Where many HOAs are expected to fail ...
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The collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Fla., is a terrible tragedy. Besides the stories of the victims and their grieving loved ones, early attention has focused on the causes of the collapse, such as how the building was constructed, the effects of saltwater on reinforced concrete and whether the condominium association was properly maintaining the high-rise.
Those are important matters, but the disaster exemplifies a bigger problem, one that will still loom once we have answers about what went wrong in Surfside: The untrained, unpaid and unsupervised volunteer directors of the nation’s more than 350,000 condo and homeowners’ associations, armed with limited financial resources, are expected to deal with the unprecedented infrastructure challenges that climate change poses to their communities. And there is no reason to believe that they are up to that task.
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I alluded to this problem in another thread.
Suppose you own(ed) a condo in that building. What legal recourse do you have for restitution for your loss? You're out for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Does the builder have any legal exposure? Has the statute of limitations expired (it probably has), but what are the legal definitions for discovery of the injury wrt to the statute of limitations?
Our building, built in 2008, has had problems with exterior masonry work, resulting in water infiltration to units, etc. It seems that, though the architect's specs were right, the contractor didn't follow spec, presumably to cut costs. Our condo association voted to have a special assessment to cover the costs of mitigating these repairs. My share was about $2K.
We are exploring our legal options with regard to the contractors. Though the building is 13 years old, the problem only became apparent about 2 years ago.
I'm not optimistic.
Also, the HOA of that building did approve a special assessment for mitigation of the flaws - and the cost ranged from $90K (for a 1 bedroom) to $350K (for a penthouse).
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@axtremus said in Where many HOAs are expected to fail ...:
Those are important matters, but the disaster exemplifies a bigger problem, one that will still loom once we have answers about what went wrong in Surfside: The untrained, unpaid and unsupervised volunteer directors of the nation’s more than 350,000 condo and homeowners’ associations, armed with limited financial resources, are expected to deal with the unprecedented infrastructure challenges that climate change poses to their communities. And there is no reason to believe that they are up to that task.
Of course there's reason to believe. That reason is that those buildings were built to withstand weather such as storms, in any quantity. This isn't New Orleans after all.
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@axtremus said in Where many HOAs are expected to fail ...:
whether the condominium association was properly maintaining the high-rise.
I’m thinking not.
