The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Regulated Industries
BILL: CS/SB 1706
INTRODUCER: Regulated Industries Committee and Senator Yarborough
SUBJECT: Condominiums Within a Portion of a Building or Within a Multiple Parcel Building
DATE: February 5, 2024 REVISED:
ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE ACTION
1. Oxamendi Imhof RI Fav/CS
2. RC
Please see Section IX. for Additional Information:
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE - Substantial Changes
I. Summary:
CS/SB 1706 creates s. 718.407, F.S., to provide conditions, including disclosure requirements in
sales contracts, for the creation of condominiums within a portion of a building or within a
multiple parcel building. Under the bill, when a condominium is created within a portion of a
building or within a multiple parcel building, the document that creates the condominium must
include the information specified by the bill, including:
 The portions of the building which are included in the condominium and the portions of the
building that are excluded;
 The party responsible for maintaining and operating those portions of the building which are
shared facilities, including, but not limited to, the roof, the exterior of the building, windows,
balconies, elevators, the building lobby, corridors, recreational amenities, and utilities;
 How the expenses for the maintenance and operation of the shared facilities will be
apportioned;
 The party responsible for collecting shared expenses from all owners; and
 The rights and remedies that are available to enforce payment from the other owners.
The bill provides that the association of a condominium subject to s. 718.407, F.S., has the right
to inspect and copy the books and records upon which the costs for maintaining and operating
the shared facilities are based and to receive an annual budget with respect to such costs.
The bill provides a disclosure clause that must be included, in conspicuous type, in every
contract for the sale of any condominium created under s. 418.407, F.S. The disclosure clause
BILL: CS/SB 1706 Page 2
informs the prospective purchaser of a condominium unit of specified information, including that
the condominium is created within a portion of a building, and that portions of the building that
are not included in the condominium are governed by a separate recorded instrument that
contains important provisions and rights.
The seller of a unit in a condominium created under s. 718.407, F.S., must also include an
additional disclosure summary, in conspicuous type, in every contract for the sale of the unit,
which must be signed by the purchaser. The disclosure summary informs the prospective
purchaser of a condominium unit of specified information, including that the condominium is
created within a portion of a building or within a multiple parcel building, and that the
association and unit owners may have limited or no control over the maintenance, operation, and
costs of the portions of the building that are not submitted to the condominium form of
ownership, and that a copy of instrument creating the condominium is or will be recorded in the
public record.
The bill revises the definition for the term “condominium property” in s. 718.103(14), F.S., to
mean “the lands, leaseholds, improvements, any personal property, and all easements and rights
appurtenant thereto, regardless of whether contiguous, which are subjected to condominium
ownership.”
The bill also provides that the amendments made to s. 718.103, F.S., which revise the definition
for the term “condominium property,” and s. 718.202(3), F.S., relating to the use of escrow funds
by the developer, and the creation of ss. 718.407(1), (2), and (7), F.S., relating to the creation of
a condominium within a portion of a building or within a multiple parcel building, are intended
to clarify existing law and to apply retroactively. The bill also provides the provisions in the bill
do not revive or reinstate any right or interest that has been fully and finally adjudicated as
invalid before July 1, 2024.
The bill also:
 Revises the escrow requirements for nonresidential condominiums to allow the developer the
option of delivering to the escrow agent a surety bond or an irrevocable letter of credit with
specified conditions.
 Revises the required nondeveloper pre-sale disclosures to include the annual financial
statement and annual budget of the condominium association (instead of the financial
information required by s. 718.111, F.S.,) among the list of documents that must be provided
to the prospective purchaser of a unit.
 Requires the prospectus or offering circular for a condominium to state whether the
condominium is created within a portion of a building or a multiple parcel building.
The bill takes effect July 1, 2024.
BILL: CS/SB 1706 Page 3
II. Present Situation:
Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes
The Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes (division) within the
Department of Business and Professional Regulation administers the provisions of chs. 718, F.S.,
for condominium associations.
Section 718.501, F.S., provides the investigative and enforcement authority of the division. The
division may enforce and ensure compliance with ch. 718, F.S., and rules relating to the
development, construction, sale, lease, ownership, operation, and management of residential
condominium units and complaints related to the procedural completion of milestone inspections
under s. 553.899, F.S. The division may investigate complaints and enforce compliance with
ch. 718, F.S., for associations that are still under developer control, including investigating
complaints against developers involving improper turnover or failure to transfer control to the
association.1 After control of the condominium is transferred from the developer to the unit
owners, the division only has jurisdiction to investigate complaints related to financial issues,
elections, and maintenance of and unit owner access to association records.2
Condominiums
A condominium is a “form of ownership of real property created under ch. 718, F.S,”3 the
“Condominium Act.” Condominium unit owners are in a unique legal position because they are
exclusive owners of property within a community, joint owners of community common
elements, and members of the condominium association.4 For unit owners, membership in the
association is an unalienable right and required condition of unit ownership.5 Condominiums are
created by recording a declaration in the public records of the county where the land is located,
executed and acknowledged with the requirements for a deed.6
The term “condominium” is defined in the Condominium Act to mean:7
…that form of ownership of real property created pursuant to this chapter,
which is comprised entirely of units that may be owned by one or more
persons, and in which there is, appurtenant to each unit, an undivided
share in common elements.
The term “condominium property” is defined in the Condominium Act to mean:8
…the lands, leaseholds, and personal property that are subjected to
condominium ownership, whether or not contiguous, and all
improvements thereon and all easements and rights appurtenant thereto
intended for use in connection with the condominium.
1
Id.
2
Section 718.501(1), F.S.
3
Section 718.103(11), F.S.
4
See s. 718.103, F.S., for the terms used in the Condominium Act.
5
Id.
6
Section 718.104(2), F.S.
7
Section 718.103(12), F.S.
8
Section 718.103(14), F.S.
BILL: CS/SB 1706 Page 4
The “common elements” of a condominium include:9
 The condominium property which is not included within the units.
 Easements through units for conduits, ducts, plumbing, wiring, and other facilities for the
furnishing of utility services to units and the common elements.
 An easement of support in every portion of a unit which contributes to the support of a
building.
 The property and installations required for the furnishing of utilities and other services to
more than one unit or to the common elements.
Other parts of the condominium may be declared common elements in the declaration of
condominium.10
A condominium association is administered by a board of directors referred to as a “board of
administration.”11 The board of administration is comprised of individual unit owners elected by
the members of a community to manage community affairs and represent the interests of the
association. Association board members must enforce a community's governing documents and
are responsible for maintaining a condominium's common elements which are owned in
undivided shares by unit owners.12
There are several types of condominiums:
 Phase condominiums in which the developer may develop the condominium in phases with
all phases completed within a seven-year period.13
 Mixed-use condominiums in which the condominium contains both commercial and
residential units.14
 Multi-condominiums in which the real property contains two or more condominiums, all of
which are operated by the same association.15
 Condominiums created with a condominium parcels, i.e., a condominium is created with a
condominium unit with an undivided share in the appurtenant common elements.16
Recent Case Law - Mixed-Use Condominiums
In a recent decision by the Florida Third District Court of Appeals (3rd DCA), the court held in
that the declaration of condominium had impermissibly divested a unit of its undivided share of
the common elements by designating certain portions of the condominium property as “shared
facilities.”17
9
Section 718.108(1), F.S.
10
Section 718.108(2), F.S. Section 718.103(16), F.S., defines the terms “declaration” or “declaration of condominium” to
mean the instrument or instruments by which a condominium is created, as they are from time to time amended.
11
Section 718.103(4), F.S.
12
Section 718.103(2), F.S.
13
Section 718.403, F.S.
14
See ss. 718.103(24) and 718.404, F.S.
15
See ss. 718.103(21) and 718.405, F.S.
16
Section 718.103(13), F.S., defines a “condominium parcel” to mean a unit, together with the undivided share in the
common elements appurtenant to the unit.
17
IconBrickell Condominium No. three Association, Inc. v. New Media Consulting, L.L.C., 310 So.3rd 477 (Fla. 3rd DCA
2020).
BILL: CS/SB 1706 Page 5
In IconBrickell, the condominium is a mixed-use condominium consisting of residential
condominium units and a luxury hotel. The declaration of condominium designated a wide
variety of specific portions of the common elements as “shared facilities” under the exclusive
ownership and control of the hotel unit owner. The “shared facilities” include the balconies,
lobby, elevators, and the infrastructure for utilities, such as wires and pipes. The term “shared
facilities” is not defined in ch. 718, F.S.
Even though the residential unit owners did not have a common ownership interest in the “shared
facilities,” the declaration burdened the residential unit owners, and not the owner of the hotel,
with expenses incurred by the owner of the hotel for the maintenance, repair, replacement,
improvement, management, and operation of the shared facilities.
The court held that the “recharacterization, and the resultant expropriation of undivided common
ownership, indubitably contravenes the edict of the [Condominium] Act.”18
III. Effect of Proposed Changes:
Section 1 of the bill revises the definition for the term “condominium property” in
s. 718.103(14), F.S., to mean:
the lands, leaseholds, improvements, any personal property, and all
easements and rights appurtenant thereto, regardless of whether
contiguous, which are subjected to condominium ownership.
Section 2 of the bill revises s. 718.202(1), F.S., relating to the escrow requirements in contracts
for the sale of a condominium parcel and the construction, furnishing and landscaping of the
property, to allow developers of nonresidential condominiums the option of delivering to the
escrow agent a surety bond or an irrevocable letter of credit with specified conditions. The surety
bond or irrevocable letter of credit must be in an amount equivalent to the aggregate of some or
all of all payments up to 10 percent of the sale price received by the developer from all buyers
towards the sale price, in all cases the aggregate of initial 10 percent deposits monies being
released secured by a surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit in an equivalent amount.
The bill also revises s. 718.202(3), F.S., which allows a developer to use escrow funds in excess
of 10 percent of the purchase price to pay for actual costs incurred by the developer in the
construction and development of the condominium property, to allow the developer to use such
escrow funds for the construction and development of easements and the rights appurtenant
thereto.
Section 3 of the bill creates s. 718.407. F.S., to provide conditions, including disclosure
requirements in sales contracts, for the creation of condominiums within a portion of a building
or within a multiple parcel building.
18
IconBrickell at 481.
BILL: CS/SB 1706 Page 6
Section 718.407(1), F.S., provides that a condominium may be created within a portion of a
building or within a multiple parcel building, as defined in s. 193.0237(1), F.S.19
The bill provides that a condominium may be created within a portion of a building or within a
multiple parcel building notwithstanding the definition for “condominium” in
s. 718.103(12), F.S., or the provision of s. 718.108(1), F.S., relating to common elements.
Section 718.407(2), F.S., provides that the common elements of a condominium created within a
portion of a building or a multiple parcel building are only the portions of the building submitted
to the condominium form of ownership, excluding the units of such condominium.
Section 718.407(3), F.S., provides that the declaration of condominium that creates a
condominium within a portion of a building or within a multiple parcel building, the recorded
instrument that creates the multiple parcel building, or any other recorded instrument applicable
(creating document) under s. 718.407, F.S., must specify all of the following:
 The portions of the building which are included in the condominium and the portions of the
building that are excluded.
 The party responsible for maintaining and operating those portions of the building which are
shared facilities, and which may include, among other things, the roof, the exterior of the
building, windows, balconies, elevators, the building lobby, corridors, recreational amenities,
and utilities.
 The manner in which the expenses for the maintenance and operation of the shared facilities
will be apportioned.
o An owner of a portion of the building, which is not submitted to condominium form of
ownership, or the condominium association, as applicable, submitted to condominium
form of ownership, must approve any increase in the apportionment of expenses to such
portion of the building.
o The apportionment of expenses for the maintenance and operation of the shared facilities
may be based on any of the specified criteria or any combination thereof.
o An alternative method of apportionment of expenses may be provided that the
apportionment is stated in the creating document.
 The party responsible for collecting shared expenses.
 The rights and remedies that are available to enforce payment of shared expenses.
The specified criteria for the apportionment of expenses for the maintenance and operation of the