The Florida Bar Creates Task Force in Response to Surfside Building Collapse

The Florida Bar announced the creation of the Condominium Law and Policy on Life Safety Task Force in response to the recent events in Surfside.

The Task Force will aid the Florida Legislature and Governor DeSantis by reviewing “all aspects of Florida condominium law, development, association operations, and maintenance,” to determine if changes are needed to “minimize the likelihood of a similar tragedy,” the news release stated.

The Task Force was created by the Condominium and Planned Development Committee (CPDC) part of the Section of The Florida Bar titled the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law (RPPTL). According to The Florida Bar, a Section is “a voluntary group of bar members organized to provide information and education in a specific area of law.”

As stated from the RPPTL Section’s website, its goal is “to improve the implementation and application of laws, rules and regulations in the fields of real property, probate and trust law and to accomplish legislative objectives and to improve the administration of real property, probate and trust laws.”

Under that umbrella of laws overseen by the RPPTL Section, the CPDC focuses specifically on providing information and education, as well as, “expertise and input regarding proposed legislation and regulations affecting or impacting condominiums, cooperatives, homeowners’ associations and planned developments,” among other things.

Former Chair of the CPDC, Bill Sklar will now be the chair of the Task Force according to the release. In an interview with CBS News, Sklar said the first organizational session for the Task Force occurred on Friday and that they began to review what issues were presented by Surfside condo collapse and what changes are recommended.

He added, “Our time frame is to do this in the next 90 days… Our goal is to be able to present our recommendations, our findings which will be fact-and-evidence based, not based on emotion, to the Governor and to the Legislature.”

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Casey Owens is a contributing writer for The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Surfside Cleanup” by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.