Thereza Teixeira thought she was done worrying about the rising cost of her waterfront condominium in Florida. Since 2023, her building’s association has been charging $338 a month for structural repairs required under new state laws.
The fees strained her budget, but she coped by picking up extra work and scaled back contributions to her retirement savings, adjusting to her new reality.
Then this spring, the board came back again: It needed more funds.
“It’s like a game of Whac-a-Mole,” Ms. Teixeira said in a recent interview. “We were under the impression that this was it — that you’re not going to ask for more money, and now you are.”
Ms. Teixeira’s experience isn’t unique among condo owners in Florida.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the deadly collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Fla. Safety inspections are now mandatory; condo owners must fund structural repairs and save for future restorations. The aim of the reforms, which were enacted in 2022, was to end bad practices within condo boards, the group of unit owners elected to manage a building.
After the reforms passed, The New York Times visited condo owners to see how they were managing the additional expenses associated with the new safety guidelines. At that point, they were on a precipice. Two years later, we revisited some of them. Have they managed to run the financial gauntlet, or sunk deeper into insecurity?
