. That requirement applies to roughly 900,000 condo units across the state. It also requires condo associations to keep a minimum amount in their reserves to fund future repairs, requiring many buildings to increase their monthly association dues.

In Miami, residents at the Palm Bay Yacht Club, where two-bedroom units have sold this year for between $400,000 and $500,000, are having to pay $140,000 each toward a special assessment for a range of building improvements. Owners at the Surfside condos in Daytona Beach, where a two-bedroom unit is currently listed for $415,000, have paid between $50,000 and $60,000 in assessments to have their building’s concrete repaired and windows replaced. In Orlando, owners at the Regency Gardens, where two-bedroom units are listed for around $160,000, were told they would have to pay $22,000 each for building upgrades, but residents have recently removed the board and are working to lower the price tag.

In the worst cases, residents are being told they have to evacuate their buildings because of structural deficiencies found during inspections, said Greg Batista, a professional engineer who has worked in Florida for more than 20 years.

He said he’s currently working on a building in Miami Beach that residents may have to vacate because of safety concerns, and he recently worked on a 20-story condo building in Hollywood, Florida, where the three-story parking garage had to be vacated until the structure can be repaired.

Stone purchased her condo at the Surfside Club in Ormond Beach to be closer to her daughter and grandchild. As a widow, she hoped living in a condo would provide a greater sense of community, less maintenance, and an added layer of security compared to a single-family home.

Within a year, she was notified that she owed a $100,000 special assessment to the condo association for concrete restoration, new windows and an increase in the association’s reserves. Stone said she had used most of her retirement savings for the down payment on the condo and didn’t have the money for the assessment. Condo owners unable to pay an assessment can be foreclosed on by their condo association.

She considered selling, but the assessment was driving down property values in the building. A unit similar to the one Stone paid $400,000 for in 2021 is currently listed for $335,000 after multiple price reductions.

Her only option, she said, was to go back to work. She reapplied to the school in Las Vegas where she had been working before she retired and is now teaching 3- to 5-year-olds with autism, she said.

“I am exhausted every single day,” Stone said. “I come home and promptly fall asleep and get up and do it the next day.”

She said her entire paycheck is going toward the condo assessment, which she estimates will be paid off after two years of working full time. After that, she plans to move back into her Florida condo, but in the meantime, she’s been living with her adult son.

“This was supposed to be the time when I was really going to retire and be close to my daughter and my granddaughter and enjoy life,” said Stone. “That didn’t happen.”

The rising costs of owning a condo have been driving up the number of units on the market and pushing down prices, said realtors. Statewide, the number of condos on the market has increased 23% over the past six months while prices are down 4.5%, according to an NBC News analysis of data from Redfin. In Volusia County, where Stone’s building is located, condo inventory is up 28% over the past six months and sale prices are down 9%.

“All the realtors are talking about how long their listings have been sitting, how things aren’t moving, and that there’s not enough buyers,” said Krista Goodrich, a realtor in the Daytona Beach area who also manages vacation rentals. “Condos are being hit the worst because the people that are buying, they’ve seen what happens when the hurricanes come, they’ve seen what happens when the condos aren’t built properly, and so they’re hesitant to buy a condo on the beach.”

While some buildings will need little or no work, Florida building engineers, real estate lawyers and realtors say many are now having to pay the price for years of lax maintenance, subpar building standards before the 1990s, and the effects of Florida’s saltwater on the concrete and rebar that holds the structures together.

“When you put the maintenance on a second tier and you don’t do simple but very important things, such as painting the building, that has a very bad effect on the long-term longevity of a building,” said Batista. “But a lot of people, they’d rather put nice carpet in the lobby as opposed to taking care of real issues.”

For developers, the cost pressure on condo owners is providing an opportunity because many older properties dominate prime oceanfront real estate. In some cases, the value of the land may exceed the value of the building once the cost of bringing it up to code is factored in. If enough owners are unable or unwilling to pay for the necessary repairs, developers can attempt to buy up the building and redevelop the property.

“These properties are in very desirable locations. If you build a new project on them, in many cases luxury condos, it could fetch $3,000 to $5,000 a square foot,” said Joseph Hernandez. “That is a tremendous development opportunity.”

Developer Edgardo Defortuna, whose firm Fortune International Group has developed some of South Florida’s most high-profile luxury buildings, said his firm is eyeing several older condo buildings in prime waterfront locations in Miami Beach and downtown Miami that could be torn down and replaced with luxury high-rises. But he said it can be difficult to convince enough owners to sell even at above-market prices.

“I think that many people have yet to really face the music or understand that it is better to sell than to stay around and fund those really large improvements and reserves that you need to in order to comply with the law,” Defortuna said.

Jeremy Maurice, who was the condo board president at Stone’s building when the repairs were approved, said he felt the board had little choice but to fund the repairs and blamed the cost on a lack of proper maintenance to the building’s concrete over the decades.

“If you don’t do anything, this building will become worthless and you’re going to have to sell to a developer and it’ll be knocked down,” said Maurice, who said he had to use some of his retirement savings to pay for the work. “So there’s no choice, really. You have to do the work. And that’s a hard pill to swallow. I don’t think anyone is jumping for joy. But that’s what happens when prior boards don’t do their job.”

But the decision ended up pitting the building’s owners against each other, with some owners saying the work was unnecessary.

“It was extremely toxic. That is an understatement,” Maurice said. “I don’t talk to some people there today. I’ll be polite, but I won’t talk with them anymore because they treated me so badly. They cussed at me at meetings, sent anonymous emails, just nasty, nasty stuff.”

At the Palm Bay Yacht Club, condo owners were told they would need to pay for a $33 million construction project, prompting a group of residents to sue the condo board, the building management company and the firms hired to complete the work. The lawsuit alleges the owners are being overcharged for the project, citing exaggerated measurements and items outside the scope of structural repairs such as cosmetic and amenity improvements. It also claims the condo association has previously mishandled funds.

Steve Davis, a lawyer representing the defendants, denied the allegations and said the work was legally required under the 40-year recertification needed for buildings in Miami-Dade County and that owners were only charged for the necessary work that was done. He said the Palm Bay board did everything possible to help the unit owners.

Among those suing is Cristian Murray, who bought his condo in 2016 and had recently retired after working as a health care administrator at the University of Miami for 20 years. Now, he’s planning to go back to work to pay off the $140,000 special assessment.

To make the payment, he took out a 20-year loan on which he’s paying $1,000 a month on top of the $3,000 a month he owes toward his mortgage and other condo association fees.

“Pardon my language, but we’re screwed,” Murray said. “These guys ruined my early retirement plan.”

Lopez, who helped craft the legislation, said she is looking for ways to provide relief to condo owners once Florida’s Legislature reconvenes next year. She said she’s collecting data to understand the full impact of the legislation to determine what adjustments may be needed.

Stone would like to see the state Legislature give buildings and condo owners more time to comply with the regulations so they would be able to spread out the costs. While she thinks the requirements will be a good thing in the long run, she doesn’t foresee being able to recover the money she’s had to spend on her condo.

“I’m going to be there until I die because I’m not going to recoup that money before I die,” she said. “If I could ever recoup my money, I would probably look at selling and getting a single-family home again. But I don’t see that happening, not in my lifetime.”