Like I Invented the Ocean — A Hypothetical Interview with a Florida Condo Board President

Manny Ballasteros is not a real person. That is the only advantage he holds over the thousands of actual Florida condo board presidents navigating his exact situation. Every law, dollar figure, and regulatory mechanism described below is documented and real. We built Manny from the conditions. The conditions built themselves.

The community room on the third floor has the aesthetic warmth of a dentist's waiting area. Drop ceiling, fluorescent tubes, a laminate table that seats fourteen but usually hosts four. A bulletin board near the door holds a printed copy of the special assessment payment schedule, a flyer for a lost cat named Biscuit, and a notice about the building's upcoming milestone inspection. The assessment schedule has more reader engagement.

Manny Ballasteros, 52, is the board president of an 88-unit, twelve-story condominium in Hollywood, Florida, built in 1990 and situated a mile and a half from the Atlantic. Close enough to fall under the state's accelerated 25-year coastal inspection requirement.¹ He is also a regional manager for a restaurant supply company, a divorced father of two teenagers, and the owner of Unit 7-D, a two-bedroom he bought in 2021 as a post-divorce fresh start. The building turned 35 this year. Its structural integrity reserve study came back eight months ago. The number was $4.2 million.

Manny is wearing a polo shirt with his company's logo. He has brought his own coffee.

You became board president eighteen months ago. How did that happen?

Manny: I showed up to a meeting because I got a parking notice I thought was wrong. It was wrong, by the way. They had my unit number mixed up with 7-B. I said something about it, and the president at the time, Gloria, she looked at me like I'd just volunteered for Fallujah. Three weeks later she moved to Raleigh. I was the only person who'd attended two consecutive meetings, so. Here I am.

Nobody runs for condo board president. You just fail to leave the room fast enough.

Eight months ago, the structural integrity reserve study came back. Walk us through that.

Manny: Four-point-two million dollars in structural repairs. Concrete spalling on the parking deck, rebar corrosion in the balcony slabs, waterproofing failures on the east-facing envelope, which is the ocean side. The engineer was very professional about it. She had a PowerPoint. She used the phrase "accelerated carbonation" like that's a normal thing to say to a room full of people whose retirement savings live in the walls.

Here's what you need to understand, though. None of this happened overnight. I went back through the minutes. The building had been voting to waive reserves for at least fifteen years.² That was perfectly legal until last year. So the boards before me were making a rational decision with the tools they had. And now I'm the one holding the bill for all those rational decisions stacked on top of each other.

You voted to impose a special assessment of $48,000 per unit, phased over three years. What is it like to vote to charge yourself $48,000?

Manny: I want to be precise about this because people think the board has a choice. We don't. After Surfside, Florida passed SB 4-D, and then HB 913 tightened it further. As of 2026, you cannot vote to waive or reduce reserves for structural components identified in the SIRS.³ The engineer says the building needs $4.2 million. We have 88 units. That's the math. I didn't choose the number. I just announced it.

But what it feels like. Yeah. I sat in this room, at this table, and I looked at Doris in 3-A, who's 78 and on Social Security. I looked at the family in 10-C who bought their unit two years ago with everything they had. I looked at my own hands on the table and thought:

There's a moment right before the vote where everyone's looking at you like you personally caused salt air. Like I invented the ocean. I sell restaurant equipment. I sell sheet pans. But here I am, fiduciary of a $12 million asset, voting on structural remediation I learned about from a PowerPoint eight months ago.

And the worst part isn't the anger. Anger I can work with. The worst part is the people who go quiet. The ones who don't argue, don't ask questions, just look at the table. Those are the ones who can't pay. And you know, I know, that when they don't pay, the delinquency rate climbs, and when it crosses 15%, the building becomes non-warrantable for conventional mortgages.⁴ Their silence makes my unit harder to sell. Everyone's silence makes everyone's unit harder to sell. Doom loop. I think that's what people call it.

He picks at the edge of the laminate table. A small piece comes off in his hand. He looks at it, then at me, then sets it down carefully.

What's happened since the vote?

Manny: Nine units are listed for sale. Six owners are behind on the assessment. One of the nine is listing at $40,000 below what he paid in 2022, and he'll probably take less. Every sale at a lower price resets the comps for the whole building. Every owner who leaves without paying... the assessment follows the unit as a lien, sure, but collecting takes time and legal fees that come out of the association's budget, which is already stretched past anything I thought was possible.⁵

I have a spreadsheet I update every Sunday night. Delinquency by unit. We're at 11% right now. The line is 15%. I watch it like a heart monitor.

In August, Fannie Mae eliminated the streamlined review process for condo loans. What changed for your building?

Manny: Before August 3rd, some buyers with big down payments could close without the lender scrutinizing the association's finances too carefully.⁶ That door is shut. Now every conventional loan requires a Full Review. Budget, reserves, delinquency rates, insurance, litigation, special assessments. All of it. The lender isn't just underwriting the buyer anymore. They're underwriting us.

And if our identified repairs exceed $10,000 per unit and we don't have the funds, which, hello, we're potentially ineligible.⁷ No Fannie, no Freddie. Cash buyers only. You know who buys condos in distressed buildings for cash? Investors. At a steep discount. I can see them circling from here.

Florida requires board members to complete a four-hour course. Did it prepare you for any of this?

Manny: I ate a Publix sub during it.

A pause. He seems to be deciding whether to elaborate. He doesn't.

Under recent reforms, willfully failing to complete a SIRS is now defined as a breach of fiduciary duty. What does that liability exposure feel like day to day?

Manny: Here's what keeps me up. If I act in good faith, follow the engineer's recommendations, impose the assessment, pursue collections, I'm generally protected by the business judgment rule.⁸ My D&O insurance covers governance decisions made in good faith. Fine.

But HB 913 carved out a specific exception. If a board knowingly fails to complete the SIRS, that's a fiduciary breach. And most D&O policies exclude intentional acts.⁹ So the protection evaporates exactly at the point where the pressure to delay is highest. When the board is tempted to push the study back because the money isn't there.

I didn't delay. I ordered the study. But I think about the boards delaying right now, in other buildings, because they're scared of what the engineer will find. I get it. The engineer's report didn't create the problem. But it made the problem legally mine.

Your own unit. What's it worth now, and are you staying?

He sets his coffee down and looks toward the window. You can't see the ocean from the third floor, but you can hear the traffic on A1A.

Manny: I bought it for $285,000 in 2021. My best guess right now, maybe $195,000, if I could find a buyer who qualifies for conventional financing, which, as we just discussed, is getting harder.¹⁰ So maybe $170,000 cash. Minus the $32,000 I still owe on the assessment. Minus the realtor. Minus whatever the next insurance renewal does to the HOA fee.

Am I staying? I don't know. That's the honest answer. I can't sell without taking a loss that wipes out most of what I put in. I can't stay without continuing to pay into a building that may or may not recover its value in my lifetime. And I can't resign from the board because who replaces me? The guy in 5-B who thinks the SIRS is a government conspiracy? The woman in 12-A who hasn't attended a meeting since 2023?

The Docket asked Manny whether he'd run for board president again when his term expires in March. He looked at the bulletin board — the assessment schedule, the lost cat, the inspection notice — and said he'd answer after Biscuit was found.

Footnotes

1. Florida SB 4-D (2022) requires milestone structural inspections for buildings three or more stories tall at 25 years of age if located within three miles of the coastline, and every 10 years thereafter. https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022D/4D/BillText/e1/HTML ↩

2. Prior to January 1, 2026, Florida condominium associations could vote annually to waive or reduce reserve contributions — a practice that kept fees low but left many buildings without adequate repair funds. SB 4-D and subsequent legislation eliminated this option for structural components identified in a SIRS. https://rimkus.com/article/what-sb-4-d-means-for-your-condo-a-closer-look-at-floridas-safety-legislation/ ↩

3. Beginning in 2026, associations can no longer vote to waive or reduce reserve contributions for structural components identified in a Structural Integrity Reserve Study. https://www.thehoaguide.com/hoa-laws-by-state/florida-condo-laws-2026/ ↩

4. When more than 15% of units are 60 or more days delinquent on assessments, the project may be classified as non-warrantable under Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, restricting conventional financing for all units in the building. https://governingdocs.dev/blog/hoa-delinquency-rate-condo-purchase/ ↩

5. Under Florida law, special assessments are a legal obligation that runs with the unit; unpaid assessments can be pursued through liens and, ultimately, foreclosure. https://www.ferrerlawgroup.com/special-assessments-in-florida-condominium-associations-legal-requirements-and-owner-challenges/ ↩

6. Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03 retired the Limited Review process effective August 3, 2026, requiring Full Project Review for most condominium transactions. https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/44986/display ↩

7. Under Full Project Review, if identified repairs to critical structural components exceed $10,000 per unit and the association lacks funds to address them, the project may be deemed ineligible for GSE-backed financing. https://www.condo-approval.com/2026/07/01/full-review-condo-requirements-2026/ ↩

8. Florida courts recognize the business judgment rule, which generally protects board decisions made in good faith from judicial second-guessing. https://www.floridacondohoalawblog.com/2023/10/27/fiduciary-relationship-and-the-business-judgment-rule/ ↩

9. HB 913 (2025) defined willful and knowing failure to complete a SIRS as a breach of fiduciary duty — a category typically excluded from D&O coverage through intentional-acts exclusions. https://mosaichoa.com/blog/florida-hoa-condo-d-and-o-insurance/ ↩

10. Florida condo inventory is up 38% year-over-year as of early 2026, with special assessments and insurance costs contributing to sustained downward price pressure across the market. https://www.mpamag.com/us/mortgage-industry/industry-trends/can-floridas-crisis-struck-condo-market-turn-the-corner-in-2026/561281 ↩