Condos are struggling. Could they be redeveloped?

 It’s a tough time to be a condominium owner in Florida. New standards for building safety coupled with skyrocketing insurance rates have made condo life prohibitively expensive for some. At properties facing millions of dollars of repairs, owners are contemplating whether their homes are worth saving. “Termination could become an exit strategy for some buildings that have been poorly maintained for many, many years where it’s hard to catch up,” said Juan Farach, a partner at Shubin Law Group who specializes in condo issues. That process involves selling a majority of units to a developer who dissolves the condo association, tears the building down and builds new. These deals can be lucrative. But they’re also hard to close. Florida law requires approval from 80% of owners to terminate a condo association, but just 5% can block it. Many associations have higher thresholds, with some requiring 100% approval. Investors can try to gain control of the board and loosen those restrictions. But it doesn’t always work out https://enewspaper.sun-sentinel.com/shortcode/SUN315/edition/294fecd6-f613-4604-9fe5-ded36fb0a020?page=4620b894-41cd-414d-9dce-a9a2371da4dd&