scrubbedexpat091

Assessments ranging from $80,190 for one-bedroom units to $336,135 for the owner of the building's four-bedroom penthouse were approved in April, owners had until July 1st to decide if they would pay their assessment upfront in full or over 15 years.

Doesn't really mention if major structural repairs were being planned though.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/28/us/su...nvs/index.html

A pool contractor was at the site 36 hours prior to the collapse, Miami Herald article has details.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loc...252421658.html

karenkaren1

I live very close by to this. devastatingly sad. stinks of negligence

robin1234

Sorry, I meant, 8701 Collins, not 7801 ...

Here’s the building.

https://www.zilbert.com/eighty_seven...seven_park.asp

excpomea

Lots for sale in the sister condominium.
I'm thinking they will have trouble selling for the foreseeable future.
Going to take a long time to clear up this mess.

karenkaren1

I agree. Not sure many would want to buy in the identical sister building of the most catastrophic disaster in the history of south florida. Im guessing it will get pulled down at some point.

Jerseygirl

I am guessing not many people will want to buy a condo on the beach in many parts of Florida for the time being.

Nutmegger

The fact that stood out to me is that the building (and, I’m sure, many like it along the FL coast) was built on reclaimed land. With the ocean washing into the basement regularly, that sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Jerseygirl

My feelings exactly. We have viewed many condos built on the beach in Florida…glad we didn’t buy.

scrubbedexpat091

Makes me wonder if the high rise condos built in Richmond, BC the city that borders Vancouver are at risk, its basically on an island surrounded by either ocean water or rivers, its already well known risk for liquification in a big earthquake, but I wonder how deep they need to go to hit solid ground for these high-rises and how they keep water from seeping in.

Jerseygirl

Our condo here in Toronto is built on reclaimed land from Lake Ontario. Hopefully it will be OK…it doesn’t get the storms or saltwater as properties on the seashore are hit with.

robin1234

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/...e-1996224.html

This woman’s story is really interesting - she woke up, found the building was shaking, widening cracks developing in the walls. She had time to get dressed, grab her purse, and run down several flights of stairs to escape. So that’s got to be several minutes warning before the actual collapse. Makes you think that if it’d happened during the day, maybe more people would have been able to escape.

Mallory

We stayed in a condo hotel on Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles, not too far from there. We had a condo on the 9th floor. It was beautiful, stayed there after a cruise. Not going back though!

Steerpike

This story is fascinating to me! The engineering side of it is very interesting - how do tall buildings fail - but also, the liability / responsibility side is interesting too. I've been in several HOAs, and the implications of this are really serious. Can you imagine buying a condo in that building in, say, 2017, and then learning in 2018 that they are looking at $13 million in repair costs!? You would, of course, try to sue the seller. This really highlights the importance of making full disclosures when you sell.

It also makes me wonder about the rather famous 58-story San Francisco condo building that started sinking the day it was completed about 10 years ago - "Millennium Tower". There's currently a plan underway to re-do the entire foundation at phenomenal cost - $100 million according to this article - https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorsp...d-15439863.php . It's currently sunk more than 18" and is leaning over 14".

This is another article about the tower, a bit more techy - https://socketsite.com/archives/2020...-approved.html

I bet the residents of that luxury tower are not sleeping terribly well tonight.

Giantaxe

I read that there have been a dozen sales in that building in the last year! I don't know what the disclosure laws are in Florida, but surely that 2018 structural engineers report should have been disclosed to buyers. Additionally, surely, a reputable purchase inspection would have noticed the spalled concrete and flooding in the garage? That's a pretty tell-tale sign that rebar inside concrete is rusting.

I also wonder what lawsuits suing the HOA are going to do? After all, the HOA is basically the owners of each condo. So aren't they effectively suing themselves?

I heard an interview on CNN tonight from someone who said the HOA meetings were just people arguing about that report, so they gave up going to them! This really highlights a problem with large condo buildings. You need a majority vote to do anything, and especially in buildings with a high percentage of older residents, people don't want to spend anything on maintenance. It sounds like that is what may well have happened in this building, with fatal results. The letter from April written by the HOA president reads to me as one of exasperation that some owners were still questioning the need for a special assessment.

yellowroom

Sounds like HOAs are a smaller scale reflection of what’s going on in government. Some people grasp the issue and understand that money is going to have to be spent to fix a serious problem. Others only see their bank balance and want to put off spending all the while there is “plausible deniability” that there is an actual problem, aka walking around with your eyes shut.