Community Chat

[Mindy D]

NPR has an important article. There was a meeting of residents with a Surfside official in 2018 in which the official told residents that their building was safe. Information which conflicted with a report they got five weeks earlier. Put the title in your search bar to find and read the article. 
Surfside Official Told Residents Their Building Was Safe, Despite Engineer's Warning

June 27, 20211:07 PM ET

By Matthew S. Schwartz and Brian

"NPR has obtained minutes of a Nov. 2018 meeting that shows a Surfside town inspector met with residents of the building, and assured them the building was "in very good shape." NPR learned of the meeting from a resident who was in attendance and who in an interview with Weekend Edition recalled being told that the building was not in danger.

The inspector's comments directly conflicted with an engineering report from five weeks earlier, which warned that failed waterproofing in a concrete structural slab needed to be replaced "in the near future.""

[Just Bling]

@Mindy D oh my, what i was reading was that the inspection reports actually read the opposite.   So sad.

[elated]

I responded to this under Condo in Miami. Please read my posts. People have been lied to about this building. Someone knew the true facts but failed to let the residents know.

[golding76]

You should not -- must not -- lie to the people.  Sooner or later, truth will out.

[decaf]

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@elated wrote:

I responded to this under Condo in Miami. Please read my posts. People have been lied to about this building. Someone knew the true facts but failed to let the residents know.

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Happens every day here in S Fl.  No surprise.

[MarieIG]

Who hired the structual engineer who found the defects?  Was it the Board?

If so, and the Board was on notice of all these defects, it sounds rather suspect that someone would be brought in from the town to contradict the engineer.  Who invited the town inspector to the Board meeting?  And if there was any doubt, it would seem that further inspections by an impartial structural engineering firm ASAP would have been warranted. 

It is possible that the sink hole caused this, and it would have happened even had the repair been made, but why take a chance with peoples lives?

[On It]

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@golding76 wrote:

You should not -- must not -- lie to the people.  Sooner or later, truth will out.

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The tragedy is that some have the attitude that they are not going to let those pesky facts get in the way of their opinion or greed.

[ValuSkr]

I think Board members knew the real situation and delayed taking action because of the cost - it would have required bank financing and a multi-year special assessment on owners.  They will be culpable to some degree; anyone in that position should carry D&O liability insurance,  And I think the Condominium Association itself will be liable - it is nothing more than the owners but surely carries its own liabilty insurance. 

[shoesnbags]

I read an article about the 2018 engineering report yesterday.  There were a number of quotes from the report, and the owner of the engineering firm was interviewed about the report they tendered.  

It was very clear that they were pointing out serious problems that needed to be addressed sooner rather than later.  The idea that anyone would think they could just ignore this kind of warning is appalling.

[LuvmyLab]

I saw on the news today that the owners of the building knew back in 2016 that it wasn't safe.  Inexcusable.