DEAD: HB 53 - Condominium Conversion Seismic Mandates

As many of you are aware, I am currently at the Capitol working on many issues affecting our state.  Part of my job is to sit on committees which "screen" bills to be heard on the House floor for a vote.

Yesterday afternoon a bill was presented to us which would require that owners of apartment complexes that were built before 1975 and wanted to convert the complex to a condominium form of ownership would be forced to conduct a seismic review and then upgrade their building to current seismic code.

      57-8-42. Seismic evaluation required if multi-level structure converted to
                 condominium -- Requirements if structure not in compliance.
                     (1) If a structure that is two or more stories high and was built before 1975 is converted
                   to a condominium under this chapter, the structure's owner shall cause a seismic evaluation of
                   the structure to be performed by a person licensed as a professional structural engineer under
                   Title 58, Chapter 22, Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors Licensing Act,
                   to determine whether use of the structure as a condominium would result in an unreasonable
                   safety hazard to its occupants.
                       (2) The person performing the seismic evaluation under Subsection (1) shall perform
                   the evaluation according to standards and requirements set forth in the code, as defined in
                   Section 58-56-3 , of the applicable compliance agency, as defined in Section 58-56-3 .
                      (3) If the seismic evaluation under Subsection (1) indicates that the structure is not in
                   compliance with an applicable standard, the structure's owner shall, before occupancy of the
                   converted condominium:
                       (a) review the noncompliance with, as applicable:
                       (i) the county in whose unincorporated area the converted condominium is located; or
                       (ii) the municipality in which the converted condominium is located;
                       (b) correct the noncompliance; and
                       (c) comply with applicable county or municipal requirements, including:
                       (i) submitting the converted condominium to an inspection; and
                       (ii) obtaining a required approval or permit.

You can probably guess how excited I was to hear this piece of legislation come forward.  The sponsor of the bill had no idea what costs this would impose on owners or what affect it would have on the marketplace.  The bill mandated seismic compliance regardless of improvements and was based simply on a change in ownership.   For those of you interested in hearing the discussion (and my comments) you can listen to the committee hearing HERE.

In the end, we poked so many holes in this proposal that this particular legislator killed his own bill by adjourning the meeting before we could vote on it as a committee.