The Kalmia Condominiums in Clearwater were not Ronni Drimmer’s dream retirement destination.
She bought a two-bedroom apartment there for her mother in 2001, but eventually moved in when her mother died 18 months later.
“It’s not a fancy place,” Drimmer, 72, said. “There is a swimming pool. There is a clubhouse that looks like it is in the year 1950. It is.”
Maintenance costs were cheap and the buildings were kept in good condition. That was enough to satisfy Drimmer and the nearly 300 other residents of her 55-and-older community, many of them snowbirds and retirees living on Social Security.
For decades, seniors looking for a slice of the Sunshine State on a budget have flocked to apartments like this. But skyrocketing insurance rates and regulations passed after the deadly 2021 Surfside building collapse that determine how much condo associations must save and spend on repairs have sent costs soaring and upended the real estate market.
Although inspectors found no structural problems in Drimmer’s building, monthly maintenance costs for its 70 owners could increase by more than a third next year. That’s in addition to an estimated 21% increase for insurance and a $500,000 special assessment to replace the roof.
For condo towers that require significant repairs, the price will be much higher.
Those who cannot afford to pay may be forced to sell – if they can find a buyer.
According to statewide data from Florida Realtors, condos and townhomes are up 65% year over year and sales are down 20%. The average sales price has fallen by more than 3%.
The outlook is bleaker in places like Tampa Bay and Miami, where there is a higher concentration of older apartments.
“A lot of these buildings are already dead-ends,” said Joe Hernandez, an attorney at the Miami law firm Bilzin Sumberg, who specializes in condominium terminations. “There are going to be a lot of people who are going to have to pay much higher costs and sometimes to the point where they can’t afford to stay in Florida.”
After the Champlain Towers South apartment collapsed in Surfside three years ago, killing 98 people, the Florida Legislature unanimously passed strict building safety guidelines in hopes of preventing another tragedy.
At the time, the legislation was hailed as a bold but necessary step to bring aging apartments up to standards, especially those at Champlain Towers, where the board had consistently underfunded reserves and postponed major repairs to keep costs down.
As the year-end deadline approaches, condo owners and lawmakers alike are speaking out about the devastating financial toll these regulations could have, even on buildings considered safe.
Seniors will lose the most, said 78-year-old Connie Wheitlauf, another resident of the Kalmia Condominiums. “When you get old and you’re alone and you’re on a fixed income and you really can’t afford a place to live, it’s just scary,” she said.
Before the Surfside-inspired reforms, only two provinces required regular inspections of apartments. Condo boards had almost complete control over how much they saved and what repairs they made.
Now all apartment buildings 30 years and older and three stories and above must be inspected every ten years to determine if they are structurally sound. A mandatory reserve study will determine how much condo boards must save each year to cover routine maintenance.
Hernandez said there will be a “rude awakening” and many older apartments will not survive. Developers are already looking for opportunities to purchase and rebuild these properties.
Still, he said, the changes are intended to make apartments safer and more financially stable.
“This has always been the norm in the commercial construction industry,” Hernandez said. “Now is the time to bring condominium buildings to the same level. … They need to be run professionally.”
For Drimmer, chair of her building’s condo board, some of the requirements feel like “overkill.”
Her board has been responsible, she said, saving money every year for things like the roof and elevators. The engineer who inspected her building found no signs of hazardous conditions.
Yet they will be forced to set aside money for everything from electricity to plumbing, leading to much higher maintenance costs. Drimmer’s monthly bill will increase from $475 to $675, but the exact cost will vary per unit.
“It should be more focused on the people who are actually the bad actors and haven’t put any money away,” Drimmer said. “We are not stupid. We have managed to figure things out all these years.”
The bill comes at a time when Florida’s insurance market is facing unprecedented challenges. Insurance premiums for condo associations across the state have increased by more than 70% on average since 2022, according to data from NSI Insurance Group, Florida’s largest private insurance company.
Rates will continue to rise, especially after this year’s devastating storm season, says Oscar Seikaly, CEO of NSI Insurance Group. Older apartments will be most affected.
“If you have no money in the bank and are struggling to collect money from owners who are retired and on fixed incomes, then you know there is a problem,” he said. “Insurers pay close attention to this.”
Drimmer’s building is covered by Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s insurer of last resort. This year, Citizens told the board it would end coverage unless the building got a new roof. Drimmer claims the roof recently underwent approximately $60,000 worth of restoration work and is still under warranty for five years.
Drimmer said she is disappointed by the lack of urgency from the same lawmakers who rushed to regulate apartments without considering the unintended consequences.
When she was invited to speak at an apartment roundtable hosted by Gov. Ron DeSantis in September, she encouraged him to call a special session to address the coming crisis.
DeSantis told her the Legislature would come up with a solution for condo owners but had not committed to a specific timeline.
Over the summer, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo of Naples rejected calls for a special session.
Nick DiCiglie, the state senator for District 18, where Drimmer lives, said there will be plenty of time to resolve matters once lawmakers return to Tallahassee in December ahead of the regular session.
But for some condo owners, the damage has already been done.
In the Tampa metro area, monthly costs for condo owners have increased more than 17% year over year, according to a July report from real estate company Redfin. Reimbursements rose by more than 16% in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale and by almost 13% in West Palm Beach.
In South Florida, investors are buying out entire condo communities, the Miami Herald found. Hernandez said he expects this trend to accelerate as owners become more desperate for a way out.
“Eventually people will realize that it’s not worth staying in a building that costs more and more to maintain while its value continues to decline,” he said.
After months of waiting to see how everything would turn out, Wheitlauf has decided she can’t afford to stay in the one-bedroom apartment she bought three years ago.
She’s not sure where she’ll go. None of the apartments or other apartments she looked at in the area fit her budget. She may move to Idaho to live with her son
“I feel very comfortable here,” she said. “I thought this would be it for me. Now I just hope I break even when I sell.”
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