Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday asked for input to provide relief for condo unit owners facing crippling financial assessments ahead of a state-imposed Jan. 1 deadline to have buildings inspected and come up with plans to fund needed repairs.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion in Miami Lakes, the governor said opportunities will exist before the end of the year for the Florida Legislature to pass “reforms and relief.”

That would likely require a special legislative session — an idea that Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, rejected when asked about it in August.

But on Monday, DeSantis said state lawmakers don’t have until March or April to act. He urged them to speak with their constituents. “We need to be developing ideas now so these things can be implemented in time to prevent people from being forced out of their homes,” he said.

In 2021, following the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, DeSantis and the Legislature enacted a law requiring condo associations to complete safety inspections and make preventative repairs. The inspection deadline looms at the end of the year and associations have levied fee assessments to cover the costs of the inspections and repairs.

“These condo associations should have been keeping reserves on hand,” he said. “But many failed to do so or acted without the fiscal prudence they should have to make sure the associations have the resources on hand to make the necessary repairs.”

As a result, he said, cost burdens have been passed on to unit owners, and a lot of them aren’t in a financial position to pay large assessments on short deadlines.

Many of the flaws that have been or will be identified do not threaten structural integrity, he said, which could be addressed without what he called “crushing assessments.”

“Is there ways you could potentially provide some low-interest loans, perhaps,” he said. He also suggested the possibility of delaying the Jan. 1 deadline for some buildings.

“We don’t want to see people forced out of a unit because they have a crushing assessment,” he said.

Participants in the roundtable discussion included Kevin Patrick Cortina, president of Casa del Sol Condominium Association in Hialeah. Thirty percent of homeowners in his 197-unit condominium have been living there since the building was constructed in the 1970s, he said.

Recent assessments and the upcoming one for reserves has become the “topic of conversation, even at church,” he said. People are asking him, “How are we going to stay living here, and if we have to sell, where are we going to go?”

Cortina suggested stretching out the amount of time associations must build up their reserves to two or three years so it’s not “hits over the head.”

State Rep. Tom Fabricio, R-Miami Lakes, said retired owners on fixed incomes, like his father, who want to avoid the assessments by selling their units, are having a hard time because the seller’s disclosure requires them to disclose assessments and required repairs.

“So that’s causing issues with the market,” he said. He called the problem “the most important issue in the state of Florida at this time.”

DeSantis asked participants whether it would be better to offer low-interest loans to associations or individual unit owners.

Cortina said offering to individual owners would save associations the burden of additional paperwork and reduce opportunities for “misappropriation of funds.”

Jonathan Carcasses, broker associate for Carden Realty & Investment Inc. in Surfside, disagreed, saying if associations were responsible for obtaining the loans, “they would have the money right away to do the important things they need to get done.”

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.