Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on two bills Thursday that the Florida Legislature drafted during its special session this week.
DeSantis signed into a law sweeping property insurance legislation that creates a $2 billion reinsurance fund and rewrites rules on coverage denials and attorney fees in a move to stabilize rising costs and insurer losses.
He also signed into law a measure that will require statewide recertification of condominiums over three stories tall.
DeSantis announced the bill signings in a statement Thursday that called the package “the most significant reforms to Florida’s homeowners insurance market in a generation.”
DeSantis signed the bill as a response to the Surfside building collapse that killed 98 people.
Recertification will be required after 30 years, or 25 years if the building is within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of the coast, and every 10 years thereafter. The Champlain Towers South was 40 years old and was going through the 40-year-recertification process required by Miami-Dade County when it collapsed last June.
The governor’s signature came the day after the House unanimously passed the bill during a special session originally called to address skyrocketing property insurance rates.
The signings mark an end to a special legislative session on insurance where lawmakers in the GOP-controlled statehouse approved the broad measures in three days, with little public input or expert analysis.
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