New Florida Law – All Units Must Have Installed Permanent Storm Protection
The only way for us to lower our insurance rates more is if we can get all 34 buildings to code. That means that all units will need to install some form of permanent hurricane protection. If you have storm windows, accordion sliders or metal shutter panels then you are listed as protected. If your unit does not have any of these in place or if your unit needs to have plywood put up when there is a storm approaching, then you must have a system installed. The law says that the COA must alert those owners of their responsibility to install these systems. If the Owners do not install them then the law states that the COA must pay to have them installed and charge the Unit Owners for the cost.
The situation right now is that if one of the 4 units in a quad does not have protection installed – the other three units are at risk – and the entire building charged a higher insurance rate. The other units that have protection are actually at higher risk because of the unit with no protection. For example, if the unprotected unit loses its roof the other three will most likely sustain some damage as well. If all four of the units in a building have protection, then that building is already at the lowest possible insurance rate. We are currently in the process of doing an inventory of what units require systems to be installed.
If your unit does not have protection, now is the time to begin looking into having a system installed. Once we send out the notifications – any units that do not install a system will have a system installed for them by the COA and they will be billed for the work.