Condominium Regulations in the Wake of the Champlain Towers South Collapse

• Pages: 21-32
• Date: 01 July 2025
• Published date: 01 July 2025
• Author: Evan McKenzie,Kristi Stotts
• Subject Matter: Derecho Público y Administrativo

Published in The Construction Lawyer Volume 44, Number 3, ©2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with

permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any

means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Forum on Construction Law The Construction Lawyer Summer 2025

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Condominium Regulations in the Wake of the

Champlain Towers South Collapse

By Evan McKenzie, PhD, and Kristi Stotts

Evan McKenzie, PhD, is the department head and a professor of political science at the University of

Illinois at Chicago. Kristi Stotts is a shareholder in the Austin, Texas, office of Winstead PC’s Real Estate

Development & Investments Practice Group.

Based on the presentation Evan McKenzie, PhD, and Kristi Stotts made at the Forum on Construction Law’s 2025

Mid-Winter Program from January 16–17, 2025, this article was revised for publication in The Construction

Lawyer.

Introduction

In the wake of the tragic Champlain Towers South collapse, Florida and many other states have concluded

that the event was a symptom of a much larger and more widespread problem in the US condominium

market. Regulators have taken notice and initiated a multipronged regulatory and legal response that,

while applauded for its decisiveness, leaves open questions about its implementation and impact. This

article explores the evolution of condo housing in the United States, the legislative framework that

supports its diverse applications, recent legislative and regulatory changes aimed at preventing similar

tragedies, and open questions about the market’s ability to withstand the sudden imposition of long-

deferred maintenance costs.

Condominium Creation

Condominium housing was authorized in the United States in 1961 by the Federal Housing

Administration. Shortly thereafter, state condominium property acts made it possible for the then–new form

of housing to be constructed across the nation. In conjunction, FHA and the Urban Land Institute issued

a number of instructional manuals that showed developers how to set up associations, including sample

governing documents.

For many, the word “condominium” often conjures up the image of a mid- or high-rise attached

residential project. Many envision a project similar to a traditional rental building with balconies,

elevators, corridors, and common recreational facilities, with the only real difference being that the living

space is owned rather than rented. This image belies the flexibility of the condominium form of ownership,

which also can be used for commercial and mixed-use buildings and other types of projects.

The utility of the condominium form of ownership stems from the flexibility incorporated into its enabling

legislation. Condominiums are creatures of statute. States adopt enabling legislation that outlines

condominium formation, governance, and protection of condominium purchasers. Fourteen states have

adopted enabling legislation modeled after the Uniform Condominium Act (UCA), and nine states have

modeled their legislation after the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA).

A condominium is a form of real property ownership that combines separate ownership of individual

condominium units with common ownership of other elements. Real property is a condominium only

if one or more of the common elements are directly owned in undivided interests by the unit owners. A