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MANDATORY BUILDING INSPECTIONS?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published June 17, 2022
The new bill, just signed by Governor
Ron DeSantis into law, will require mandatory inspections for
every condominium
building in the state that is 3 stories or higher and at least
30 years old (25 years old if within 3 miles of the coast) to
undergo a inspection, every 10 years, by a licensed architect or
engineer. The legislature required these inspections to be done
in two phases. You can already be pretty sure that a PHASE 1
inspection will be followed by a PHASE 2 inspection.
Sounds great and will definitely add to the safety of these
buildings. But, as usual, there is always a BUT:
1.)
Are there really enough “qualified” engineers in the State of
Florida, meaning engineers who are specialized in structural
engineering? We all know that there are lots of licensed
engineers in the State, but according to my info there are not
too many engineers specialized in this field of work.
2.)
These inspections will be pretty costly – qualified engineers
don’t come cheap – and many of these associations are anyway
strapped for cash, since paying for reserve accounts was always
voted down by the owners who always found some “excuses” for not
funding reserves.
And most likely the engineering report
will call for costly maintenance and repairs to the hi-rises –
repairs that need to be done within a short period of time, if
the association wants to avoid being red-tagged by the local
building department.
Don’t ever forget: The Champlain
Towers South knew two years before the collapse that the
building has serious structural deficiencies. But nothing was
really done due to the lack of money paying for these much
needed repairs. According to reports the association needed
about $16 million to pay for the required repairs, but there
were only $700,000.00 in the reserve funds. The members of the
association were fighting for nearly two years among each other
on how to finance these repairs. We all know the outcome of this
fight!
We will see many other associations
fighting the same fight and I predict that many of the owners
living in these hi-rises will be unable to finance the money
needed for the required repairs these engineering reports will
reveal.
SAFETY COMES WITH HIGH COST –
and Florida’s condo owners will have to come up with the money
or lose their homes.
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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