Florida Legislative Recap

The 2023 legislative session of the Florida Legislature has ended. This has been one of, if not the, most successful legislative session in quite some time for the multi-family industry.

Here is a brief overview of the legislation the Florida Apartment Association identified as a priority and how they fared during the legislative session:

• Senate Bill 102/ House Bill 627 – Property Tax Discounts & Apartment Scarcity (Live Local Act)
  • Provides a record-breaking $811 million for affordable and workforce housing and includes a variety of other tools for local governments to leverage to address the need for more housing supply, such as:
    • Prevents local governments from requiring affordable housing developments to obtain a zoning/land use change for use, density, and height.
    • Preemption of rent control.
    • This bill was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis and will go into effect on July 1st, 2023.
• Senate Bill 236/House Bill 837 – Insurance and Premises Liability
  • Establishes a safe harbor in negligent security cases that involve a criminal act by a third party at multifamily properties that comply with certain security standards.
  • Specifies that in premises liability cases that involve a criminal act committed by a third party, when assessing damages, the jury must consider the faults of all persons who contributed to the injury.
  • Status – Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation on March 24^th
• Senate Bill 1614/House Bill 1575 – Fire Radio System Communication Requirements
  • Require inspections of this equipment to occur not more than once every 3 years for high-rise buildings.
  • Prevent local jurisdictions from withholding certificates of occupancy and provide buildings with 180 days to cure any signal strength issues after a temporary certificate of occupancy has been issued.
  • Nullifies existing and prevent future ordinances that seek to enforce more stringent requirements.
  • Status – Passed unanimously out of both the House and the Senate and now awaits a signature from the Governor.
• Senate Bill 1586/ House Bill 1417 – Residential Tenancies (Florida Landlord Tenant Act Protections)
  • Amends Chapter 83, Florida’s Landlord Tenant Act, to preempt the regulation of the landlord/tenant relationship to the state to ensure a consistent framework of landlord/tenant law across Florida.
  • This includes but is not limited to the resident screening process, security deposits, and lease agreements.
  • Special note – this specifically nullifies the recently passed Orange County Tenant Bill of Rights.
  • Status – This legislation is on the Governor’s desk and is awaiting final approval.

Other relevant and notable legislation that was passed during the Session include:

1. SB 494 – Fees in Lieu of Security Deposits - Signed by the Governor on June 2nd. 
2. SB 170 – Local Ordinances
3. SB 678 – Disposal of Property

As you can see, the FAA team along with our lobbyists, Ron Book, and Kelly Mallette, surely had their work cut out for them but because of the great support via APAC and your physical presence during our “IMPACT” days on the Hill, we were able to have a very historic legislative session.

However, the work does not end here! We must keep the pressure up and to do that, we still need your support. Please consider making a donation to APAC so that we can continue to support our allies not only in Tallahassee, but here at home as well.