BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 1604 (Perry) and HB 771 (Andrade) require the Florida Building Commission to develop uniform standards for the maintenance and periodic inspections of existing building structures and facilities across the state. (Branch)

CS/SB 1702 (Bradley) does the following:

•Creates a statewide structural inspection program for aging multifamily residential buildings

•Defines the term "milestone inspection" to mean a structural inspection of a building by a licensed architect or engineer authorized to practice in this state for the purposes of attesting to the life safety and adequacy of the structural components

•Makes known that the cost associated with the inspections are the responsibility of the condominium owner or association

•Requires multifamily residential buildings that are greater than three stories in height to have a milestone inspection performed by December 31 of the year in which the building reaches 30 years of age and every ten years thereafter 

•Requires multifamily residential buildings located within three miles of a coastline and are greater than three stories in height to have a milestone inspection performed by December 31 of the year in which the building reaches 20 years of age and every seven years thereafter

•Requires any multifamily residential building whose certificate of occupancy was issued on or before July 1, 1992, to have their initial milestone inspection performed before December 31, 2024

•Requires the architect or engineer who performed the inspection to submit a sealed copy of the report to each condominium unit owner and to the building official of the local government of jurisdiction

•Allows the local enforcement agency the ability to prescribe timelines and penalties with respect to compliance with the above section

•Requires the Florida Building Commission to develop comprehensive structural and life safety standards for maintaining and inspecting all building types and structures by December 31, 2022. (Branch)

SB 1942 (Pizzo) and HB 1393 (Geller) address inspection and reserve requirements for community associations. Of interest to municipalities, the bills:

•Require the local jurisdiction to issue a notice or required recertification inspection to the association when the condominium building is 20 years of age or older

•Requires the architect or engineer who performed the inspection to submit a sealed copy of the report to the local authority within seven days after the board receives the completed report

•Require the Condominium Board to complete any repairs or modifications within six months after receipt of the recertification report according to the Florida Building Code

•Requires the Board, under a seal signature of a licensed architect or engineer and within seven days of the completion of repairs or modifications, to provide the local authority a copy affirming that the remedial action has been completed

•Require the Board of Directors to provide a copy of the reserve study or financial statement to the local authority having jurisdiction within a specified time

•Authorize the local authority having jurisdiction to order a mandatory evacuation of the residential condominium under certain circumstances. (Branch)

SB 1780 (Pizzo) and HB 1391 (Geller) address inspection requirements for community associations. Of interest to municipalities, the bills require each association to include in their bylaws the following: for a building that is four stories or more and located within a one-half mile radius of the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, the Board must have the building inspected by a licensed architect or engineer once the building reaches 30 years of age and every five years thereafter, and provide that report to the local authority having jurisdiction. (Branch)

CS/CS/SB 758 (Diaz) and CS/HB 865 (Rizo) are comprehensive bills that create the Charter School Review Commission within the Florida Department of Education. Of interest to cities, the bills amend local government regulations dealing with zoning of charter schools. CS/CS/SB 758 removes the requirement that any facility used as a charter school obtain a special exemption from existing zoning and land use designations. CS/HB 865 was amended to provide the following: 

•Prohibit a charter school from being subject to any land regulation that would not be required for a public school in the same location.

•Expand the list of properties or facilities that may provide space to charter schools within their facilities under their preexisting zoning without needing to obtain a special exception. (Branch)

SB 1020 (Perry), SB 976 (Perry) and CS/HB 635 (Maggard) prohibit local building code administrators, inspectors and fire safety marshals from making changes to certain building plans under specified circumstances once the local building department has approved and sealed the plans. 

HB 1281 (DiCeglie) and SB 976 prohibit any governmental entity from requiring participation in a paid subscription service to access solicitations of competitive bids or proposals which must be publicly advertised. The bills require that such solicitations be available on the publicly accessible website of the applicable governmental entity after the solicitation has been advertised. (Branch)

CS/HB 423 (LaMarca) and CS/CS/SB 644 (Brodeur) do the following:

•Increase the minimum hours of training required in multifamily training programs for a fire safety inspector to qualify to take the building inspector or plans examiner certification exam.

•Allow those that have completed a four-year internship certification program with a private provider (instead of with a local government) to qualify to take the building inspector or plans examiner certification exam.

•Prohibit the Florida Building Code Administrators and Inspectors Board from requiring employment with a local government as a condition for the issuance of a provisional certificate.

•Clarify that applicants that use private providers can only be charged permit fees based on the costs actually incurred by the local government to process the permit.

•Require that local governments give private providers equal access to permitting and inspection documents. 

•Require building officials to issue occupancy or completion certificates within 10 days of a "deemed granted" certificate.

•Provide that a local government may not prohibit or restrict a property owner to obtain a building permit to demolish any single-family residential structure located in certain flood hazard areas provided that the permit otherwise complies with applicable building code requirements. (Branch)

CS/SB 512 (Burgess) and CS/HB 325 (Fischer) 

Impact on Local Governments

The bills maintain the current preemption on local governments from adopting zoning ordinances specific to short-term rentals, as well as regulating the duration of stays and the frequency in which the properties are rented. The bills expand this preemption to include local regulations on advertising platforms. For cities that adopted ordinances prior to June 1, 2011, the bills maintain the "grandfather" currently in place but clarify that those cities may amend their ordinances to be less restrictive or to comply with a local registration program. For cities that do not have "grandfathered" protections, the bills preempt cities from licensing short-term rentals; however, they authorize local governments to have a local registration program. 

Local governments who choose to adopt a local registration program may impose a fine for failure to register. The local government has 15 days after receiving an application for registration to either accept the application or issue a written notice specifying all deficiencies. Both parties may agree to extend the timeline. If a municipality does not accept or deny an application within that 15-day window, that application is deemed approved. As a condition of registration, the local registration programs may only require the owner or operator of a vacation rental to:

•Pay a fee of no more than $50 for processing the registration application.

•Renew their registration no more than once per year unless the property has a change in ownership. 

•Submit identifying information about the owner or the property manager and the short-term rental being registered.

•Obtain a license as a transient public lodging establishment by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) within 60 days of local registration.

•Obtain all required tax registration, receipts or certificates issued by the Department of Revenue, a county or a municipal government. 

•Maintain all registration information on a continuing basis so it is current.

•Comply with parking and solid waste handling requirements. These requirements cannot be imposed solely on short-term rentals.

•Designate and maintain a property designee who can respond to complaints and other immediate problems related to the property, including being available by phone.

•Pay in full all municipal or county code liens against the property being registered. 

CS/HB 325 was amended in committee to change the fee structure for ordinances adopted after 2014. CS/HB 325 now prohibits local governments from charging a fee for a local vacation rental registration. However, the amendment "grandfathers" in the fee structure for local governments with ordinances in place up until the bill takes effect. Going forward, local governments who receive "grandfathered" protections of their fee would not be permitted to increase them, only reduce or eliminate the amount. Additionally, the amendment includes a cure period for vacation rental owners who fail to register with the local government. The bill now mandates local governments waive the fine for failure to register if the owner becomes complaint within 30 days of receiving the notice. These provisions are not contained in CS/SB 512. 

CS/SB 512 was amended to account for collective licenses at the local level and caps the registration fee at $100. 

Impact on Advertising Platforms and DBPR

Advertising platforms must include in all listings the property's state license number, and if applicable, the local registration number. After July 1, 2023, the advertising platform will be required to check and verify the license number of all listings with DBPR. Additionally, by that date, DBPR will be required to maintain all short-term rental license information in an electronic format to ensure prompt compliance. Advertising platforms will be required to remove unlicensed listings within 15 days after notification by DBPR, as well as collect and remit all required taxes. 

Termination/Denial of License

DBPR may revoke, refuse to issue or renew a short-term rental license or suspend the license for up to 30 days under several circumstances:

•The property owner violates the terms of any lease or applicable condominium, coop or homeowner's association restrictions. 

•The owner fails to provide proof of local registration if one is required.

•The local registration is terminated by a local government for violating any of the registration requirements described above.

•The property and property owner are subject to a final order or judgment directing termination of the property's short-term rental status.

•DBPR may also suspend the license for up to 30 days when the short-term rental has been cited for two or more code enforcement violations during a 90-day period. CS/SB 512 was amended to specify that these violations must be brought by a code enforcement board. (Taggart)

SB 1940 (Brodeur) and PCB EAF 1 (Environment, Agriculture & Flooding Subcommittee) establish the Office of Resiliency within the Executive Office of the Governor and provide for the appointment of a Chief Resilience Officer. The bills require the Department of Transportation to develop a resilience action plan for the State Highway System. The bill makes various revisions to current law relating to statewide resiliency funding and planning, including: authorizing the use of Resilient Florida Grant Program funds for preconstruction activities for projects in municipalities and counties meeting certain population thresholds, but not for projects that adapt critical assets to flooding and sea-level rise; extending by one year the dates by which the Comprehensive Statewide Flood Vulnerability and Sea-Level Rise Data Set and the Assessment must be completed; and revising the $100 million cap on funding proposed for each year to a minimum threshold of $100 million. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 974 (Gruters) and CS/HB 985 (Beltran) revise the statutory limits on liability for tort claims against the state and its agencies and subdivisions (which include cities). The bills seek to increase the current statutory limits for claims from $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident to $1 million per person and no per-incident cap. Beginning July 1, 2023, the legislation would tie the revised limit to a consumer price index to automatically increase with inflation every year. CS/HB 985 was amended to shorten the timeframe for a government entity to make final disposition of a claim from six months to three months. CS/SB 974 was amended to change the current statutory limits for claims from $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident to $300,000 per person and $400,000 per-incident cap. The House bill will retroactively apply these new limits to any pending claims that have not been settled by the effective date of the bill (July 1, 2022); the Senate bill no longer contains this language. (Cruz)

SB 1418 (Albritton), CS/SB 7012 (Brodeur) and HB 1475 (McClure) require the Department of Environmental Protection to adopt rules for statewide cleanup target levels for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in soil and groundwater. Such rules may not take effect until ratified by the Legislature. Until the rules for a particular PFAS constituent have been ratified by the Legislature, a person may not be subject to enforcement action by any state or local government entity to compel or enjoin site rehabilitation for that PFAS constituent. In addition, SB 1418 requires the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to conduct an analysis of assessment and cleanup programs used in other states and submit a report to the Governor and Legislature by a specified date. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 518 (Brodeur) and HB 1555 (McClain) amend current law provisions that prohibit local governments from requiring permits for the removal of "dangerous" trees on residential property. The bills clarify what constitutes residential property and clarify the level of assessment and type of documentation that must be provided by an arborist or landscape architect under the law. (O'Hara)

SB 886 (Jones) and HB 515 (Robinson, F.) require a municipal water or sewer utility that serves customers in another recipient municipality using infrastructure located in the recipient municipality to charge consumers in the recipient municipality the same rates, fees and charges as it does the consumers inside its municipal boundaries. (Branch)

CS/SB 1702 (Bradley) does the following:

•Creates a statewide structural inspection program for aging multifamily residential buildings

•Defines the term "milestone inspection" to mean a structural inspection of a building by a licensed architect or engineer authorized to practice in this state for the purposes of attesting to the life safety and adequacy of the structural components

•Makes known that the cost associated with the inspections are the responsibility of the condominium owner or association

•Requires multifamily residential buildings that are greater than three stories in height to have a milestone inspection performed by December 31 of the year in which the building reaches 30 years of age and every ten years thereafter.

•Requires multifamily residential buildings located within 3 miles of a coastline and are greater than three stories in height to have a milestone inspection performed by December 31 of the year in which the building reaches 20 years of age and every seven years thereafter

•Requires any multifamily residential building whose certificate of occupancy was issued on or before July 1, 1992, to have their initial milestone inspection performed before December 31, 2024

•Requires the architect or engineer who performed the inspection to submit a sealed copy of the report to each condominium unit owner and to the building official of the local government of jurisdiction

•Allows the local enforcement agency the ability to prescribe timelines and penalties with respect to compliance with the above section

•Requires the Florida Building Commission to develop comprehensive structural and life safety standards for maintaining and inspecting all building types and structures by December 31, 2022. (Branch)

CS/CS/SB 280 (Hutson) and HB 403 (Giallombardo) impose new substantive requirements on municipalities for adopting and enforcing ordinances. First, the bills require a municipality to prepare a business impact estimate before adopting an ordinance and specifies the minimum content that must be included in the statement. The bills various ordinances from this requirement. The estimate must be posted on the municipality’s website no later than the date of publication of notice of the proposed ordinance. Second, the bills require a municipality to suspend enforcement of an ordinance that is the subject of a civil action challenging the ordinance’s validity on grounds that it is arbitrary or unreasonable or expressly preempted by state law. This requirement applies only if: the action was filed within 90 days of the ordinance’s effective date; suspension of the ordinance was requested in the complaint; and the municipality was served with a copy of the complaint. If the municipality prevails in the civil action and an appeal is taken, the bills authorize the court to consider continuing or lifting the stay of enforcement of the ordinance. Third, the bills authorize the award of attorney fees, costs and damages to a prevailing plaintiff in a civil action commenced after October 1, 2022, in which an ordinance is alleged to be arbitrary or unreasonable. The bills require courts to prioritize and expedite the disposition of cases in which enforcement of an ordinance is suspended. The bills exempt various ordinances from the stay of enforcement provision. (O’Hara)

SB 1944 (Baxley) and CS/HB 1241 (Hawkins) prohibit local governments from seeking liquidated damages, administrative fees, or other similar charges against a solid waste management or recycling entity for action or inaction during a local, state or federal emergency. SB 1944 also caps the amount of liquidated damages, administrative fees, or other similar charges that may be sought against a waste or recycling company to 50% of the amount billed to the customer for collection services at the daily rate. The bills apply to contracts executed or renewed on or after July 1, 2022. (O’Hara)

HB 621 (Fine) and SB 1162 (Broxson) prohibit specified state agencies and water management districts from disbursing state funds (including grants) for local government infrastructure, water and resiliency projects if the local government transfers its utility revenues (other than the costs of administrative and support services under a cost allocation plan) for use in providing general government functions and services. (Branch)

HB 7057 (State Administration and Technology Appropriations Subcommittee, Giallombardo) creates a public records exemption for all information related to a cybersecurity or ransomware incident held by a local government, state agency or sheriff. The bill also creates a public meeting exemption for any portion of a meeting that would reveal information related to a local government's physical or virtual data or information or information technology resources. A transcript and recording must be made of the exempt portion of the meeting, and those records are exempt from the public.(Taggart)

HB 7055 (State Administration and Technology Appropriations Subcommittee, Giallombardo) creates the Local Government Cybersecurity Act. The bill requires all local government employees with access to the government's network to complete a basic cybersecurity training within 30 days after they begin employment and annually thereafter. All local government technology employees and employees with access to highly sensitive information will be required to complete more advanced cybersecurity training. The Florida Digital Service will develop and provide these trainings. The bill also requires local governments to adopt cybersecurity standards that safeguard their data, information technology, and information technology resources to ensure availability, confidentiality, and integrity. The standards must be consistent with generally accepted best practices for cybersecurity, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Technology Cybersecurity Framework. Municipalities with a population over 25,000 must comply by January 1, 2024. Municipalities with a population under 25,000 must comply by January 1, 2025. The bill also requires local governments to report cybersecurity incidents and ransomware incidents to the State Watch Office as soon as possible but no later than 48 hours after discovery for a cybersecurity incident and 12 hours after discovery for a ransomware incident. The bill also prohibits state agencies, counties, and municipalities from paying or otherwise complying with a ransom demand. The recommended committee budget includes over $60 million of nonrecurring state funding to assist local governments in complying with the provisions of the bill. (Taggart)

SB 1670 (Hutson) requires each local government by January 1, 2024, to adopt cybersecurity standards for all information technology (IT) and operational technology, that comply with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework that is appropriate for the size of the organization. At a minimum, these standards must include routine backups of critical information and multifactor authentication. The bill also requires local governments to: 

•Conduct vulnerability testing of its IT and operational technology at least every two years

•Require all employees with access to a local government network to receive training when they begin employment and at intervals that will be specified by the Florida Digital Service

•Require all local government IT professionals and persons with access to highly sensitive information to undergo intensive cybersecurity training

•Report all attacks on a computer or network, including ransomware attacks and data breaches, to the State Watch Office within the Division of Emergency Management. "Attacks" is not defined in the bill. 

The bill directs the Florida Digital Service and the Florida Cybersecurity Advisory Council to develop the training requirements and conduct the trainings virtually at certain times of the year. Local governments will be required to report all ransomware incidents to the State Watch Office, Florida Digital Service, the Executive Office of the Governor, the Department of Law Enforcement and the local law enforcement agency within 12 hours of discovery. The bill requires local governments to communicate with the Florida Digital Service and the local law enforcement agencies prior to paying a ransom if a ransomware incident occurs. The bill also requires the Florida Digital Service to create a checklist for local governments to utilize while responding to ransomware incidents. Finally, the bill allocates $1 million in recurring funding to Florida Digital Service to disburse funds to local governments for the training required under the bill. (Taggart)