What these figures mean for a board now

Budget season and this rate action collide directly, and the statutory budget rules make the interaction more forgiving than it looks — if the board understands them.

Under s. 718.112(2)(e), a board proposing an annual budget requiring assessments exceeding 115 percent of the preceding year's must simultaneously propose a substitute budget excluding discretionary expenditures not required to be in the budget, at the budget meeting before adoption, with notice to each unit owner at least 14 days beforehand. Unit owners must consider the substitute and may adopt it; if they do not, the board's proposed budget may be adopted.

The critical detail is what the 115 percent test excludes. HB 913 changed the calculation so it excludes provisions for required reserves (formerly “reasonable”), irregular non-annual SIRS-item expenses, and — directly relevant here — insurance premiums.

An association whose assessment increase is driven by a 14.1 percent wind-only increase and a reserve obligation may well not trip the 115 percent threshold at all. That was the point of the amendment.

The insurance obligation itself changed in 2025

Two provisions of s. 718.111(11)(a) are worth re-reading against this renewal:

“Every condominium association shall have adequate property insurance as determined under this paragraph, regardless of any requirement in the declaration of condominium… The replacement cost must be determined at least once every 3 years, at minimum.”

Two things follow. A declaration that sets a lower insurance obligation than the statute does not protect a board that follows it. And the three-year independent appraisal is now a statutory duty, not merely a lender requirement — it should be on the calendar.

The statute also preserves the group option: at least three communities under Chapters 718, 719, 720 or 721 may satisfy the obligation with coverage equal to the probable maximum loss for a 250-year windstorm event, modelled by a method accepted by the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology.

Where the market actually sits

OIR's statutory Property Insurance Stability Report of 1 July 2026, required by s. 627.7154, gives the market share picture as of 31 March 2026:

• Condominium Unit Owners Multi-Peril: voluntary market 916,479 policies (98.35 percent), Citizens 15,413 (1.65 percent).
• Condominium Unit Owners Wind Only: voluntary 4,900 (25.47 percent), Citizens 14,340 (74.53 percent).

Average condominium unit owner premiums including wind, by county, range from $846 in Leon to $2,271 in Collier, with Broward at $1,816, Escambia at $1,836 and Indian River at $2,086. The report notes the average homeowners premium for traditional policies including wind “decreased in 51 counties from the January report.”²

One important caveat before anyone quotes those figures at a board meeting. Section 627.7154 covers condominium unit owner policies — the HO-6. It does not report association master-policy data at all. This report cannot answer “what happened to our master policy premium,” and the unit-owner market has genuinely depopulated on multiperil while wind-only remains overwhelmingly a Citizens book. Those are different stories about different policies.

Two mitigation levers, and their limits

Mitigation adjustments sit outside the rate collar, which makes hardening one of the few things a board can do that directly moves the number.

The state programme for this is My Safe Florida Condominium, and its constraints are severe: a $1-to-$2 association-to-state match, a maximum award of $175,000 per association, eligibility limited to buildings within 15 miles of a coastline, and 75 percent approval of resident unit owners for a grant improving units. Two funding rounds have closed on capacity — the second “within one hour.” As of January 2026, roughly 700 initial inspections had been completed across 206 associations, with 42 associations fully approved for grants.

And the gate: s. 215.55871(2)(b) provides that an association “may not apply for an inspection… or a grant… unless the association has complied with the inspection requirements in ss. 553.899 and 718.112(2)(g) and (h).” An association behind on its milestone inspection or SIRS cannot use the programme at all. The bill that would have expanded eligibility, CS/SB 1706, passed the Senate 37-0 and died in House Messages.

What to watch next

OIR publishes the stability report twice yearly, so the next instalment is due 1 January 2027. Watch also for Citizens' next commercial lines bulletin, which historically lands in the autumn for the following January — the November 2025 bulletin is where the milestone-inspection submission requirement appeared.