Photo: Walter Bibikow / DigitalVision / Getty Images
(Tallahassee, Fla) - The Senate Regulated Industries Committee will hold a panel discussion about the state's response to complaints from condo owners Tuesday.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) handles most complaints except for those regarding new safety reserve laws.
And the DPBR is prevented by law from handling complaint cases about the new laws on the books since the Surfside condo collapse. Those must go to pre-suit mediation.
There are over 1.5 million condominium units in Florida with over a third or 37% in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Broward board certified community association attorney Eric Glazer says each condo owner pays four dollars a year to fund the DBPR, that equals $15 million annually.
He says, unfortunately, the DBPR only gets half that money, the rest is swept into the general operating fund. According to Glazer, even though the number of condos has doubled over the past ten years, the DBPR's staff has stayed relatively the same.
As a result, Glazer says in general condo owners in Florida are not happy with the state's handling of complaints.