Editorial: Tragic Surfside condo collapse calls for comprehensive change

Palm Beach Post (FL)

It wasn’t just the building that was broken, the system was.

From top to bottom: from poor regulation at the state level to weak enforcement locally; to condo boards left to fend for themselves amid a tangled heap of legal, financial and interpersonal challenges; to unit owners unschooled in requirements and costs of oceanfront building maintenance.

USA TODAY Network-Florida Opinion editors last week convened a panel discussion on how to prevent another deadly collapse like that in Surfside, which, one month ago this weekend, took 97 souls and counting.

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Perhaps the most striking conclusion from our Florida Pulse panel was the number of changes needed, from many points of attack. And making those changes won’t be quick or easy. Those who remember Hurricane Andrew know how hard-won each change will be, as political resistance rises, even as heart-breaking images of Champlain Tower South should make so much self-evident.

What’s needed is a comprehensive approach, said panelist Paul Novack, a lawyer and former longtime mayor of Surfside. Among the key considerations he listed: ongoing certificate of occupancy requirements, revamped construction codes, maintenance requirements, inspection schedules, mandatory reserves, reporting requirements for professional engineers, insurance costs and risk issues, perhaps a revolving loan fund at no interest to help with extraordinary repairs.

“What we need is not a whole lot of separate, independent suggestions, bills, ordinances coming from various individuals and from all sides," Novack said. "What we need to look at is, coming up with a comprehensive strategy that involves all of the components.”

For engineer Eugenio Santiago, a construction expert and former chief building official for the Village of Key Biscayne, the top change he’d like to see is that engineers inspecting buildings be required to dig or drill through finishes like flooring and drywall to check the structure beneath the surface, in multiple units in a building. It’s destructive and expensive to drill through marble tiles and wall treatments, and people won’t like it but just eyeballing a building doesn’t do the job, Santiago said.

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Panelist Matthew Shapiro, a condominium law specialist in Daytona Beach, said not only does a superficial inspection reveal little about a building as a whole but a condo buyer has no way to gauge whether the building has sufficient reserves to address repairs that might be needed.

“It starts and ends with the reserves,” Shapiro said. Currently, condo owners can waive having reserves if they don't feel like laying out cash in advance for maintenance. And that can be done without a majority of owners voting – just a majority of whoever shows up at that condo association budget meeting, he said.

The state should no longer allow associations to waive reserves and should instruct them in how much they need, the panelists agreed. “If the reserves are well-funded, you’re going to be able to pay for the inspections and handle the maintenance issues as they arise,” Shapiro said.

Just like banks and insurance companies must have reserves, because they're dealing with other people's money and financial safety, so should condos be required to have reserves, Novack said.

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What's also needed, he said, is “a new level of accountability and transparency, so that when problems exist in a particular building, they don’t stay just within that particular building. They have to be reported to all unit owners... and they have to be reported to local and state authorities so they can step in if the building fails to do so.”

What becomes clear is that well-meaning condo board volunteers need help, in the form of strict maintenance requirements that give less leeway to push repairs down the road despite resistance from unit owners.

They also need instruction, which some condo law firms provide. That's one area in which Florida lawmakers have done the opposite of helping. Legislators diverted $15 million over the last three years from the Insurance Regulatory Trust Fund, money meant to help condo boards understand their responsibilities.

Issues like reserves, mandatory maintenance and detailed inspections are complex to codify, or to reach political consensus upon, and they just touch the surface. Should the same rules apply statewide, for example, or just in coastal areas? Should buildings be designed with certain structural areas left open for inspection? Should people who want to serve on condo association boards be required to obtain training certifications, as Novack also suggests?

The answers will be a long time resolving. But as the Champlain Tower collapse and recent evacuation of other Miami-Dade buildings make clear, there's no time to wait.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Editorial: Tragic Surfside condo collapse calls for comprehensive change

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