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Florida Statute 768.0706: A Guide to Compliance for Multifamily Properties - Part 6
While working as security consultants the past few decades, we’ve witnessed a number of unfortunate situations where organizations committed significant energy and investment on protective initiatives and then once all objectives were achieved, allowed those risk controls to slowly decay back to their original state. And the same can also happen with HB 837 compliance in multifamily properties if owners and managers are not diligent about maintaining their status.
As discussed in earlier sections of this guide, achieving compliance with Florida Statute 768.0706 (HB 837) is rather straight forward as summarized in the following steps:
Once those four conditions are met, the property is “compliant” with Florida Statute 768.0706 (HB 837) moving forward past 1 January, 2025. However, this status is not a permanent situation. Maintaining the property’s compliance status requires continued attention to several matters.
As a requirement defined by Florida Statute 768.0706(2)(b): “By January 1, 2025, the owner or principal operator of a multifamily residential property has a crime prevention through environmental design assessment that is no more than 3 years old completed for the property.”
Thus the current CPTED assessment should be regarded as valid for three years and a new assessment should be completed and documented before the expiration of the following three year period. Due to the high number of assessments in progress in the year 2024, we recommend setting a calendar reminder at 12-15 months in advance of the expiration date of the current assessment. Better yet, CIS offers current clients the option of an extended services agreement with discounted pricing and reserved dates for reassessment.
In our current experience conducting over 100 CPTED assessments for HB 837 purposes, it is very rare that properties initially comply with all conditions defined in 768.0706(2)(a) and CPTED guidelines. It is expected that some improvements will be necessary. As discussed in Parts 3 and 4 of this guide, common corrective actions include landscaping changes to comply with FCPTI’s 2-foot/6-foot and 30-foot sightline rules, trimming or removal of trees near light poles, lighting improvements, and other similar measures.
Once necessary improvements are implemented, conditions must be maintained. Following are some measures we advise all our clients to ensure their newly compliant properties remain in “substantial compliance.”
As required by Florida Statute 768.0706(2)(c)(1): “By January 1, 2025, the owner or principal operator of a multifamily residential property provides proper crime deterrence and safety training to its current employees. After January 1, 2025, the owner or principal operator must provide such training to an employee within 60 days after his or her hire date for purposes of this paragraph.”
Once all current employees have completed the required “crime deterrence and safety training,” it is recommended that a human resources policy is adopted requiring that all new employees receive “proper crime deterrence and safety training” as a standard part of the onboarding process. Likewise, records of training should be maintained in a centralized filing system or easily retrievable manner to facilitate auditing of training records if/when a situation of litigation appears.
For this purpose, we recommend using an online, on-demand training platform such as HB837training.com which is currently under development as of May 2024. HB837training.com was designed specifically with Florida Statute 768.0706(c)(1) in mind.
Although the activities described in this guide largely fall under the responsibility of property-level employees, we recommend that a system is established at the company-level for supervising compliance, including:
In organizations with small portfolios, these responsibilities can often be handled by one management-level employee without excessive work burden. In other situations, it may be best to delegate these compliance tracking tasks to different management personnel based on their core responsibilities.
For example, corporate or regional-level maintenance managers may be assigned to overseeing and documenting property improvements, maintenance and landscaping inspections, and corrective actions. Scheduling updated assessments, records-keeping, and records production may be the responsibility of the corporate Risk Management Department. And regional managers or a corporate human resources manager may be delegated responsibility for periodic auditing of training records and ensuring that property managers are implementing HB 837 training policies properly.
Regardless of how these management tasks are delegated, maintaining ongoing compliance should employ a systematic and policy-driven approach with accountability to senior leadership.
In May 2024, CIS published a comprehensive online guide to assist property owners in developing an informed strategy for compliance with Florida Statute 768.0706. The
TAMPA, Fla., March 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — In a landscape where safety and compliance are more critical than ever, Critical Intervention Services (CIS) stands out
Since HB 837 was signed into law in March 2023, many apartment owners and property management companies throughout the State of Florida have awakened to
Florida House Bill 837 (HB 837) aims to reduce liability risks for apartment and multifamily housing property owners who implement specific crime prevention measures based
Contact us to schedule a free consultation about achieving compliance with Fla. Stat. § 768.0706 (HB 837) by calling Tel. +01 (727) 461-9417 or by completing the following form:
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