Posted on 06/26/2021 5:56:00 AM PDT by dynachrome
I’m hearing reports that Covid took it down.
So did I.
My older brother practiced construction defect law for several years after being in the construction business. We talked many times about defects only presenting themselves after several years and the litigious battles centering around who profits and who loses from those defects.
This mess will be decades in the cleaning up.
Download and read the report. There were problems all over the building, not just the pool. Sounds like a lot of ignored maintenance.
I don’t think this was directly related to the collapse, but it could be indicative of lax maintenance in general.
There will be plenty of lawsuits, but the claims that are paid may not be substantial. That's because the insurance policy surely has a cap that will limit the insurance company's exposure.
I’m also wondering what city and county inspectors knew and when they knew it.
And if any condo board members had moved recently.
The board members are probably indemnified against claims if they are volunteers, so the association's insurance company would be the primary point for any claims.
There could have been another pool. A covered one. Lots of condos have both types of pools on site.
Higly doubt anyone was/is allowed to stay in the other tower, but who knows.Sure will hear
"This building will collapse by June 30, 2021 if you don't fix this problem" is not something you'd typically find in an inspection report.
“Failure to replace waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,” And failure of government authorities to follow up on the engineer’s report and insist that the problem be fixed or the property condemned until it was fixed.
Bkmk
“Anyone who has dealt with condominium boards knows that they are often filled with cheap, useless @ssholes.”
Years ago I bought a new condo in a building similar to the one that recently collapsed. I soon discovered Florida law did not require homeowner’s associations to accumulate reserves. The developer, who controlled the association until the units were sold, elected not to set dues high enough to accumulate reserves for future repairs to the infrastructure. When the developer turned over the building a vote of the homeowners was held and the members also chose not to accumulate reserves. As one 70+ year old told me — I won’t be here when repairs have to be made, so why should I pay?
If journalism wasn’t dead in this country an enterprising investigative reporter should be determining if required maintenance was not undertaken because the homeowner’s association had not accumulated reserves and the board did not want to assess the owners thousands of dollars each for expensive repairs due to deferred maintenance.
It is insanity not accumulate reserves on condo buildings worth tens of millions of dollars which are constantly exposed to extensive water and wind weathering. In my building reproofing was a $120,000 expense, elevator banks were $100,000 each, and painting the building cost over $60,000.
The state should require condo boards to accumulate reserves. However, developers control the state legislature and developers don’t want to be paying in reserves for unsold units during the 3-5 years it takes to sell out a large building Senior citizens buying into new buildings want to minimize dues payments, assuming they will be gone by the time the big maintenance bills, and associated assessments, are incurred.
There is a significant cost of poor legislation and management of properties. In this case, the cost may have been lives in addition to dollars.
There are 3 towers. South and North are near identical. East never mentioned. Someone said they are recommending evacuation of North tower.
I believe HOA was 1300 a month.
“A lack of proper drainage on the pool deck of Champlain Towers South condo, which sits above the building's parking garage, was the source of the “main issue,” wrote engineer Frank Morabito, according to the Miami Herald.”
I wired the bldg in below link while it was being built and always had a creepy feeling about this pools location. Roof top.WTF
https://www.highrises.com/fort-lauderdale/listing/f10280787-ocean-club-condo-4020-galt-ocean-dr-1406-fort-lauderdale/
I know some one in Hallandale that lives on the 20th floor of one of these places and water was always dripping into the underground garage from the massive patio/pool decking above,always creeped me out.
“I believe HOA was 1300 a month.”
HOA fees of $1300 per month per unit aren’t sufficient to accumulate the millions of dollars in reserves needed to fund a proper maintenance program on a building of this size and age.
Liberals are blaming governor DeSantis. No surprise. Surely at 6 years old when the building was built, he should have ensured it was done properly.
Somebody’s gonna be sued.
Watch — they will try to pin the blame on DeSantis.
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