South Florida real estate attorney Bill Sklar on a Florida task force examining condo laws after the Surfside collapse to determine if changes are needed.
Engineers say it can take just 30 years for condominium buildings to reach a point when owners can no longer delay making critical repairs.
In the Miami region, two out of every three condo buildings are more than 30 years old, according to data compiled by real-estate data firm Zillow for The Wall Street Journal. In at least seven other Florida cities, some three-quarters of condo buildings have hit that age.
Many of the aging towers line the beachfront, where salt corrosion and other forces are speeding their decline. That is leaving thousands of buildings saddled with multimillion-dollar repair costs and little notion of how to pay for them.
Charlie Crist shares thoughts on 2010 repeal of condo inspection law
news-journalonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from news-journalonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The DeSantis-Hating Miami Herald Omits Very Relevant Info on Repealed 2010 Condo Law
redstate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from redstate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Former state lawmaker Julio Robaina introduced HB 995 in 2008, which stated every five years associations “shall have the condominium building inspected to provide a report under seal of an architect or engineer authorized to practice in this state attesting to required maintenance, useful life, and replacement costs of the common elements.”
Robaina’s bill passed the Florida House and Senate unanimously. It was later signed into law by then-Republican Governor Charlie Crist, who is now serving Florida’s 13th Congressional District and running for governor as a Democrat.
Robaina told NBC 6 the law aimed to bring in expert analysis to recommend needed repairs. His bill did allow associations to temporarily opt out with a majority vote but the goal, he said, was to prevent condo boards from kicking problems down the road.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
As it stands right now, the death toll from the June 24th Surfside, Florida condominium building collapse is at 78 and is expected to climb, as the search and rescue mission for the remaining 62 missing at the Champlain Towers South site has now sadly moved to the search and recovery phase. Please keep the surviving victims and families of those lost in your thoughts and prayers.
While crews continue to search, the investigations into what caused the collapse have started. Along with those investigations has come the digging from mainstream media outlets looking for answers to give to readers who want to learn more about what happened and why and, perhaps most importantly, if this could have been prevented.